<p>Hi!! 
I am a rising senior and I am looking at AU. I saw the AU website’s info for their Honors Program, but I was just curious if anyone is in the program. I am just not sure how difficult it is to get in. How competitive is it? How many students are in the program each year? Is it mostly based off of academics, or the holistic application? Thanks so much!!</p>
<p>It was completely changed as of this year, so no one knows.</p>
<p>Previously, they selected about ~200 of the incoming class based on grades, scores, and other factors that were never very clearly articulated.</p>
<p>Now, they are going to an application-based system and no one knows how many will apply, so it’s impossible to say how competitive it will be. The program will be much smaller in size, however. They will take 45 people, which will include the Frederick Douglas Distinguished Scholars. There will be a sequence of required courses. The whole program is very different.</p>
<p>This won’t change the number of people getting merit scholarships. They give about 500 merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for this information!</p>
<p>I’m not too versed in their honors program, but I have a friend who chose a division of their honors program, the global scholars program, I believe, over Princeton.</p>
<p>Global Scholars isn’t part of honors. It’s a separate thing. Not all the Global Scholars are in the honors program. (This is according to my daughter, who just completed her freshman year in the honors program. She doesn’t know how it will work next year. I can’t imagine that the 45 honors participants could include the Global Scholars and the Public Health Scholars and whatnot because there are about that many in each of the three-year scholars programs as it is.)</p>
<p>I believe that they are reducing the incoming Honors class to 45 starting NEXT year, not this year. </p>
<p>As a parent of a rising sophomore, I haven’t found a huge advantage to being in the Honors program except for the Honors housing in Hughes Hall, which I think is a major benefit. Hughes seems to have much fewer “problems” than the other freshman dorms (especially Letts and Anderson). </p>
<p>I’m guessing that Hughes will no longer be an all-Honors dorm starting next year since the 45 incoming Honors students will all be able to live on one floor of Hughes. (Actually, even though it was supposed to be, Hughes was not all-Honors this past year because non-Honors students occupied the 2nd floor due to a lack of space in the regular non-Honors freshman dorms.)</p>
<p>Right, one more year of the current program (kids who have already been accepted and will be starting at AU next month). Class of 2017 is the last one under the old program.</p>
<p>But that means that kids who are asking now about the program have not yet applied and will be applying to the new program. For entry in fall 2014.</p>
<p>One other advantage (not sure if they will retain this in the new program) is that honors students are given a certain number of “ghost” credits (10? I think?) that allow them to register for courses a day or two earlier than otherwise. Registration takes place over several weeks, with cohorts separated by number of credits getting access on successive days. I don’t think my daughter had any trouble getting the classes she needed or the sections she wanted any time after the initial freshman registration process, when all the freshmen register at once. Not sure if the ghost credits made any difference or not.</p>
<p>There also are/were honors sections of classes and some honors-only seminars. I think the honors seminar my daughter took last spring was her favorite class. Don’t know if these will be a part of the new program.</p>
<p>The current Honors program requires a 3.5 cumulative GPA for the student to actually graduate “with honors”. I hope the new system offers two elements–a “forgiveness” program that allows students to delete from their cumulative GPA one or two classes, so a low grade as the result of freshman adjustment issues or ill-chosen majors doesn’t make the path to that 3.5 extra difficult, and a weighting system (like those used in high school) for grades in honors classes, which are, theoretically at least, more demanding than non-honors classes.</p>
<p>This is a description of the new program</p>
<p>[Undergraduate</a> Studies | Communications | April 15, 2013 | American University Washington, DC](<a href=“http://www.american.edu/provost/undergrad/April-15-2013.cfm]Undergraduate”>http://www.american.edu/provost/undergrad/April-15-2013.cfm)</p>
<p>Some excerpts:</p>
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<p>In general, I’d be leery of participating in any new program during its first, or even second, year, especially one this ambitious. The new classes are a pig in a poke, and who knows how the “team teaching” concept will work out in practice given the egos of many profs? It all sounds very nice, but feedback from students who actually participate over the next couple of cycles will mean much more than the carefully crafted words of a press release. BTW, the capstone project requirement is a holdover from the current Honors program.</p>