Thank you!!! Guessing she’s a math major by your username?
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No, it was just a joke with our girls when they were young. If they didn’t do math we told them one of their sisters would and would manage their money and likely take a large cut, because if you didn’t know math, you wouldn’t know any better. Well no one wanted that, so they are all math girls.
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This is a great thread and I was hoping to ask about three honors programs UMass Amherst v. UDEL Honors v. Penn State Schreyer. So far, my son was offered UMass Amherst Honors and we are waiting to hear on the other two, but would really appreciate your thoughts and experiences. One thing to add is that my son will be a Journalism major but likely will do an interdisciplinary track with global studies or public policy or history, so specifically curious about the honors colleges in that context. Thank you!
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as far as Penn State Schreyer, no personal experience, but I know it is generally considered one of the top honors programs and quite competitive to get.
the 2 that I really want to know about are University of Arizona (Franke) and the Scholars (not honors) program at Ohio State. Whatever you all can share would be appreciated…
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Anyone know anything about UMaine Honors?
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One thing I find interesting about the various Honors Colleges/Programs is the fees associated with being a member. D23 applied to a number of OOS publics because she is a marching band geek and right now she has offers ranging from “pay us 3k a year to be in our program” to “here is 13k a year to be in our program”.
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One thing I do know is that the UMaine Honors program allows students more options for housing. The students my daughter knows in Honors seem to like the perks!
My daughter was invited to the Honors program. The director of Nursing actually advised the incoming freshman Nursing class to seriously consider declining the offer (most were invited to honors, I believe- which makes sense, as it’s nursing and admission is super competitive to begin with… 
). Sounded crazy at first but when she explained, we understood. The demands of the Nursing program serve to more than sufficiently challenge the students.
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$3k per year to be in an Honors program? That’s crazy. There better be a ton of perks to go with that.
S20 is in the Honors program at Georgia Tech. He only did it to be in a better dorm freshman year. Cost is a onetime $800 fee. I don’t remember if there’s any perks but there’s not a lot of interest in the program.
S21 is in FSU’s Honors program and loves it. Landis Hall is right in the middle of campus on Landis Green. Excellent advising and early registration. Small classes and good professors according to him. He’s already had an internship and been admitted early to his major. I’m pretty sure they look out for their Honors students.
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Schreyer is a tough admit. I don’t think they look at stats. Essay only. Our HS probably sends 50 kids per year. I don’t remember hearing about anyone being admitted including some NMF types. It is a well regarded program.
Yep, an extra 3k/year to have the privilege to be in the Clark Honors College at U of Oregon!
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Anyone with UVM honors college experience?
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How about UNF or FGCU?
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Anyone with IU Hutton honors college and Drexel honors experience?
Besides special housing freshman year, GaTech’s Honors Program provides each student with an additional honors college counselor, access to special seminars/small group classes, that often take place in the honors dorms classrooms. I hope GaTech will revamp it, it is certainly not as known or exciting as their President’s Program.
S215 enjoyed the dorm and access to more personalized counselor services the most, it is a big school and extra guidance was helpful.
Not a comment on Honors. Journalism and global studies are going to be tough outcome wise no matter where you go. Even top schools in the area like Syracuse and Northwestern.
One thing I’ve learned with both my kids tho is that food matters. They get low blood sugar. They hate the dining hall etc etc. makes their overall experience not great.
UMass is consistently rated top 3 for food and my colleague states she’d eat every meal there, even now if she could (she’s in Phoenix now).
So UMASS Honors, with a degree that will not matter where you get it from, might be a huge win. You won’t have to worry about your kid starving / low blood sugar or wasting extra $$ due to bad food.
One of the parents who I regularly PM with visited but his kid didn’t get in - they are of Indian descent and he raved about the meal he ate.
Just food for thought - pardon the pun.
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Love this thread! Every honors college seems to be so different. My senior son prefers small to medium colleges but would consider a bigger school if the honors program makes it feel smaller.
Any public state college honors experiences at (we live in Buffalo, NY so love our SUNY options)
Buffalo State College
University at Buffalo
SUNY Albany
UMASS Boston
My son applied to some lesser known schools (we are chasing merit) so any insight into these honor programs?
Le Moyne (Syracuse, NY)
St. John Fisher
North Park (Chicago)
Nova Southeastern (Ft. Lauderdale)
Barry (Miami)
Xavier (Cinncinatti)
He was accepted into Case Western Reserve (Cleveland) and Rollins (Orlando) but can anyone confirm that neither offers an honors program?
He was accepted into Fordham but they accept less than 30 students per year into honors so not feeling too hopeful on that one (but feel free to chime in on what honors is like if you know.)
He is still waiting to hear back from Northeastern & Pitt and I saw the comments above which are helpful but maybe some of you can assess his chances of getting into Pitt Honors or Northeastern Honors? He has 4.0 unweighted GPA with advanced & AP, 1450 SAT (700 Reading, 750 Math) is a National Hispanic Merit Scholar (as per PSAT) Level 10 gymnast (and USA gymnastics academic all-American) honor band drummer, lots of volunteer work and some leadership, fluent in Spanish (spent 2 summers in Mexico doing upper level gymnastics all in Spanish.)
He plans to study psychology w/ possible double major or minor in Spanish. Looking for research opportunities early on in undergrad. End goal is PhD in clinical psych.
Thank you all!
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We have been really pleased with our daughter’s experience with the University of South Carolina Honors College.
She received honors/special program acceptance at most of the schools she applied to. To be honest, we were hoping she would choose one of the smaller schools, but USC was top on her list from the beginning. The HC has provided her with a small community within the bigger school. The perks such as priority scheduling, a dedicated dorm and priority housing selection for Soph year made the transition a bit less stressful (compared to some non-honors experiences I’ve read about). She’s enjoyed her honors classes and the activities the HC provides.
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If you want small to mid-size, take a look at UAH. Not trying to add to your list but you mentioned:
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You got into CWRU so he’s brilliant.
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You mentioned chasing merit.
It’s a school of about 10k, know for STEM and nursing. Reputation-ally it’s fine surrounded by defense companies with high job placement and the highest average salaries of any Alabama public.
Tuition is $23k but has big auto merit. See link. You’d be discounted $19,900 for a bit over $3k tuition.
As for Pitt, you don’t have to be in Honors to take Honors classes. Put the link below for you. 4th paragraph down.
Both of my kids are in Honors. One doesn’t partake because his is humanities driven. He will drop next semester, his last but stayed in for priority scheduling. The other loves the smaller classes and better professors.
I believe the reason some schools don’t offer Honors (you noted two) is because their reputation is small classes and engaged professors already. Example - a large or medium sized public or private are known for large classes. They are using Honors as a marketing tool to say - but we can offer a small school or Ivy like education. CWRU and certainly Rollins don’t have that issue. Schools like that are saying nearly every class is smaller with outstanding faculty.
Good luck.
Thank you so much for that info! My son was keeping an open mind about adding more colleges (I was hoping he’d add University of Rochester, for example) but the burn-out is real. He has been writing essays for honors or extra scholarships in his free time so now he is now saying he has a great list, good merit so far with potential for more and he feels he is in a good position.
After getting lots of mailings, he did research the 2 main campuses of Alabama. He ruled out one because he doesn’t want a large party school or Greek life dominance and not sure on the other. I offered to try to arrange a visit but he was adamant neither would be the vibe he wanted. I know the bigger campus would have given him 4 years full tuition and 1 year housing for NHMS but even that & the reputable honors programs didn’t get him past the fact it’s a huge party school with a Greek life focus.
The Pitt honors program seems to have potential. Just not sure on merit for OOS and whether he’d be invited to the honors program. I suppose Pitt has a reputation as a party school too so he’ll probably factor that in when all offers are in.
Really appreciate your feedback and insight.
I would say SEC schools have larger greek life than other schools - but it’s not dominant. My son chose that school over Purdue (with merit). He didn’t quite get the deal your son got (congrats) - but he lived in the Honors dorm and found it boring. He’s not Greek and most aren’t but no doubt with the big stunning houses, there is a significant presence. But they also have the most NMF in the country so - they’ve got (buy) smart kids. Wasn’t recommending that one. There’s several publics - the most known are U of Alabama and Auburn. Then they have directionals (N Alabama, S Alabama, W Alabama) and two schools identified with cities - UAB and UAH.
I was recommending UAH - also has an Honors - so he might not have looked at that. It’s 10K kids, low greek, no football. I’m guessing he looked at Bama and Auburn. UAH is known for engineering and nursing - and Huntsville is NASA part 2 - so it seems like almost every aero/defense contractor is in the city - which is why they have solid outcomes. So have him take a look at UAH - which I’m sure he hasn’t. It’s a ten minute app - if i remember, Honors had one essay - what’s your favorite word and why. Sometimes people have essays they can re-use.
Not pushing you - but when you said chasing merit, some of the schools you mentioned can get you to 40-50K but when I hear chasing merit, I think $20K 
My daughter withdrew from Pitt before the Honors decision came. She was WL for Honors. That you can take classes and do most the activities will probably cover a lot of it. I’m sure there are other benefits to Honors that you have to be in the program for but at least you can get some.
Pitt OOS merit, unless you’re a URM, is typically less if at all - and you needed to have applied early. Hopefully you did.
As for party schools - hmmm - short of a LIberty, BYU, Hillsdale - there’s parties everywhere - and partiers everywhere. In fact, my daughter told me last night her friend is looking to transfer from a top 40 private to the in-state public - because the private school parties too much. Rollins - hmmmm - from what I understand from the folks I call on in Orlando and Daytona - is a big party atmosphere.
I’ve yet to read a bad word about Pitt on this website short of the application portal so hope that works out for you. But for chasing merit, you have to set a budget and then find a school that will get to your # and the rest are “can” get you to your #.
Rochester is a great school.
If he’s NMF (you said NMH but I think you meant NMF), look at Tulsa and others - if looking for the big $$.
Of course, if you and he are happy with his current list, that’s great too. And Rochester would be a great addition.
See the link below.
National Merit Semifinalist Package - The University of Tulsa (utulsa.edu)
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