My son applied for 300 internships this summer. I helped with the apps. Nowhere is there a place to note Honors on the applications.
Honors is for the kids - it can offer smaller classes, nicer housing, mainly early priority registration.
Companies don’t know or care.
It could be good for those who want to write and read more. Not saying it’s not good but most aren’t in it - and there’s still opportunities to stand out if he seeks them out.
The key here is “can.” At the schools where it does offer all three, plus selected professors, honors is great. At most schools it amounts to extra busy work that as @tsbna44 points out, employers don’t care about. They WILL care about Cum Laude+.
Excellent point. Not every honors program is worth the pursuit. Just like primary & secondary gifted programs vary. Some are accelerated with busy work (stressful) and others go deep and are thoughtfully planned & stimulating.
Not promoting the stressful kind (At All) but successful completion of an honors program could be good for grad school apps (v. employment).
Honors programs vary in offerings and quality, and what they add to the experience also depends on what major the student has chosen.
The Honors dorm and the guaranteed space in the library (because it tends to be overcrowded at times) would be very useful to a smart and perhaps ADD kid because the cohort is more focused, the library helps you focus, etc.
@Cela71
Wondering whether UCSC (where he did get in and didn’t reply by April 1 for the WL) might be another possibility, were you able to do anything (email/call, or at least talk about it?)
Not sure it’s better for an ADD kid of course and no hope of Honors there. But it’s definitely a strong university that’s apparently closer to home, and this way he’d feel he has a choice between SDSU and UCSC.
Can you schedule an in-person SDSU visit?
You could ask how he feels between SDSU, UCM, St Mary’s, and a gap year. Perhaps it’ll clear things up for him.
I think getting early registration is most helpful for freshmen. After that, usually majors get first crack at classes.
One of my kids had priority registration because she was an athlete. It really was never a problem. Her second semester of freshman year was messed up because of a form the registrar didn’t have (misfiled, a mistake on the school’s part) and daughter was all upset because there were only 2 sections of this required lab and the first one was filled and the second one was during her practice time. I told her to just register for the second one and let the coach know. A miracle occurred and within an hour there was room in the first section!
My other child had dead last registration priority for her freshman year. It turned out her department reserved all the classes she needed and the only ‘bad’ class time she got was for a recitation group (4 pm on Fridays!) for a history class (she ended up with history as a major!) We were able to move that to an earlier time, added another class close in time, so it worked out to be a pretty good schedule.
At a big public school, it may make a difference but there WILL be classes for him to take. At the smaller private schools, I don’t think priority registration matters that much.
@Cela71 : how are you today? How is your son?
Sending good thoughts 
By far, the biggest perk of most honors programs is priority reg. (my son was in the Chico honors and didn’t like it because it was too touchy-feely - the program has been reworked since) You get much better selection of times and teachers - which is great but, not life changing.
SDSU has grown selective enough that the student next to you in any class, dorm or dining hall is bright and motivated - or they wouldn’t have been admitted.
https://asir.sdsu.edu/enrollment-data/new-student-profile-enrollment/
The only bad choice here is one that puts your family unnecessarily in debt.
Where will your daughter be going?
We are having a long talk about the his ability to focus and carve out his niche in a big environment. We didn’t put him in private HS - in the end - due to money. I feel like we are doing to to him again (he told us we are) But we had a good talk about the outcome to send him to his huge private HS. He felt that he would have been too coddled. So we are discussing why this time, the small school choice would be different/better.
When I went to SMU undergrad (89-93) it was great bc student registered by ss#. Being from NY, mine started with a ‘’0” so I always registered first!!
I do like that about LMU. I don’t know if I will pay the $$$ to get him tested. It’s a fortune and he doesn’t want to take medication or have accommodations. I talked to him last night about proceeding as if he has it, and to realize the way he studies, and what works best for him and to make self accommodations. I realized that I had been doing this my whole life before I was diagnosed. Shutting my office door, not answering clients calls until I was ready to focus on their issue, shutting off all alerts on electronics.
I’m not always the fasted responses, but when I do respond, you will get a very thorough response!
The admission cycle has been so weird for some universities that I foresee the list of colleges that miscalculated yield is going to include quite a few surprises and good bargains. So he could deposit somewhere and have his commonapp ready to go by May 10: nothing to lose. If he gets a better fit at an affordable price, all win! If he gets something that’s okay but maybe not better than SDSU, then he has a choice and doesn’t feel like he’s settling. Finally, if nothing works out*, he’s not lost anything.
*I doubt it though. So many college admissions are currently pulling their figurative hair out wondering what’s going on with students, just like students are doing the same wrt colleges, that I’m quite confident he’d get an offer that either he’d feel is equivalent to sdsu and makes him feel better about it, or a better fit.
Someone posted this on another thread ans I thought of you:
How are we…well that is a very open ended question!
Went to Pepperdine-finally in person tour. A little too small, tons of personal support. My son admitted that they may coddle him a little too much. Religious aspect didn’t seem bad. They say 50/50 political and social beliefs, but who knows. We lean liberal. Have friends off all colors, gender preferences etc., while occasionall going to church.
He still loves LMU. I (not my husband) am having serious discussions about coddling him and what he expects realistically for a big v smaller school. We are asking him to walk us through all the academic programs and show us why one school is a better fit than the other.
Husband and I are heading to a therapist tonight! Husband thinks anxiety/inattentive ADD is all BS. Old school parenting style.
I am updating my resume and applying for jobs to pay for college. Not a bad thing. We have a middle school daughter as well.
Looking scholarships and financial plans. Trying to work it all out.
How many days left until May 1?
Great info.
We threw in an application in to UCLA for ■■■■■ and giggles! They actually came back and said they liked him but wanted to know why grades weren’t higher. He wrote and essay about his best friend’s suicide and how it triggered panic attacks where he would have to leave class etc. Guess that wasn’t good enough bc they still rejected him;(
Have you talked with the school psychologist at his school? I know there’s not much time left, but some of the preliminary work can be done there. Much of the assessment for ADD is simply the completion of questionnaires.
LMU also provides student psychological services at no cost. If he were a student there, I would begin with them. Will insurance not cover at least some of the cost of an evaluation?
If your son makes a convincing argument regarding LMU program are you and H prepared to say yes? I admit, my H and I would accommodate as much as we could if happiness was a factor. Not sure who you are concerned might coddle him — school or you and H?
Did you give him clarity on how much you were willing to spend? Is he getting conflicting info? Sounds like counseling is a good idea — I would try to get on the same page so everyone is clear about budget and the rest.
I don’t understand what “coddling” means.
What I mean by coddling is, having someone watch him and pick up the pieces when he forgets abs assignment or observing that he needs extra help without him asking for it.
He still needs to be proactive. In the real working world, he would just get fired from a job. So I want to make sure that he can self identify his own issues and be able to act on them.
Did you have my car bugged the other day?
That is exactly the problem. We didn’t address finances from the start. We encouraged him to apply to wherever he wanted and we would wait to see the acceptance offers. I guess we were hoping for more merit, or more state schools that he loved.
We got U of Washington earliest (and LMU) so we thought we at least had one out of state public tuition at $50k close to $50, he can go. We are trying to get LMU to match USD’s merit offer.
UCs were very impacted this year, and it sounds like we were very lucky to get SDSU.
SDSD comes to around $30k.
If we can get LMU close to $50 (including work study and some other nonsense LMU gave) then he can go. Appeal letter sent. Covid impacted our business by over 50% of 2019. Fingers crossed.
Ha ha. First, hugs to your family. Maybe just put it out there to beloved son: it was a crazy year, in hindsight we should have been more clear, we’re proud of you and your choices.
Assuming appeal goes to financial aid. Does it make sense to also contact his admissions rep and say, if you can match USD our son will commit today?