<p>With so many students entering colleges and universities with AP credit, I’m still surprised that there are honors programs with requirements which operate under the assumption that students aren’t entering college with any college credit.</p>
<p>Common advice on CC is to choose a school that one would be happy at even if it didn’t have a specific program that they were originally interested in. I’m not a fan of retaking courses in which one already has credit, which is why I’m not in a “lock-step” honors program that would have required me to retake lots of courses. While I am now in a honors-type program that has very specific course requirements, those are graduate courses in my major and related disciplines that I wanted to take anyway. It is my view that honors programs should not place unnecessary course requirements on students, but rather offer honors versions of popular courses, but not just the introductory freshman level courses in which many incoming honors students already have credit.</p>
<p>It seems to me that the OP’s son should focus more on getting into special programs related to his major rather than joining the honors program. That said, many schools offer perks to honors students (honors housing, priority registration, etc.) such that it might be beneficial for him to join the honors program, take a few courses that one needs anyway, and leave the honors program later on (note that this wouldn’t work in honors programs that have very specific requirements and timelines for course completion). Some may say that this would be gaming the system, but I see it more as a way for top students who don’t fit the “mold” of [usually] humanities-focused honors programs to get benefits that they deserve despite there not being programs open to incoming freshman that better suit their educational strengths.</p>