My D was accepted OOS to UD with a Presidential Scholarship ($9K). The acceptance letter makes no mention of the honors program, so should I assume she was not accepted into it? I am surprised they thought enough of her academic credentials to give her the scholarship but not honors. Is this common? Anyone know of a recourse/appeal for honors?
Your assumption is correct. If the acceptance letter did not denote Honors Program acceptance then she was just accepted to the regular program. UD provides a good amount of scholarship money to OOS students as 2/3rds+ of the freshman class each year is made up of OOS students. Many students, due to the high academic quality of the OOS student body overall, don’t meet the standards for the UD Honors Program but would meet the standards for Honor Programs at other colleges. I have never heard of anyone being successful in appealing this admission’s decision. Your D could subsequently apply to the Honors Program after her first year at UD. The requirements to do this are listed in UD’s Honors Program website. Actually, after the first semester, all students can take Honors Program courses if spaces are available (which frequently is the case as most regular students don’t do this) and they have a high enough GPA. Having Honors Program courses listed on a students transcript (even if they are not formally in the Honors Program) can subsequently be helpful when applying to grad schools or jobs in the future). However Honors Program course sections usually require more work than regular sections, so be aware of this. Congrats on your D’s Presidential scholarship. Best wishes to her.
Mwallenmd, thank you much. This is extremely helpful.
Both my daughter and my son were accepted to UD. Daughter applied to Honors and was accepted. Son chose not to apply to Honors (two years later). Surprisingly, he received a higher merit award than his sister, although it was essentially the same amount adjusted for tuition increases.
I’m not aware of any appeal process. The Honors Program accepts quite a few more students than it actually has room for in the Honors dorm based on historical acceptance data. It wouldn’t hurt to check in with the Honors Program staff after May 1st to see if they can extend an offer to your daughter.