<p>Can someone explain the differences between these two programs. I am very confused. Thanks</p>
<p>I will try to answer this from what I’ve learned so far about the application process. There is a lot of info on the UMD webpage as well.</p>
<p>The honors program is offered to the top applicants to the school (based on grades, rigor of course work, SATs, etc). After a student is accepted to the university, the undergraduate admissions office gives qualified students’ applications to the honors college. The honors college gets their pick of which students they want and then passes the remaining students to scholars. Honors students are able to take honors level classes and live in a dorm with other honors students. Honors classes have smaller numbers of students and are more interactive. Students can choose from the general honors program or “living and learning communities” which require them to take more specific classes. Students who complete the program receive the “with honors” distinction at graduation. </p>
<p>The scholars program students seem to participate in more community service activities rather than classes. Students who complete the program receive the scholars distinction on their transcript. </p>
<p>This Fall, my son was invited to “Maryland Marquis Day” where we went to hear presentations from both the honors and scholars programs. The scholars students spoke and all seemed very outgoing whereas the honors students seemed to be more friendly but academically focused. The honors program director said the stats of students accepted to honors are typically like those students applying to Ivy league schools. </p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>“Students who complete the program receive the “with honors” distinction at graduation.”</p>
<p>That is not entirely correct. It is true that students that complete the honors program successfully receive an honors citation that is noted on their transcript and wear red and gold honor cords at graduation. </p>
<p>However, in order to “graduate with honors,” THAT has to be earned by the grades received at the University of Maryland, not just by being in a program. </p>
<p>There are multiple honors programs (departmental honors, QUEST honors fellows, etc) and societies (Primannum Honor Society, Phi Beta Kappa, etc) at Maryland, and all have ways of distinguishing students at graduation with different bling, regalia etc but the phrase “graduation with honors” typically refers to the latin honors of cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude. </p>
<p>There are many students that are invited to participate in the honors college as freshman based on their high school performance that do not earn latin honors for graduation, and technically will not “graduate with honors” even if they have made the Dean’s List (gpa of 3.5) many times over the years… </p>
<p>“The scholars program students seem to participate in more community service activities rather than classes.”
Actually, the community service is not much and it’s in addition to specified classes based on a theme (that augments a selected major of study). It also incorporates a choice of an internship/research/or service learning as a requirement and there is a capstone project with a big presentation at the end. So, more out-of-the-classroom experiences rather than just classes. Students that complete the scholars program successfully receive a scholars citation on their transcript and instead of red and gold honor cords, they get a bronze medallion to sport at graduation.</p>
<p>Trust me, there are many students in scholars that are “like those students applying to Ivy league schools” and there are many students in Honors that are not just the “top applicants.” There are definitely some fuzzy lines that really are not worth cherry picking. </p>
<p>The point is that Maryland offers several interesting programs to help attract high achieving students. There are other programs also such as CIVICUS, Global Communities, Language House, Writers House, Beyond the Classroom…more than just honors and scholars!</p>
<p>So, don’t worry about whether you get invited to honors or scholars…just get into Maryland and go from there. It’s all good…</p>
<p>maryversity… agree with you but doesn’t being invited to honors program help with larger merit scholarships?</p>
<p>“doesn’t being invited to honors program help with larger merit scholarships?”
No. The invitation to honors has no bearing on the size of a merit scholarship, nor does an invitation to honors signify/indicate/guarantee that you will get a merit scholarship.
The number of merit scholarships are limited and since it is a state school, they don’t have the huge funds to offer like private institutions do. </p>
<p>Remember what I said about fuzzy lines? I have seen (on these boards and from friends) students complain that they got into the honors program but got zero merit scholarships. I have also seen students that were invited to scholars that received more merit money than students that were invited to honors. So, not so simple.</p>
<p>That being said, there are three basic merit scholarships Dean’s, Presidential and the biggie that everyone dreams of, Banneker/Key (either full ride or partial B/K which is half, and then the very select few Stamps B/K which is full ride plus). The ONLY students nominated to receive an invitation for an interview for the B/K scholarship are culled from the students that are invited to participate in honors college… BUT the only ones invited from honors are those that will likely get accepted into ivy league schools anyway. So, from that standpoint, being invited to honors <em>could</em> mistakenly be perceived as helping get a “larger” merit scholarship ONLY because B/K invites go to students who are invited to honors. Make sense?</p>
<p>However, the amount of a merit award has nothing to do with the program you are invited to as much as the stats (and other factors). The higher your stats (and other factors), the greater your chances are that you will be CONSIDERED for merit money, but NO guarantees…so understand that no one is entitled to X amount of dollars if they have certain stats (and factors). It’s far more complicated than that.</p>
<p>UMD is very stats driven. Maryversity is correct that on occasion the lines may be “fuzzy” but as a rule the kids with the highest stats…SAT/ACT, GPA, class rank and so on are invited to Honors. As Twillsmomnp said, the Honors College picks the absolute highest kids and then Scholars gets to look at the remaining students. Both are excellent programs.</p>
<p>thank you for this discussion. it is helpful.</p>