My kid used Honors program (not a separate Honors college) at public flagship to connect more closely with faculty and to study more deeply in areas he loved. At his flagship, the Honors discussion section of a lecture class was led by the professor rather than a TA, so he developed strong working relationship with those faculty, and they have written internship and scholarship recommendations for him. He has also taken Honors sections in classes where he just loved the subject matter – for his own pleasure in working closely with the professor. Broadly, he described that the Honors sections were more intellectually challenging with less busy work than regular sections, though he also got Honors credit in courses where there wasn’t an Honors section offered, and that required writing an extra paper, a longer paper etc., and that was definitely more work.