Has anyone who applied this fall (or even last year) been invited to the honors program at MSU? If so, please post your stats so others can learn from them.
I’m asking because:
My son just applied to MSU 6 days ago. Based on his stats and what we’ve heard about the admissions process, we are confident he’ll be accepted. However, we are wondering about Honors. Online it says accepted students have a combination of: Top 5% of class, ACT of 32, extracurriculars, etc. My son is in the top 3-4% of his class (around 350 students), has an unweighted GPA of 3.96 and weighted 4.71. IB diploma candidate & a couple of APs so rigor should be okay. Unfortunately he has just a 1330 on his SAT (29 ACT equivalent). We are hoping he’ll be offered a spot in the Honors College. If so, that might push MSU to the top of his list. (We live in Michigan and his dad is an MSU alum so my son bleeds green) If not, he would seriously consider Ohio State because he’d be directly admitted to the business program (higher rated than Broad) and qualifies for merit scholarship money to bring it to around the same cost as MSU.
My son is currently in his 3rd year at MSU(will be graduating this year, a year early…) In HS he had a 94 unweighted average, full IB diploma program, and was top 10 in his class of 150 (probably between top 4-7%, but don’t know exact rank). He had a 1340 SAT and 28 composite ACT. He was admitted to MSU (James Madison College) within a week of submitting his application. He didn’t get auto admitted into the Honors College, but he wrote an essay (see the Honors College website), and was admitted to the Honors College by ~March. He’s probably on the low end of test scores for Honors College, but really likes the program and is glad he took the extra measures to get in.
Thank you MSU88CHEng! Your son’s SAT is very close to my son’s. It’s good to know that writing the essay and manually applying to honors does yield acceptances Sounds like my son may be going that route. Thanks for the response!
We are out of state (PA), my son got Honors acceptance yesterday with a 4.5 weighted GPA and a 34 ACT. The scholarship offerings were amazing. Trying to figure out how the PA specific grant factors into the scholarships but a fantastic option!
My son applied 9/26. Admitted 10/9. Like Back2BackMom got the acceptance to honors college on 11/1. Lots of automatic scholarships and it mentioned an official invite to Alumni Distinguished Scholarship weekend would be sent in 12/19.
1540 SAT
8 AP’s
4.0 GPA/4.7 Weighted.
2 sport athlete, student council, pltw, National Honor Society, etc.
Got an invite to a few honors receptions/info sessions in the Chicago area.
Definitely going to keep them on the list and will attend ADS weekend.
I got notified of my acceptance to the Honors College today via letter. I checked the portal and there’s been nothing regarding honors put on there yet.
Applied: 10/20
Accepted: 10/30
Honors College Acceptance: 11/14
ACT: 32, 33 superscore
UW GPA: 3.8
W GPA: 4.3
6 APs and a bunch of honors
Hi. For those who received Honors College acceptance, did you receive a separate admissions letter first (Hard copy, not through the portal) and then a second letter with notification of acceptance into honors, or was your Honors acceptance included in the hard copy MSU admissions letter?
2 separate letters. General Acceptance was a packet that was wrapped in a flag (nice touch). Honors was a week or so later with a separate letter that outlined the scholarships, etc.
My D20 applied in mid-October and was admitted to the Honors College in early November I believe. 1440 SAT and 3.93/4.35 GPA. I think she squeaked in. There was also an invite to the ADS competition. Her sister is a junior (D17) there now, also in the Honors College. Much higher stats…double major plus a minor and studying abroad in China this summer. Great experience.
D20 admitted to MSU on 11/5/19. We did NOT receive any email/package regarding Honors college. While browsing through, I stumped upon https://ntweb11.ais.msu.edu/HCResponses/hc_invitation.html and just for the heck of it keyed in her PID and password of 2020 (based on past discussions, password always seems to be the first year of college) and now I see the complete Reply to Honors college page.
"Reply to Honors College Invitation
Please note that the next page, after clicking “submit reply” will serve as your confirmation.
Please feel free to keep a copy for your records. This form is not binding
and will cancel if you cancel your admission to MSU.
Please check the appropriate responses and then fill in other information as needed. Click the Submit Reply button at the bottom of the form when you are done. Please submit this reply no later than May 1.
I accept your invitation to Honors College membership.
I would like Honors housing:(You must also fill out the University housing form, even if you choose Honors housing.)
Yes No
I have read and understand the Honors College requirements to maintain my membership and graduate from the College Yes No
I will attend MSU, but I decline Honors College membership.
I will not enroll at MSU because I have decided to attend:
** You must notify the MSU Office of Admissions if you are not going to attend MSU.
Current Information
Not sure what to make of this. Has she been admitted but we never got email/snail mail or am I jumping the gun in that anyone who has a PID (starting with A) and pwd of 2020 WILL see the above page - doesn’t necessarily mean that he/she got admitted to Honors college? Confused.
Update to this. There was this email dated 11/22 in the Spam folder. So yeah looks like D20 has been accepted to Honors college and actual letter will come soon.
"November 2019
Dear xxx,
Congratulations on your invitation to join the Honors College at Michigan State University!
If you have not received your invitation letter in the mail, you should receive it shortly.
"
Lesson learnt. Keep checking Spam folder every now and then. You never know what’ll end up there!
We have not, but we’ll be at the one in Chicago on Tuesday this week. We’ll see what kind of first impression they make.
We did one for Nebraska and they did a nice job with that one.
DD Got her honors college letter today! $5k scholarship and Professorial Assistantship. She still has not gotten a hard-copy admission package. But the HC letter is what we have been holding our breath for.
PA use to go to top 200 HC kids, so congrats. Keep in mind (should you decide to enroll), it is like work-study, so that money will go into your kid’s bank account on a 1099. It doesn’t necessarily save YOU any money. My D17 was awarded this, and kept all the money, even though I worked it into my COA. It didn’t really reduce my spend at all. ? You may want to work out a different deal with your kid.
Sounds like my son may be going that route. Thanks for the response!