<p>How difficult is it to gain admission to this program? I hear only 35 students are selected. Also, how much merit aid does the average student receive in the honors program?</p>
<p>I heard its very difficult to get in.. I hv 2 friends who are part of that program</p>
<p>As far as I know, there is no admissions process. The word Honors is used for the many things, so I'll distinguish them right now.</p>
<p>Honors Program: Program for all LSA students that you have to apply for, not directly tied to math program.</p>
<p>Honors Math: A more difficult version of a math major. The honors program and doing an honors major aren't really tied together. For most programs, an honors major consists of taking an extra upper level class and writing a senior thesis. For math and comp sci, since it's not really feasible to expect a senior thesis, one only has to take a more difficult selection of courses. You do not have to be enrolled in the Honors college to do an Honors math major.</p>
<p>Honors Math Sequence: Math 295-296-395-396. Rigorous introduction to pure mathematics, basically covers all of undergraduate mathematics. Even though it is an "Honors" class, it's open to any student in LSA (most "honors" classes are restricted to students in the honors college). Not everybody who is an Honors math major does this sequence, but I'd say all of the really smart ones who are serious about going on in math take it. I can only think of two other schools (Harvard and Chicago) that have an introductory sequence of the same rigor.</p>
<p>So basically, honors math is completely seperate from the Honors college, and has no admissions procedure. The general philosophy of the math department is that they'll let you try anything you want, and if you're not qualified you'll end up dropping/failing the course.</p>
<p>As far as merit aid, the math department itself merit scholarships for either 1K, 2K, or 4K a year (maybe even something like 8K in extreme cases, but those are the kind of kids who are tops in the country and would basically have a full ride, anyways). Most kids have scholarships from other sources (I can think of 4 honors math people who are shipman scholars, and one who is in telluride).</p>