<p>I'm a prospective engineering student, and I became aware of UIUC because of its high ranking in computer engineering. I'm wondering how hard it is to get into the Honors Program. I'm also an international student. Are there any international students who are in the Honors Program? </p>
<p>Any comments are appreciated.</p>
<p>its really not that hard to get into. i’m not sure what the exact requirements are, but i had friends that got C’s in hs and a had average sat and act scores and still got into the honors program. then again, he was out of state and its mainly used to attract students to come. its pretty easy to get into, but its tough to stay in since there’s a 3.5gpa requirement (3.2 i believe for james scholars in engineering, correct me, engineers if i’m wrong). </p>
<p>in the end though, its pretty worthless the as the only perk is early registration (even then, after sophomore year its not needed). there’s no additional scholarships (in my case) or anything. no cares about it except freshman who wanna do some academic dick-measuring.</p>
<p>It depends on which honors program you are referring. The Campus (university wide) Honors program is offered only to a little more than 200 accepted students with the expectation to get about 125. You have to be in the top 1% to 2% of admitted applicants, in combined score and GPA, to have a chance of getting an invite. For non-residents, that honors program usually results in a scholarship close in amount to the non-resdent portion of the tuition.</p>
<p>Each college then has its James Scholar honors program which is designed to capture about the top 15% of freshman who enroll in the college and it is usually a strict numbers game with each college setting its own requirements. For engineering, you need a 33 or higher ACT (or 1450 combined math/CR SAT). There is no scholarship related to that honors program.</p>
<p>^ this guy pretty much nails it. what i was referring to in my post was the james scholar program. chp is completely different. cheers</p>
<p>Thank you all for replies! Well, scores is not an issue for me (I have 2310 on SAT I and 4.0 unweighted GPA, etc). What’s the difference between the James Scholar and the University-wide Honors Program? Do people who get in one also get in the other? What are the benefits to be in the Honors Program (more job opportunities after graduation)? Do they accept international students into the Honors Program?</p>
<p>International students can be accepted into either program. You can also be in both though if in Campus Honors, you may not want to also do James. Mainly, you take some honors courses per year and can also have some events. To learn more about both start here:</p>
<p>Campus Honors:[Campus</a> Honors Program at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign](<a href=“http://honors.illinois.edu/]Campus”>http://honors.illinois.edu/) </p>
<p>James Scholar Engineering: <a href=“https://wiki.engr.illinois.edu/display/engrjames/Freshman+James+Scholars[/url]”>https://wiki.engr.illinois.edu/display/engrjames/Freshman+James+Scholars</a></p>
<p>Whether either leads to better job opprtunities is subject to question since for the group what actually leads to good job opportunities is the fact that they have high college grades, which must be maintained throughout college to remain in the programs, and there is no real evidence to show that those with high grades who are in the honors programs do better in the job market than those with high grades who are not.</p>
<p>One benefit both provide is priority registration for classes once you are at UIUC. Toward end of each semester, you get to register for classes in the next semester and certain days are set aside for doing that. Seniors go first, then juniors, etc. If you are in campus honors, you go first when the time comes for your class to register, and James Scholars go after campus scholars. Once you are at UIUC and get into the registration process for an upcoming semester, you will realize as others do that the priority registration right is the most important benefit of being in an honors program since you will avoid facing the issue of not getting into a class you want at the time you want because it is full.</p>
<p>@drusba, why did you say “you may not also want to do James scholar”? I’m just curious…Sounds like the campus wide scholar has bigger privilege than James scholar?</p>
<p>The only reason I can imagine for not wanting to be in one of the programs is the extra work it requires. In CHP, you have to take a number of honors classes and go to some social events. James Scholars also have to take a number of honors classes, but the requirements for those classes are not the same as CHP.</p>
<p>Also, both programs give you early registration for classes. CHP comes before James Scholars.</p>
<p>Both require taking a number of honors courses. There is some but not complete overlap between courses required by each program. The campus honors program is one for which non-residents usually get a scholarship to cover the non-resident portion of admission and thus the preferred program. Particularly for engineering students, the requirements for humanities courses in the programs are often considered something they have to put up with rather than something they really want to do. It thus becomes an issue of whether you want to do both when your schedule is daunting enough even with just your engineering college requirements.</p>