<p>First of all, does anyone have a rankings per say of top state school honors program or a list of schools with serious honors programs?</p>
<p>Also, how would an honors program at a school like University of Florida or University of Connecticut or Arizona State University compare to a top 10 US Rankings School in terms of level of education. (Those are just 3 random publics I know of with honors programs off the top of my head)</p>
<p>I had a small discussion with my parents who really want me to be "successful" and "happy" and in a "good educational environment" at a top 25 school. I told my dad it'd be a lot easier financially to go to my state school Uconn and do the honors program because I didn't feel there was a huge dropoff between Uconn Honors and an Ivy league (could be wrong here). He countered by saying that there's a reason why some schools are better than others... "skierdude, would you rather drive a Benz or a Scion?"</p>
<p>Someone want to shed some light on the whole state honors program thing?</p>
<p>Students that I know from Barretts Honors College ASU have done amazingly well with med school and grad school acceptances and loved their experience. One neighbor was accepted to Ivy league schools but had 3 siblings still to go and his parents would not pay. He was extremely upset about going to a state school but then ended up loving it, having great mentoring and opportunities. I am not as familiar with the other honors programs you mentioned but assume they are similar.</p>
<p>I think there is a lot of variation in "honors" programs. At one State school the honors program consisted of a whole bunch of courses that my D was not interested in taking.</p>
<p>If you are destined to go to the state university because of financial reasons or because you love their sports teams or whatever, then you would be better off as an honors student than as a regular student. But, if other options are open, you would probably be better off at a more selective university. If you can get into the honors program, you can get into a better university. Why not actually go to a more selective college and get the "real deal" rather than go to a school within a school that tries to be better than the host university. The small advantages of an honors college are "window-dressing" and not worth sacrificing the overall quality, status, prestige, culture, and ambience of top-tier universities.</p>
<p>Honors programs are primarily marketing devices for attracting top students to lower-tier universities.</p>
<p>An exception might be the so-called public ivies which are top-tier universities in their own right.</p>
<p>Skierdude, those replies really cleared things up for you! (I'm being sarcastic) All these reponses have truth in them, you should evaluate each Honors program you are interested in, and consider how you feel about the requirements and the benefits. I think you should visit them if at all possible, just as you would visit a small college, because in some of them you will be spending a lot of time with a small group of people, while others are just window dressing as has been pointed out.</p>
<p>Remember that, depending on your major, small classes and relationships with profs are common even at large schools when majors move into the junior and senior years, so an honors program that basically ends in 2 years may give you the same effect as a 4 year program.</p>
<p>There are some great experiences to be had in honors programs, you just have to research carefully - AND not everyone in the Ivy League comes out well educated, either.</p>
<p>Skierdude - Cangels' advice is right-on regarding the need to evaluate the merits of each honors' college/program you may be interested in since there are many excellent ones out there. The honors colleges of flagship state universities are usually good bets (such as those mentioned in earlier posts and others like University of Texas, Indiana University, Penn State University, University of Mississippi, etc.) </p>
<p>Now to an overstatement from Collegehelp, to quote:</p>
<p>"The small advantages of an honors college are "window-dressing" and not worth sacrificing the overall quality, status, prestige, culture, and ambience of top-tier universities.</p>
<p>Honors programs are primarily marketing devices for attracting top students to lower-tier universities."</p>
<p>Here is an example of a concrete opportunity (oops "marketing device" or "window dressing") at Texas Tech's Honors College (a "third tier" state university) that a number of Honors students take advantage of - an early admissions program (junior year) to Tech's Medical School where the accepted applicants don't need to take the medical school admissions test. There are also other academic opportunities (marketing devices) such as undergraduate science research sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; an early entrance (junior year) and early admissons program to Tech's Law School; and help on applying to national scholarships (such as Goldwater Scholars for science/math which Tech students regularly receive). </p>
<p>Also, the Chancellor of the Texas Tech System, Dr. David Smith, is one of the final three candidates being considered to assume the chancellorship for the University of Georgia System. Dr. Smith did not even apply for the job. Dr. Smith withdrew as a candidate for the Chancellor's job for the University of Wisconsin System a couple years ago so he could stay at Tech.</p>
<p>There are many other "lower tier" universities with honors programs that fill the bill as well. One of the students from the University of Denver ( a lower tier private university that produced Secretary of State Condi Rice) just got named a Rhodes Scholar.</p>
<p>Plan II at UT-Austin is without a doubt the most nationally recognized public honors program...they are about as selective as Georgetown, I believe.</p>