<p>Does anyone have any insights on the Honors program at AU? I would love to know more about it before deciding on what college I want to go to…</p>
<p>I was an Honors student at AU. I will let current students provide more details, but here are the broad benefits of the program:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Honors-only sections of gen-ed and other basic courses. These tend to be smaller classes taught by some of the best professors.</p></li>
<li><p>Honors colloquia. These are one-time (i.e., each particular class is only offered for a semester) honors-only classes. Essentially, a professor who has a strong interest in a particular subject gets to craft a very specific course of study. So he gets to teach a group of motivated, smart students who are also interested in that subject. It’s a dream class for a professor.</p></li>
<li><p>Senior capstone project. This is essentially a thesis written during your senior year. You get to choose a faculty member to give you one-on-one guidance throughout the year, and you get to choose your topic. There are guidelines, but the research is up to you.</p></li>
<li><p>Ability to live on an honors-only floor in one of the dorms. This is not a requirement, just an option.</p></li>
<li><p>Generally speaking, the honors program will give you access to the best professors in smaller, more focused classes, and you’ll be surrounded by extremely bright students.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Let’s see what current students have to say.</p>
<p>Is there strict criteria for the honors program or do they offer it to students based on other factors? I ask because some colleges I looked at had a firm gpa/sat/act score and others said (esp the "optional schools) they used a number of factors which is why some students didn’t understand why they didn’t get in when they has similar scores to another student. If I remember correctly, going back 4 years, Fordham only took 25, so it was more inclusive. I don’t know which one I like better, one is very finite, you know you wont have a chance or you wont, but the other gives hope, but you could be left wondering why you were left out.</p>
<p>Hi! I’m a current honors student at American and absolutely love the program.</p>
<p>As far as criteria, there’s no set GPA or scores you need to have to be admitted. It’s all relative to the rest of the admitted class, so unfortunately it’s impossible to tell you specific guidelines. The really nice thing, though, is that you can try again. If you’re not invited into the honors program as an incoming freshman, you can self nominate after your first year. So you have a whole year to adjust to AU and get your grades up, and then you can nominate yourself for reconsideration. Just because you don’t get the invite when you’re admitted to AU doesn’t mean you’re locked out.</p>
<p>The program runs just like pswillia said. The only thing I’d adjust is the capstone, and just a little bit. It can be a thesis-style project but it can also be more creative. We’ve had student do performances, coordinate and execute publicity campaigns, write and film documentaries…you name it, it’s probably been done. And it also doesn’t have to be on the same subject as your major. We offer both general university honors and honors in the major, so if your interests are in something different, you can do that! Other than that, though, it’s exactly as was stated. You’ll have smaller classes, really engaged professors, and tons of other opportunities (academic and otherwise!) as an honors student.</p>
<p>Hope that helps! Good luck!</p>
<p>D, entering freshman, has spent ages on the Gen Ed course matrix she’s required to complete online (what a confusing process), but neither of us can figure out how the needed Honors courses fit in. They don’t seem to be options in the selection list. Are we missing something? D has emailed her advisor for help, but he is no doubt enjoying the long weekend, and the project has to be completed this week. I assume that whatever she submits can be adjusted when she meets with her advisor at orientation next month, but it’d be nice to get it done right at the start. Any input would be appreciated.</p>
<p>“Other than that, though, it’s exactly as was stated. You’ll have smaller classes, really engaged professors, and tons of other opportunities (academic and otherwise!) as an honors student.”</p>
<p>This is all true. However, my d. (with a 3.9 first-year GPA and who could join the honors program) has found the same thing outside of it. (She says she has more flexibility without it - whether that is true or not, I don’t know - but that’s for her to figure out.</p>
<p>^ @MommaJ</p>
<p>Isn’t the Online Freshman Guide really confusing?</p>
<p>Here’s a list of honors gen ed classes:
<a href=“http://www1.american.edu/honors/currentstudents/documents/f09_gened.pdf[/url]”>http://www1.american.edu/honors/currentstudents/documents/f09_gened.pdf</a></p>
<p>In Section 5, you enter in the gen ed classes you want to take. In Section 6, you enter in the codes of your first semester classes. It is in Section 6 that you specify your Honors classes. You’ll find the codes for the honors classes in the link above.</p>
<p>E.g.,
Section 5
Area 5: Natural Sciences
BIO-110 General Biology I</p>
<p>Section 6:
BIO 110-008H G5:1 General Biology I Honors</p>
<p>The above code is taken from the link.
Here’s a break down of the code:
BIO-110 = Biology, 110 class
008H = Class 8, Honors
G5:1 = General Education Area 5, Cluster 1</p>
<p>I hope this helps. Unfortunately, I didn’t explain it quite as well as I would’ve liked.</p>
<p>Thank you cdover! I’m going to have my D hunker down with your explanation and see how she does. Yes, it’s terribly confusing. I’m not sure why it’s necessary or desirable for anyone to pre-select all their Gen Ed classes at this point. I’m sure D will want to learn something about the various professors’ reputations before committing to courses after the first semester of freshman year. And the whole Gen Ed structure seems unnecessarily complex, with the linked foundation courses and subsequent courses. Seems like a student could get sufficient exposure to the various disciplines by just being instructed to pick two social science, two humanities, two arts and two math/sciences courses. (That’s how it was done when I was in college, by cracky!) My guess is that this structure was cooked up by a pricey educational consulting firm that had to justify its fees with a complicated product.</p>
<p>Actually, MommaJ, do you mind if I stand up for the gen-ed program? The point is that the students don’t just take two random humanities courses, or two random art courses. The linked courses ensure that the students are taking a lower level and higher level course that is related. I kind of like it, actually, and it’s really simple - especially compared to, you know, WUSTL! Just pick one course from each cluster for a total of two courses in each area. Hmm… maybe it’s just me.</p>
<p>applicannot, I get the concept (though my gut tells me it works better on paper than in practice), but the complexity comes in finding two linked courses that are BOTH of interest–and the connections between the two are often hard to appreciate from a newbie’s perspective. And then there’s the added complication that you can’t take more than two courses in a single department to satisfy Gen Ed overall–yet some departments have courses that appear in more than one of the Gen Ed areas. So you have to be careful on that score. I guess my main gripe is that it’s asking a lot to have the students choose all 8 Gen Eds at this point, when they know so little about the courses and the professors’ reputations. I realize their choices aren’t cast in stone, but why not have them select just the two they’d actually like to take first semester? The rest should wait till they have a chance to soak up all the insider info that you only get by actually being at the school and talking to other students.</p>
<p>When Section 5 of the Freshman Guide (Gen Ed selections) was finally completed, D was next made miserable by trying to put together a first semester schedule (and alternatives–oy) in Section 6. D tried to factor in some professor evaluations from Rate My Professor and also tried to avoid two consecutive classes so she wouldn’t be running across the length of the campus to get to the second one on time—which basically turned a three dimensional chess game into a five dimensional one! She also realized that if she listed the three first semester courses recommended for her major and the two Honors courses that she has to take, she couldn’t get the dreaded math requirement out of the way (too many credits). Her head was spinning! Fortunately, her advisor got back to her promptly on her email inquiry, so she feels good about working with him during orientation</p>
<p>D told me many other students have complained on the AU social networking site about how difficult and time consuming the Freshman Guide is, so I know it’s not just D who had to wrestle with it. Perhaps it’s all an AU plot to keep their brains in working order despite the ravages of senioritis!</p>
<p>Sorry this thread is being hijacked but here’s another question–
How does my son pick math and language courses before taking the placement tests-- or is he missing something?
Thanks</p>
<p>He will take the placement exams during his orientation and have his schedule modified accordingly. For math, choose the next most logical class based on what he took in college and for language each level in college is roughly the equivalent of two years of high school. So if he took two years of spanish in high school and will probably be placed in the intermediate section based on his test scores.</p>