<p>This is a serious question that deserves discussion without name-calling, etc.</p>
<p>I (a parent, and an educational snob) think state u. honors colleges are a great development and a great option for a lot of kids.</p>
<p>If either of my kids had the choice -- one did, the other is a HS junior -- I would encourage them to go to an Ivy-type institution over a SUHC. But I don't think it's such a clear choice.</p>
<p>I would consider five factors: cost, the students, the faculty, the institution itself, and social/etc.</p>
<p>Cost: The statistics may tell you that Ivies are worth the cost, but I think a closer examination shows that people with equivalent SAT scores do equivalently well economically no matter where they go. So cost is an enormous plus for the SUHCs.</p>
<p>Students: Depending on the school, the students in the HC are probably equivalent to the average students at an Ivy. But way, way less diverse geographically. And fewer of them -- a couple hundred per class vs. 1-2,000. And while I am sure that there are some knock-your-socks-off superstars at SUHCs, the Ivy-type institutions still attract a much greater number of them, and in a variety of fields (i.e., not just high test-scorers, but music, theater, other stuff besides athletics). Plus, there is no need to segregate the honors kids at the Ivies, because they're all honors kids.</p>
<p>Faculty: Only a few state universities have faculties that match the Ivies' for breadth and depth. Michican and Berkeley, certainly; UVa, UCLA, UNC, Wisconsin, Texas kinda maybe, depending on the field. If you know what you want to study and a state school is really strong in it, then that's fine. But the Ivies are the Ivies in part because of their superb faculties, and if you are the kind of person who can take advantage of that it's a tremendous opportunity. The SUHCs tend to offer closer relationships with a few faculty, but I don't know how well it works beyond the faculty specifically associated with the HC. Faculty at the Ivies tend to assume that Undergraduate X is going to turn out to be smart and interesting; that's unfortunately not so true at state universities (besides, Berkeley, Michigan, etc.).</p>
<p>Institutions: One of the other things that makes the Ivies the Ivies is their enormous relative wealth. They have a lot of resources per student. (Some of that goes into the faculty, of course; no double-counting.) Again, if you can take advantage of it, that's a real plus.</p>
<p>Social, etc.: This really depends on who you are. Other than Duke and Stanford, the Ivy types really don't have big-time athletics. And Greek life tends to be weak/less important. The Ivies are smaller than most state universities, so there are definitely fewer kids overall, and less economic diversity, and fewer of any one group (so you may get tired of hanging out with the 10 other Bulgarian-Americans there). But if you like discussing Kant or Hofstadter while drinking, you are much more likely to find that at an Ivy.</p>
<p>For what it's worth, a friend recently had one daughter go through Duke and another through PSU's Honors College. Both were happy, both loved it, both got good opportunities and have good jobs (the Dukie much better paid, but reflecting her greater interest in getting paid). There was no question in his mind (or theirs) that the educational challenges and quality at Duke were much higher -- really in a completely different league.</p>