<p>@flamingbirdy</p>
<p>I got rejected for fall as well, and got in for Spring with relatively little trouble. To be fair, I asked a professor if I could take his honors class in winter, so I was able to get an idea of the program and what it was looking for.
When I was an incoming freshman, I thought an honors program would be all about good grades and extra curriculars. I learned that they only give a cursory glance to that stuff, and the real key is who you are and why you want to be there. Honors profs are generally cool, and if you can find an interesting, non-full class for winter, go for it.</p>
<p>@FlamingBirdy - I think…the opportunities presented to you (getting to know professors more personally, meeting people similar to you in the sense they are ambitious [although this is NOT limited to Honors], scholarships, etc) are key here. Also, they promote interdisciplinary (see below comment to momomomo) which I really like, because in a sense, the way someone can change someone else’s life in the future (at any scale) is based on applying some idea to something else. </p>
<p>@Tessey - Math calc series, Chemistry, Biology, Physics are all offered with Honors options.
More information here: [UW</a> Honors - Course Information](<a href=“http://depts.washington.edu/uwhonors/courses/]UW”>Honors Course Information | University of Washington Honors Program)</p>
<p>@ momomomo - Most people major in one thing (ie. computer science). What do they do once they graduate? Probably work in the industry, somewhere, some software company, maybe? Interdisciplinary is going past that - for example, I’m a computer science major, but I’m really interested in the health field. I can major in computer science, yet do something in the future related to the ER, or family clinics, etc. How? Either I can help develop software for the offices or ERs, or maybe I can learn about robotics and help develop prosthetics that are more efficient than the ones we have now. The possibilities are endless!
Take another example - You’re interested in mathematics and art. Perhaps you double major, perhaps you only major in math. In the future, you may work alongside architects. These combinations can be whatever you want - it’s basically applying a field to another field.
The Honors program emphasizes this by taking a topic (say, the oil spill) and asking us, the students, who are planning on/currently majoring in a vast array of fields, to talk to each other about this. I was pretty awed when we did this in class… I’m learning others’ perspectives while contributing my own. The professor might even have a completely different perspective to everyone else.</p>
<p>Are scholarship offers typically sent with admission letters, or is there still a chance I could get a scholarship?</p>
<p>There is still a chance. The latest I’ve heard someone get a scholarship was in June. She got a full ride.</p>
<p>That’s weird…wouldn’t they want to give scholarships before May 1 in case people are still deciding which college to go to?</p>
<p>I’m guessing someone rejected the scholarship and went to another university. I would think that the Honors program would be able to send out scholarship notifications before June though.</p>
<p>A speculation - some scholarships are not ‘allowed’ to be combined with other financial aid packages, scholarships, etc. Then maybe, even if someone decides to go to UW, s/he cannot ‘use’ that scholarship so it’s awarded to someone else.</p>
<p>Gotcha. Thank you so much for all your insight–so helpful!</p>
<p>@speedsolver</p>
<p>Hey! So right now, I’m at a very academically competitive school, where grades are a huge deal and people complain about failing when they get any grade below an A-, and sometimes people who don’t have high GPAs or SATs are judged as “not smart” etc. Basically hard core students who nerd out judge others.</p>
<p>Are people in the honor program like that as well? And also, do you think doing honors will mean I will have to sacrifice part of my social life?</p>
<p>I got in! Yay. I’m going somewhere else already, though. Damn, I liked the Honors program.</p>
<p>@afuzzypanda - Not at all. Of course, you get that type of people everywhere. In college, it’s mostly people trying to get into competitive medical schools or graduate schools who are really worried about their grades. I never see people (…not yet?) who go around asking people about their GPA or judging people because ‘you have a 3.7 and I have a 3.9.’ I don’t find Honors people different from anyone else at UW as ‘hard core students.’ What we would say is ‘impressive’ about other students is research, internships, etc. To get those, it’s ‘out of the classroom’ work. However, if someone’s doing research with the neurobio department, <em>usually</em> they don’t go around asking where else people is conducting research just to boost their ego…</p>
<p>You don’t have to sacrifice your social life. Seriously. Some of the Honors students are the most social people I know. You can find them anywhere - parties, frats, hanging out with their friends on friday nights… If you try to pick out ‘Honors students’ from the rest of the school, you can’t … unless you stalk people’s schedules and know that “From Building A, at 1:20pm, from room 273, there is an Honors class being dismissed”.</p>
<p>@mickjagger - Congrats! You may have mentioned this in an earlier, but where are you headed? Best of luck!</p>
<p>Awesome, your replies are really useful!</p>
<p>Do you think an honors student has a lot more homework than a non-honors student though? I’m afraid I’ll be too caught up in homework all the time that I won’t have time to just relax or anything. And also if I enroll into honors and I want to drop, will I have to move from the honors dorm (Lander)?</p>
<p>Sorry last question (in this post at least :P)
Do you know much about the Honors Hiking Club?</p>
<p>^I have the same questions as panda! :)</p>
<p>For homework load, let’s just say, my Honors classes have the least homework assigned of all my classes. There’s some reading involved, depending on what class you’re taking, but it seems nothing compared to other courses that require 40-60 pages of reading per week.</p>
<p>The most time I spent on one of my Honors classes is probably the ‘final’ essay, which took the place of our final exam.</p>
<p>Don’t be too concerned with homework load from Honors, unless it’s from Honors sciences/math. They’d have about as much homework as non-Honors, but the classes are more rigorous because of the speed they go at. The classes that’s probably most time consuming is probably the Honors Chem series classes.</p>
<p>I think I’m gonna do it! :)</p>
<p>Does anyone know anything about scholarships? Like, say you get the Mary Gates scholarship for honors which is two years tuition…what if you then also get Washington Scholars? Do you have to give one of the scholarships up?? (speaking theoretically here…I don’t know if I got either yet haha)</p>
<p>@momomomo -</p>
<p>You probably won’t have to worry about that choice. It looks like new Washington Scholars will not be getting any scholarship money, although current scholars will continue to be funded.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.hecb.wa.gov/research/budgets/documents/WAScholars4-13-2011.Senate.pdf[/url]”>http://www.hecb.wa.gov/research/budgets/documents/WAScholars4-13-2011.Senate.pdf</a></p>
<p>Scholar nominees should be contacting their state legislators.</p>
<p>Any other Honors students doing the Perception and the Arts EFS this summer? It looks fantastic :D</p>
<p>@nicholer what do you mean by contacting my state legislator? what should I do?</p>
<p>Previous scholars lobbied so their awards wouldn’t be reduced. It looks like they will continue to be funded. Washington Scholars has a facebook page you can check out.</p>
<p>Can anyone suggest which dorm hall I should list as my top preference?</p>
<p>I was thinking about Lander since it’s freshman only and priority is given to honors students…but now I’m not so sure. I’m considering McMahon since there are suites, or Poplar because there are private bathrooms.</p>
<p>Help!!</p>