<p>Until recently I wasn't aware that at least some of the UC's have honors programs. I know much has been said on cc re: honors colleges. My understanding is that some function almost as small LAC and are very highly regarded even when the school as a whole may not be eg. Barretts/ASU. Others are not self-standing institutions, but do offer perks for honors students eg. small seminars, early registration, etc. Anyone here familiar with the honors programs at mid-tier UC's ie. Uc Santa Barbara, Irvine or Davis? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>They are not LAC-like nor free-standing, but early registration is a great perk. Some also offer first dibs on dorms, housing guarantee for all four years, parking passes (particularly important at UCLA), and other “stuff”, including an honors staff/office in which to hang out. In addition, they typically offer an honors seminar and/or honors sections in large classes. Irvine is hosting an Honors Day this Saturday for new acceptees (which received early notification).</p>
<p>Search each campus’ website under Honors.</p>
<p>At some of the UCs, for example UCLA, those in the School of Engineering can’t participate in the ‘honors’ like those in the college of L&S. This might be because virtually everyone admitted to the School of Engineering would also meet the requirements for honors since the admissions bar is higher for engineering vs. L&S. </p>
<p>Other than a few perks as BB stated, I don’t know that there’s a huge benefit to ‘honors’.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that at the UCLA/UCB/UCSD virtually 100% on the incoming freshmen had above a 4.0 GPA from HS. At these colleges, there won’t be an issue with having challenging courses and highly capable fellow students. That’s a different mix than at some other schools, ASU for example, where it might make more sense to have a special honors track.</p>
<p>My d was offerred honors at ucsb, and it seemed to have lots of advantages. One was that the frosh classes for honors had discussions led by profs themselves, something not found at ucla except for the 1 unit fiat lux classes, which only count for units. The other was the honors dorm, which as I recall had quite a view.</p>
<p>There are 2 types of honors programs at ucla college of letters and science-- dept honors and college honors. College honors program gets you priority registration. You either take honors classes or create you own with a contract with a prof. My d went abroad, her uc abroad program was an honors program. There are also latin honors at graduation for overall gpa. You should go to ucla dept websites to read about dept honors, the college honors program is very extensive . [UCLA</a> Honors Programs Academics](<a href=“http://www.ugeducation.ucla.edu/honors/academics.html]UCLA”>http://www.ugeducation.ucla.edu/honors/academics.html)
Students can graduate with one or or all of these.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies so far. Let me clarify my question a bit. Given the stringent standards and competitiveness for admission at UCB,UCLA,UCSD the honors college issue is, as Ucsd-ucla-dad noted not as big an ssue. The issue is more for the “next tier” ie. UCI, UCD, UCSB. My d has been invited to both UCI and UCSB honors/Regents (UCD hasn’t posted their honors/Regents scholars as of yet). While crossing fingers for UCLA/UCB/UCSD we’re trying to sort out the others.</p>
<p>I accompanied my D to the honors day she was invited to at the UCI school of Info. and Computer Science. I don’t remember the details but I remember being more impressed than I thought I would be. Since things like these programs can change from year to year, ‘theocmom’ has the right idea to check the websites for the most current info. I’d pay the most attention to any objective attributes to the program rather than the ‘honors’ label.</p>
<p>Another point - at least at UCLA, I think one needs to keep qualifying for honors - i.e. they need to continue to score above a certain threshold or they drop down from the honors level FWIW.</p>