<p>I’ve just noticed the above link, and I noticed that the IHP link is missing. </p>
<p>For the last year, I’ve been hearing that IHP would be absorbed into UHP in some way and maybe some other changes, but I don’t know if this is the result of the implementation of the proposed changes. </p>
<p>It’s definitely new. I’m not sure when the last time I looked at the Honors College website was, but it was within the month, and it didn’t look like this last time I checked. A lot of the material there is still the same, but there are differences as well. The only mention I see of IHP now is a description of the IHP seminar and as part of the degree audit for graduating students. I can’t find the pages that used to be there that listed the graduation requirements for each of the 4 honors programs.</p>
<p>ETA: I found the graduation requirements, including those for IHP - they’re now under the FAQs.</p>
<p>m2ck: when I visited with D2 back in March, Allison gave us an honors package and the literature doesn’t break out IHP as it did in the past. She did mention they were trying to simplify things. I won’t be home till much later tonight (gotta love softball season!) but I’ll pull out the folder. </p>
<p>If I recall correctly, the language mentioned the 4 pillars of the honors college: scholarship, community service, international/global and…I am drawing a blank on the 4th!</p>
<p>Previous discussions with the Honors College have mentioned that any upcoming changes are optional for incoming freshmen, the Class of 2016, and will be fully in effect for the Class of 2017. </p>
<p>In terms of content, there is nothing new mentioned on this page. What the page accomplishes is having a detailed list of the opportunities the Honors College and HCA offer throughout the year.</p>
<p>I do know that the Honors College is researching why students leave the Honors College and UA with the intent of fixing a lot of those factors. Honors Year One is part of that effort.</p>
<p>There has been a problem with people leaving IHP, but that’s mostly because many can’t do the 2 summer abroad req’t (too expensive) or they can’t do the semester abroad req’t (because of course sequencing)</p>
<p>There has been a problem for some eng’g students who can’t fit in the 18 credits for UHP. Those in CBH have an advantage, but those who aren’t can find it hard to fit those req’ts in. </p>
<p>I haven’t heard of any particular problems with people leaving the school unless it’s been for financial reasons (some students just can’t afford to go away to school or pay OOS costs).</p>
<p>I’ve only known 1 kid to leave Bama because he didn’t like it…but then that kid didn’t end up liking the school he transferred to either.</p>
<p>For those students in the Business school it seems quite easy to get the Honors credits required. They are offered Honors sections of Micro and Macro Econ, Intro to Accounting, Legal Env of Bus, many will take English 103 (instead of 101 & 102) and EN 103 carries the Honors designation. </p>
<p>If one takes an Honors Fine Arts and/or Honors Humanites course you should pretty much have it taken care of. (e.g. the Freshman seminar classes are humanites classes with honors credit) </p>
<p>I don’t know much about the other school’s requirments but do know there is an Honors Cal 3 and also have heard here on CC that even if you don’t finish your Honors requirments it is worth being in the Honors College for the first few years to get all of the perks (early registration, honors dorms, HCA social events, seats at football games, etc.)</p>
<p>Clarifying my previous post, the Honors College and UA attrition rates are nothing out of the ordinary, but it doesn’t mean that they can’t be reduced to even lower levels by modifying certain aspects of the Honors College/UA experience to deliver a more personalized experience to all students.</p>
<p>If you are sending suggestions back to the folks in the HC another group that I am aware has concerns about meeting HC requirements are eligible student-athletes. D is fortunate she came in w/several college and AP credits. Her high school (a public) offered college courses right at her school from a local community college at a very minimal fee and she was selected to participate in a STEM program at a strong Engineering College right across the road from her H.S. in Sr. year that included free tuition of Physics I & II as part of the program so that all has added up to a fair amount of flexibility to meet the academic requirements of the HC, IHP, UFE. Obviously not everyone has these same opportunities in their hometown schools and/or cannot afford full college tuition prices while in high school to be able to come in with a lot of credits, making it hard for many to juggle achieving the HC and other program requirements. </p>
<p>She also has the concern of being limited to summer international travel due to athletics. Making arrangements to have work-out facilities to keep up with their off-season program when she is out of the country is also a consideration; not only in finding a facility but also being sure whatever program she is traveling with will allow her the time necessary for work-outs. So there are so many considerations I think every student has to take into consideration about meeting HC requirements.</p>
<p>I mention all this because I know there are other freshmen on her team that were eligible for HC but elected not to do it because of the difficulty to meet the requirements. Knowing it is always best for any college to capture as many HC students initially as possible for their recruiting statistics, rankings etc., and with AL’s strong athletic focus; the higher the # of HC student-athletes it can capture/have in their stats would be a positive for recruiting kids with both assets. It they arent already, hopefully the HC will look closer at this population along with Engineering etc., to see how they could increase initial recruitment as well as retain these students.</p>
<p>This is probably a stupid question, but staying in the honors college is unrelated to scholarships, right? That is, if for some reason my son can’t meet all the honors requirements because he is in engineering, he won’t lose his national merit scholarship, will he?</p>
<p>Also, just to clarify, all requirements for honors must be completed at UA, right? No AP credit can be used for those?</p>
<p>He’ll keep his NMF scholarship as long as he has his 3.0 GPA.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the honors req’t. As long as honors doesn’t boot him out (which I doubt they will), he’ll stay in honors housing. </p>
<p>He probably will be able to complete the honors req’ts, and even if he can’t , that won’t be realized til senior year and he’ll be in honors housing anyway.</p>
<p>lisa6191: Maybe Sea_tide can clarify if all have to be completed at UA or during approved international travel (like Honors by contract courses at UA at Oxford) I am not sure of that so don’t want to say. I apologize if my mention of college and AP credits was confusing above. I meant it in the sense that kids who have those kinds of credits coming in have already met some of their overall basic requirements which results in more opportunity in their schedules to fill with HC requirements.</p>
<p>trvlbug, my previous post was originally going to mention the difficulty of completing UHP/IHP requirements in some programs/activities. Before I decided to do University Scholars, I wasn’t sure that I would be able to complete the UHP requirements. Unfortunately, my degree requirements made it extremely difficult to study abroad and take classes that count towards my degree. I will mention your post to the Honors College when I talk to them again. I also encourage you to email Dr. Sharpe with your concerns.</p>