Gosh, didn’t see this one coming? How competitive is the Honors program at UK?
Have pretty impressive stats and NMF.
It’s actually very very competitive. I think there are a lot of NMF kids who do not make it in to Honors.
I had no idea it was so competitive.
How are Scholars Programs different from Honors?
I’m in the same boat, though my GPA isn’t all that impressive, I don’t really understand how they can pay you to go to school there because of your academic achievements, but then turn around and say that they aren’t good enough to get into their honors college… Oh well, at least they have departmental honors stuff and you can apply after Fall semester.
It’s actually not that surprising that it’s tougher to get into an Honors program at a good school than it is to become a NMF.
There’s some esteem for a school to note that they have “x” National Merit Finalists enrolled, but the reality is that it really only takes one good test for a student anywhere in the country to become a NMF, and that’s the PSAT they take during their Junior Year. The confirming SAT score is rather pedestrian and wouldn’t be enough to get a kid into many of the top schools. Honors programs likely don’t even consider NMF status, they look at the whole package (GPA, SAT/ACT, and EC’s).
NMF is incredible for kids that want to go to the schools that offer NMF $$, but in an of itself it’s not really an overly impressive achievement.
The essay is the most important part of the honors application for UK.
My son was just notified that he didn’t get in. His SAT was 2280, ACT 35, 2nd in his class. He devoted most of his time on essays for Amherst, Notre Dame, Stanford, etc. and not much time for safeties like UK and MSU.
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It’s actually not that surprising that it’s tougher to get into an Honors program at a good school than it is to become a NMF.
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Wow…this surprises me. Alabama (which is ranked 41 spots above UK) gives auto Honors College acceptances to all NMFs. The NMF just has to submit the app, but acceptance is assured for being NMF.
How many NMFs does Kentucky get? is it that hard to include them all in honors???
Well…if any of you “rejected honors” NMFs want to be in honors, then apply to Bama. You’ll get their big NMF award, and get honors. 
UK states very clearly that the essay is more important then test scores. I’m Not sure why they dont admit all NMF but it seems if the essay isn’t what they are looking for then it doesn’t matter.
I wouldn’t take the honors college rejection from Kentucky personally. Last year, if I recall correctly, there were about 1200 applicants for 400 spots. I think there were 114 National Merit Finalists in the Class of 2018, although I don’t know what percentage got into the honors program. I do know several NMFs who did not make it in, and many of my daughter’s friends in honors are not NMF or Singletary Scholars. Your experience at UK will not be diminished if you are not in the honors program. There is an older post on CC entitled [Honors College Nonsense](Honors College Nonsense - University of Kentucky - College Confidential Forums) that details an account of twins from Kentucky that one was accepted to honors, and one was not. Worth a read for an alternate opinion. Good luck with your decision.
if being in the honors college at UK doesn’t yield much, then I guess it’s not important.
At some other schools, it’s a bigger deal. Not only are the HC classes smaller, but the honors students get Priority Registration, which is a huge deal. Getting “first dibs” at classes means that you’re less likely going to get some undesirable class-time and more likely going to get the prof you wanted. HC students can be in the Honors Dorms, which is also a nice option. My kids liked the very interesting HC course selections…class sizes of 15 students made for more interesting discussions. Instead of desks, they often sat around a big oval-like conference table.
I just read the UK thread about honors college nonsense at that univ.
That father has two outstanding twins, neither are attending UK. Both twins had outstanding stats, both NMFs. One is at Notre Dame and the other is at Duke. One was accepted to UK honors, the other was not. Obviously, the thought is that kids who can get into those schools should be qualified for honors at UK.
The dad looked into it and it seems that the son’s essays were just average. It is silly to place that much importance on an essay unless the UK HC really is only interested in liberal arts type of kids.
I know that my younger son would have failed at the “having an outstanding essay” part (unless he cheated and had extensive outside help, which i KNOW a lot of kids DO!!!)… S2 was a ChemE major. He’s an “ok writer”, but nothing spectacular. To think he would have been denied for that reason would have irritated the @#$% out of me. lol This child is now in med school, graduated Summa Cum Laude in ChemE 3.99 GPA, so he’s hardly someone who shouldn’t have been in honors.
putting that much emphasis on the essay essentially is telling the engineering type students …Need not apply. lol. I know that there are STEM kids that are super writers, my older son is one.
Not only is it silly to put that much emphasis on an essay, we all know how much outside help many kids get with their essays. Unless they lock the applicants up in a room and have them write their essays there, essays have become a total joke.
That thread also intimated that there is some Affirmative Action going on with acceptances, as well as “regional diversity” going on.
I prefer that an HC has clear standards for acceptance. If you have XX stats, you will be admitted.
I have to respectfully disagree. I know that University of South Carolina also puts great emphasis on the essays (7 of them) to get in. My daughter missed NMF by 1 point in a state where the qualifying score is much higher than others. She really wanted to go to USC so she spent time on the essays. She knows people with lesser stats in the honors and ones with higher stats not in the honors. We all know that a grade point can vary greatly from one school to another. At our public high school (which is very highly regarded) the top 60% graduate with over a 4.0 and the top do the class is graduating with OVER a 5.0!!! So a 4.3 or so really isn’t the same as the school that my daughter went to!
The percentage of kids getting admitted to USC and UK’s honors is also very much smaller than Alabama’s honors college. At USC it is around 5% and I believe Alabama’s is close to 25%.
Shame on anyone that uses outside “help” for essays. I didn’t even read my daughters and I know she didn’t have anyone else read them.
I feel the same way about the outside help for essays. People around here are paying a “College Adviser” $500 an hour to help with essays. 
@mom2collegekids, UK Honors students do get priority registration, which is a real benefit, and they do have a chance to live in an honors dorm living learning program. Last year, (2013-2014) the dorm option was a huge benefit because there were only two new dorms. Now there are several new dorms, and from what I understand, the honors dorm is not that big of a benefit.
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Of course they do. I wasn’t suggesting that they don’t.
My dd is a NMF. We visited both UK and UA, and on paper both looked like good deals for NMF and had lots to offer for my dd’s interests. We really would have been happy if we’d liked UK better, as it is half the distance from home, full ride for 4 years (as opposed to a mostly-ride for 5 at UA), and we love, loved one (important specialty department) professor there. The honors rep who met with us seemed reluctant to make time to visit with us, and seemed to strangely boast that they’d turned down 20+ NMF students last year for the Honors College. It wasn’t an awful visit, and UK surely has lots to offer, but the UA visit was night-and-day different. UA made dd (and I) feel so welcomed, encouraged, and confident that dd would get support and opportunities. My dd did get in to the UK honors, but doesn’t plan to attend. (She is a great writer, great stats, and from former CC threads, she knew to take the application seriously.)
Anyway, the attitude of “exclusivity” at the Honors College at UK was a huge turn-off to us compared to the UA attitude of “UA and the Honors College offer these great opportunities, and we want to make them available to everyone who could benefit from them . . . So, if you’ve got the stats, you have proven you can benefit from and offer benefits to the Honors College, so our doors are wide open. Come on in!! (And, BTW, don’t sweat it if you don’t have the stats right now, just kick butt your first year, and then come on in!”) At UK, the Honors College exclusivity felt more like an attempt to create an arbitrary sense of elitism, which felt contrived and rather ugly. It is understandable that any Ivy or similar high-status college has to be somewhat arbitrary in excluding many/most applicants since their resources are limited and they can only have so many students. The same rationale doesn’t apply to a big school Honors College, and so their exclusivity seems pretentious and simply unkind. To me. And to dd.
Needless to say, dd is excited to be enrolling at UA, and I am happy to cover the extra costs and handle the more complex travel logistics . . . (She hasn’t totally closed the door to UK or to our local uni yet, but she is enrolled, confirmed, registered for orientation and housing at UA . . . So unless something bizarre changes in the next few months, she’s Bama Bound and very happy about it.) I hope that UK’s Honors College shifts their approach for future classes, because the location and the overall school has much to offer. But, we’re super excited about UA.
This is definitely an example of a school not realizing how to reap great students! If UK has 400 honor spots (is that for incoming class?) and has 115 NMF/S, it seems a bit ludicrous to not admit those students automatically to honors. If someone missed NMF/S and writes a great essay to get into honors, great. Maybe UK will lose enough potential students to ‘wise up’. And maybe not.
@Joe2015 Sorry you didn’t make it. If you have extra units you are trying to fill up, you could maybe get a minor in something interesting? What are you majoring in?
The idea that a NMF wouldn’t get priority registration because he didn’t get into honors would be annoying.