Does anyone know what the essay prompts are for this year’s Wisconsin-Madison L&S Honors Program application?
No, but it pays to apply early. I know of some accepted who applied early and equally qualified applicants who were rejected applying later.
Unless the process has changed in the last year or so, the Honors application timing is linked to the specific student’s acceptance date to UW. The invitation to apply to Honors comes in a separate email shortly (a week? maybe more?) after the student has been admitted, and the application is due within several weeks after that.
The essays are fun, to give insight into the student. The essays for my son back in '12 were something like, “write the headline and lead paragraph of a front page news story 20 years from now” and then something like “what does diversity mean to you” and there was a third, though I can’t remember what that was. I think they were each limited to something like 200 words. It was not burdensome, and my son enjoyed writing the newspaper one, for sure.
Also, I have not heard of someone getting rejected from Honors who seriously engaged with the application. Honors at UW is structured on the premise that all UW students are capable of doing the work, but only a smaller number are interested in delving more deeply intellectually. So the Honors application is a mechanism to identify those kids who have that intellectual curiosity. It is entirely possible that students who submitted their Honors app late, after their own particular due date, were rejected. All L&S students can apply to Honors after first semester freshman year, so missing the deadline means a student misses the opportunity for Honors advising at SOAR and to start off with Honors classes in the fall semester, but can start Honors later.
Ditto the above. Definitely worthwhile for those who want the Honors classes. Easy to get in/out anytime but then you miss out on SOAR Honors advising, taking Honors classes first semester (and many are multiple semester series not offered every semester) and other current “perks”.
Years ago they did not invite everyone but they then decided all students admitted to UW are capable of doing Honors work if they want to.
Needing to write essays means taking the time and being serious about being in the Honors program. Remember that there will be many diverse students wishing to take diverse Honors courses- math, chemistry, physics, integrated liberal studies… Not all will be great writers.