<p>I have noticed that this past week, that many of my friends have gotten Honors College notifications from NCSU.</p>
<p>I was asked to complete my Honor's College Essay late, (Due by March 18th) and I was wondering if I didn't get into the Honor's College if I have no been notified yet.</p>
<p>I do not see in any of the e-mails if there was a notification date for me.</p>
<p>Thanks for any help in advance!</p>
<p>How did your friends receive their notification?</p>
<p>My son just got an email with an attached letter telling him that he wasn’t selected. I responded by telling the sender that not being invited would likely take NC State out of the running. My son has been accepted by UNC, Wake, & Pitt. Pitt has already accepted him into Honors College and offered a $10,000 per year scholarship. If NC State wants to get the non-engineering kids that score 1400 or better on their SATs, they need to sweeten the pot by offering Honors College automatically. The essay required for NC State Honors is BS. Pitt didn’t require one. UNC didn’t offer honors to him, but the school is an AAU University, as is Pitt. My son plans on majoring in biology and history with the goal of becoming a MD. NC State needs to bump up their SAT requirements to at least 1350.</p>
<p>I got an email, I got in though. I’m college of engineering. SanfordDad, your son has plenty of great options. In fact, if I wanted to do Biology and History, I’d probably choose UNC or Pitt based on whichever is cheaper.</p>
<p>My DD hasn’t yet heard either way. Were your emails to your NCSU inbox or your outside email addresses?</p>
<p>It was an outside email address for me. They should probably hear back by the end of this weekend. If not, go ahead and call them.</p>
<p>dadumdadum, Congrats! I have an uncle that has a mechanical and nuclear engineering degree from NC State. My issue with State revolves around them wanting to attract high achieving kids that don’t want to major in engineering. In order to get those kids to choose State over UNC and other schools, they need to sweeten their offer. A kid, like my son, that scores 1400 or above on the SAT and is not majoring in engineering, should be a slam dunk invite to honors college. The minimum SAT score to be invited to honors college at Pitt is 1400. I went on the tour offered by my son’s college at NC State and was very impressed. One thing I heard on multiple occassions was how the pre-med/health programs compared to UNC. NC State wants to attract top students to that college, but they are working at a disadvantage due to UNC reputation. As I said before, NC State has to offer Honors College if it wants to beat UNC out for top students enrolling in non-engineering programs of study.</p>
<p>^SanfordDad…my D is in her 2nd semester at Pitt majoring in History & PS with a possible minor is German. Anyway the history department is phenomenal, the biology department is highly competitive, and the school has research galore for anyone interested in premed. She also has the $10,000 scholarship and is in the honors program and made it into the honors housing for next year. Needless to say she loves it and I think your son would also. I’m curious if you are from NC and if that is why you seem to be on the fence with NC State/Pitt. My son is only a HS sophomore but may be interested in NC State so I have been reading CC looking ahead for scholarship info because I know how hard it is to get Pitt scholarships and NC state has a great reputation for the major he believes he will choose. (Computer Science). If the Honors College is so hard to get into at NC State are the scholarships retained only for the honors students? Or do you know if they are more generous to oos applicants? Thanks for any insight you or others might shed on this question.<br>
I would like to add that I agree that some of the colleges should really get a clue that they lose good applicants because of laborious applications…extra essays…extra honors essays, etc. When kids are already taking 5 AP courses in their senior year and writing excessive college essays they lose interest and say enough jumping through hoops!</p>
<p>If it helps your son to feel any better, My S has a 1530 SAT, is a National Merit scholar and a 4.77 weighted GPA, and he did not get in either !! They must not have liked his essay, but he was being an honest 17 1/2 year old describing how he would be a good fit for the program, and didn’t get any outside help on it. He was crushed given the # of full ride scholarships he’s gotten to out of state schools, and then not even being worthy of the honors program at NCSU</p>
<p>First of all, I think NC State is an excellent school. I was very impressed with the visit my son and I made a few weeks ago. To be honest, my son was leaning towards UNC if he didn’t get into Duke, which he did not. He and I have been very inpressed with Pitt, but in the end just felt like it was too far away when there were good options closer to home. Proudmom, you are right about the essay component. NC State doesn’t even look at the writing portion of the SAT, yet they rely on essays written by kids that are wore out with the college application process. Researchmom, your son must have a genius IQ. My son really wasn’t disappointed by not getting selected for NC State Honors College since it has made his decision easier to choose UNC. My sister, an NC State grad and myself were kind of hoping he would choose NC State. I have another sister, a UNC grad that’s very happy he chose UNC. The problem with having a subjective portion of the Honors College formula, it allows for politics to enter the process.</p>
<p>When my (instate) S was at NC State, he decided not to pursue the Honors or the scholars program. He was in NROTC and thought he had enough on his plate with that and his regular courses. He did apply for two merit scholarships at State though. One was a general university merit scholarship. The other was a scholarship from the Dept. of his major (College of Natural Resources). He received both (renewable for 4 years) which totaled enough to pay his room and board. NROTC paid his tuition.
His roommate (also NROTC) also got a scholarship from his dept. College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and was not in any kind of honors/scholars program. </p>
<p>Applying for departmental scholarships might be the way to go at NCSU. S’s dept. scholarship ended up being worth about $17,000 over four years. The university merit was $10,000 over four years. S graduated from NCSU in '09.</p>
<p>Thanks so much PackMom…your information is very helpful. So it sounds like you have to look and see what merit scholarships you might be eligble for at NCSU? If so is that at the same time you apply or after you are accepted? At Pitt where D attends they just look at your essay submitted at time of application and scores and decide if you are eligible for any merit.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen, there are some merit scholarships you can apply for. But a lot of them seem to be chosen from you grades/test scores/etc.</p>
<p>For each scholarship app. S1 had to write an essay and send in his h.s. transcript.<br>
There may have been a short form to fill out, can’t really remember.
S1 was accepted before Christmas of senior year. He did the scholarship apps. after he was accepted. He only found the info. about the departmental scholarship while exploring his dept. webpage. There was a small link that said “scholarships” so he clicked on it and found the info. for the application. </p>
<p>S1 was turned down for the univ. merit scholarship early in the spring but got a letter a couple of months (June, I think) later saying he would receive it. I called FA and was told that some students who had originally been awarded the scholarships had decided to enroll elsewhere so they were giving giving the scholarship to the next kid in line…S1…yah!</p>
<p>I got honor’s college notification via e-mail!</p>
<p>@SanfordDad: I think the essay is a perfect opportunity for someone to prove their real understanding of the importance of education and hard work. We can be coached to do well on the SAT; grades are inflated all the time based on the school, teachers, etc.; and unfortunately parents intervene all too often when it comes to applications. I LOVED that State gave me the option to prove myself in an essay and add cohesion to my academic career so far. If your son/daughter works hard for four years (like I did), then a simple essay explaining their motivations for their hard work should not be a challenge in my opinion. Writing is an integral part of any profession these days, even medicine and science. I love that the honors program at NC State wanted to see more than just our stats on the application before deciding if we were truly devoted to our academic experience. </p>
<p>I’m a non-engineering student who was accepted to UNC and took great pleasure in turning them down. I want to go to a school that appreciates me instead of a school that expects me to “just be happy that I got in.” I purposefully stayed in-state due to a generous in-state-only scholarship, so I don’t know much about Pitt. But I can tell you that financial aid is hard to come by at UNC, and most people there forever feel in-debt to the school for their acceptance letters instead of actually enjoying it. </p>
<p>As to the original poster, I hope I see you in the UHP when I’m there! Congratulations!</p>
<p>My son can certainly write an essay. He was one of four or five students out of the two county high schools to score at the highest level on the NC Writing test during his 10th grade year and he scored the highest end of grade test score on the language portion of the end of grade test during his 5th grade year. Writing isn’t something he enjoys though. Look, I’ve learned years ago that there’s a lot of politics involved when it comes to academic awards, scholarships, etc. Putting emphasis on an essay allows the school to pick and choose. From reading NC State’s honors website, it appears they have had trouble getting a greater percentage of female students. By relying on an essay, NC State can overlook a kid that has a higher gpa and sat score. Think about it for a minute. My son busted his rear to have a solid gpa and good sat score. He gets beaten out for honors college by someone with a lower gpa and sat score just because an unknown reader liked that kid’s essay a little better. Look, in the end, I wanted my son to go to NC State more than he did. I was hoping that getting accepted to honors college might give NC State the edge. If he wanted to major in engineering, NC State would have been a slam dunk. Since he want’s to become an MD he has chosen UNC. I still think NC State would have been a better fit for him since the lady in charge of the pre-med majors really impressed me. I certainly hope you enjoy NC State!</p>
<p>To put the honors program into prospective:
I go to NCSSM, and there are 3 people on my hall attending NCSU next year (including myself). Two of us were accepted and one was waitlisted to UHP. Interestingly enough, I and the other guy accepted were less academically-advanced than the kid who got waitlisted. We were both in AP Calc BC, while he was in Multivariable. We took gen phys while he took AP Physics C. I imagine his SAT was higher because mine wasn’t amazing (1960).</p>
<p>The essay played a very, very large part in the application process. I spent a good while on the thing, where as the kid who got waitlisted said he just wrote something really quick. This makes sense for what UHP is.</p>
<p>UHP is an academic enrichment program. The meat of it is the 4 seminars (mostly humanities) and a final project. The courses are very small and discussion-based. The program is supposed to add an extra component of education, it isn’t really created to look good on a resume. That’s why I think the essay was (rightfully) very important.</p>
<p>If your kid didn’t get in, I don’t think it is anything to feel bad about. There are plenty of other opportunities (research, departmental honors, etc.) that will look a lot better than this on applications and such. I don’t think acceptance into any sort of honors program should be a deciding factor on college, unless its really comprehensive and separates you from the non-honors students (which NCSU’s does not). Essentially, the UHP was looking for a specific type of student, not the top stats-wise.</p>
<p>O, that kid did get in off the waitlist, in case you were wondering haha.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, NCSU does not validate the essay with an interview. This essay can easily be written by a parent (as was the case with one of my friends). The other factors (GPA, SAT, or ACT) are more difficult to fudge.</p>
<p>Just one more piece of information to consider regarding the essay as a useful tool…</p>
<p>No offense SanfordDad, but after reading your posts I keep hearing you bring up your son’s GPA and SAT (and over 1400 isn’t necessarily godly, although at NCSU it is quite good). However, I think you’re committing a pretty common parental fallacy with regards to the admission process and especially for an award. The honors program has the advantage that they look at many less students than the entire college and have the advantage that they can look more at a person as an entire package. Extracurriculars are HUGE as are motivations towards what you want to do with the advantages that Honors brings. Don’t think of the honors program here as a prize, but rather an investment in your future (especially shown by the focus on the capstone experience).</p>
<p>Now, I don’t think that the system is perfect, and no system every truly is. But, for an a specialized program, SAT/GPA should definitely not be the only thing you look at. I will also say, I’ve seen several mightier than though students come in Valedictorians of their high schools with great SAT scores (usually very well studied) who fall flat on their face coming into college. </p>
<p>Wanted to mention one more thing: You mention that politics often come into play with subjectivity which is a bad thing? Yet you attack NC State for not accepting your non-engineering >1400 SAT student because they need to get more non-engineers? That sounds somewhat political, whether it is done politically or not.</p>