<p>I have recently been accepted to Alabama and cannot decide whether or not I should be a part of the Honors College. I scored 31 on my ACT and I have an unweighted 4.0 so I do meet the requirements for HC. When I visited Bama I loved the dorm options for HC students and the program sounded good! Recently I’ve got a couple of questions which may help me decide…Is admission automatic after filling out the application for HC if I meet the requirements (ACT/GPA)? And also, what happens if I don’t get enough HC Honors credits to graduate with honors?..the reason I ask is that I plan on graduating in 3 years and I will have over 30 college credits taken in high school after my senior year. Would being in the HC but not graduating with honors if I couldn’t make it happen be that big of an issue? Or do they make you complete the HC requirements in order to graduate? Thanks!</p>
<p>Yes, it’s automatic. </p>
<p>Need to keep taking the honors courses to get the honors benefits. One of the benefits is registering early. There are plenty of honors courses that fulfill gen eds. You can also petition for some of your required courses to get an “Honors” designation. </p>
<p>I believe you can graduate without the honors designation if you don’t complete the honors part. </p>
<p>Here’s some more info. <a href=“http://honors.ua.edu/honors-q-and-a/[/url]”>http://honors.ua.edu/honors-q-and-a/</a></p>
<p>Back to the game. It is very exciting. Roll Tide!</p>
<p>It’s no big deal if you don’t complete the honors req’ts.</p>
<p>My younger son almost graduated w/o fulfilling the honors college req’ts. AT first, the HC wasn’t going to count his Honors in Alabama as credit towards the HC credit…so he was going to graduate w/o fulfilling the req’t. At the last minute, the HC reconsidered.</p>
<p>mom, can you explain that last answer please?</p>
<p>So far I am definitely leaning more towards going with HC. I preferred the Ridgecrest dorms to those that were not honors and I like the benefits. As long as I would be able to participate in HC but not necessarily graduate with honors if I couldn’t manage that, I think I would love to be a part of the HC. Thanks for everyone’s help!</p>
<p>my advice is to get honors hours your first and second semester with gen eds. it is easy enough to get the 6 honors college hours, but not so easy to get the rest if you don’t knock a bunch of them out with things like your math/science/humanities classes.</p>
<p>It seems like there is no possible down side to participating in the HC, at least initially. If it turns out that you can’t fit in all the requirements you can always drop out, but the benefits, especially early registration, are pretty significant.</p>
<p>In my experience, those entering UA who qualify for the Honors College, but decline to participate in any honors programs often do so out of a misguided idea of what honors is about, likely because the honors programs at many universities have a reputation for being more nerdy and lock-step in their requirements. Said reputation does not at all reflect the reality of UA’s Honors College and honors programs.</p>
<p>Assuming one has some lower division course requirements to complete upon entering UA, it is quite easy to complete them with honors courses. Entering with 45+ credits makes things more difficult, but not impossible with advance planning. Honors classes aren’t unreasonably difficult compared to non-honors versions and many students actually find honors courses to be easier due to the more discussion-based format. Graduate courses count also count as honors courses, which helps many students who enter UA with a lot of college credit a convenient way to complete honors requirements.</p>
<p>Honors students at UA have a wide variety of personalities and interests. Many are active in Greek organizations, collegiate athletics, or have part-time jobs. Honors students are present everywhere on campus and in the surrounding community. </p>
<p>The perks of being in the Honors College, particularly priority registration, can be very beneficial throughout ones college career. Even if one doesn’t end up completing the requirements for an honors program, they will still have the benefits until they are deemed to not making adequate progress towards program requirements.</p>
<p>Finally, there is no requirement to be actively involved in the honors college outside of taking a certain number of honors classes. While one can certainly be heavily involved with the Honors College, UA also offers many other great opportunities for students to be involved on campus and in the local community.</p>
<p>My son loved his honors college experience. He entered Bama with 65 credits so he did not earn most of his honors credits through gen ed classes. He did other things including two trips to Costa Rica with Alabama Action Abroad, a Common Book experience class and the computer-based honors program. There are plenty of opportunities to earn honors credit over four years. If my younger son attends Bama (he has been accepted), he, too, will enter with lots of AP/dual enrollment credit, so he’ll be searching for honors classes that are interesting and offer a different experience.</p>
<p>mom, can you explain that last answer please?</p>
<p>What do you mean? </p>
<p>What I meant was that it’s not a big deal if you don’t finish the HC req’ts. Some eng’rs find that they can’t finish the HC req’ts. It’s not like you get kicked out of Bama if you don’t finish the HC. </p>
<p>That said, a student should try to include an HC class or two as he goes along to keep his HC status and to hopefully complete the req’ts.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the rule is if you’re in the HC and you’re not taking HC classes, and it’s rather obvious that you’re never going to complete the req’ts. </p>
<p>My son went thru all 8 semesters while in the HC, before he graduated, he had to go for a review of his HC credits, and he was told that he was short credits because they weren’t going to count his Alabama Honors in Costa Rica towards the req’d minimum. So, up til the end of the semester, we thought that when he graduated, he wouldn’t be noted for the HC. But, the HC must have reconsidered, because he did.</p>
<p>Does the hc only look at grades through junior year, or will they accept the most recent transcript?</p>
<p>Mom, your original quote said: " AT first, the HC wasn’t going to count his Honors in Alabama as credit towards the HC credit…"</p>
<p>Then, you changed that to say Alabama Honors is COSTA RICA. I did not understand your first post at all…</p>
<p>Is is normal for students to have said review of their credits by HC before graduating? Doesn’t Degree Works say which credits apply and which do not?</p>
<p>Also, I will add, as I have done elsewhere, graduating with honors credit hours (from the Honors College) can be quite different to graduating with Honors in your specific college. Some majors/colleges offer an honors track which is more extensive than taking a few honors seminars. If you want to see what the College of Engineering, Aerospace Honors Program looks like: <a href=“http://aem.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/honors-program/[/url]”>http://aem.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/honors-program/</a> I guess the best way to describe this is as a difference between “university-wide” honors program and “departmental honors” programs. Check your own major/college to see if there is a diff in your area.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>Ahhh…didn’t realize I left out the Costa Rica part. lol…must have gotten distracted before finishing that sentence.</p>
<p>Yes, it is normal for each graduating student to have a meeting with Kiki to review. Don’t know if Bama will always do that, but it has in the past.</p>
<p>SEA-tide ; I’ve been wondering for a while about how to get honors college credits when I’m skipping all but one or two gen ed classes. So what you’re saying is, if I plan on doing University Scholars and taking graduate classes junior and senior year, I should still be able to graduate with honors?</p>
<p>Almost…</p>
<p>You can use some of the honors classes from your major to count towards the Honors req’t - Honors Calc, honors Bio, English 103, etc.</p>
<p>My kids’ AP classes covered nearly all of the Core. My math son took Honors Fine Arts and Parody in the HC to cover the FA req’t. They both took a Writing Intensive class in the HC to put towards the W requirement (these are upper division courses).</p>
<p>My DS is taking 11 Honors credits this semester, all core classes. It just kind of worked out this way with Alabama Action and Honors Connection added. He’s looking to save the remaining Honors work to use towards his major classes.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>That happens…my older son had a LOT of honors credits when he graduated. His first semester had several with CBH, honors engineering, honors Spanish, and Honors Deductive Logic. </p>
<p>My younger son (ChemE) ended up with about 21 or so total, but it was hard for him to have the 6 HC seminar ones. </p>
<p>another good class to take for a SB designation is that International Honors Class about cultures (there may be a frosh version and an upperclass version). </p>
<p>I think English 103 counts not only as honors, but also as HC honors…but not sure.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Sadly, no.</p>
<p>Remember that there are 2 different types of honors credits that need to be fulfilled. One you can get through the regular gen Ed and majors classes, the other is honors seminar credits. I can’t remember how many honors seminar credits you need, maybe 9?</p>
<p>University Honors Graduation Requirements</p>
<p>1) Minimum OVERALL GPA of 3.3
2) Minimum of 18 hours of Honors courses including:
a)** 6 hours of Honors Seminars:**
i) Seminars are UH courses at the 100, 200, or 300 level
(1) IHP 105 or IHP 155 may be used as a seminar
(2) UH 400 courses are NOT considered seminars
ii) Many UH courses can be retaken provided the course content differs. See the
Honors College for current repeat limits.
b) 12 additional hours of Honors Electives:
i) Electives are UH, Departmental Honors, Honors by Contract, Graduate,
or CBH courses
(1) Honors by Contract is limited to six hours
Pass/Fail courses are limited to two hours
3) Completion of an Honors College Graduation Application</p>
<p>6 hours of seminar…poo that 103 Frosh Comp doesnt’ count. couldn’t remember for sure.</p>
<p>Those IHP courses listed are very interesting and if you take one, it’s a SB credit.</p>