<p>Hello, I am pretty sure I am going to apply ED for AU '17 this Fall, but I have some questions about what I should shoot for.</p>
<p>1) The Honors Program…do they really do all of the activities that they say on the website (i.e Barbeques, Smores Nights, Quizbowls, etc.), and if they do, are non-honors students invited to them or are they clicky?</p>
<p>2) If you major at CAS, can you minor at SIS? I suppose I really just like the SIS building (I visited last week), do any CAS classes happen there?</p>
<p>Well, I can tell you that my D is a senior in the Honors program, and I don’t think she has participated in any of the Honors social events, at least not since freshman year, since her social life is focused on her friends, some of whom are in Honors and some of whom aren’t. I don’t get the sense that there is any meaningful demarcation between those in Honors and the rest of the students-they don’t wear beanies or anything! I’m sure the described events take place, and if they are only for Honors students, they likely won’t allow others to attend, but how many Honors students actually participate is quite another question–my guess is it’s mostly freshmen. D lived was on an Honors floor freshman year (don’t know if they still do that), but I really think it was kind of a silly concept–it’s not as if it was a nicer dorm (she got tripled besides), and there’s no reason to assume Honors students are necessarily going to be more compatible with one another than with non-Honors students. It’s not as if there’s some vast intellectual gulf between the two groups. D has enjoyed the Honors classes she has taken, though–but surprisingly has found them to be less challenging than regular classes in many instances.</p>
<p>Yes, you have a major in one school and a minor in another.</p>
<p>I imagine the lovely new SIS building is primarily used for SIS classes, but that’s hardly the sort of issue that should figure in your decision to apply ED or not. A classroom is a classroom.</p>
<p>The Honors students now all live in Hughes (not just an Honors floor, but an entire Honors building). Everyone always says that there’s great camaraderie in the Honors building and I’m very glad that my freshman son is living there this year. This morning the Honors students got to have breakfast with the President before the convocation. I expect that there will be plenty of honors events happening throughout the school year, and I believe that they would not be open to non-honors students. Also, the honors classes are significantly smaller in numbers as compared to non-honors classes. Most if not all Honors classes have a maximum of 20 students, as compared to up to 150 in some of the entry-level general education classes.</p>
<p>They have been planning some changes to the honors program–I believe they are going to make it quite a bit smaller, and it will require a separate application. Not sure if that’s going to be implemented for the next incoming class or not.</p>
I just don’t see the value in fostering elitism this way. Special programs and smaller classes are one thing–the students are being rewarded for their academic achievements (and do note that Honors students take only a few Honors courses each year–they can get stuck in big classes like everyone else). A fancier dorm as some colleges provide would also be a reasonable reward for achievement–but Hughes is like any other dorm, and for all I know is still tripling kids.</p>
<p>There’s no reason Honors students should be encouraged or expected to socialize so heavily with one another to the exclusion of others. Camaraderie can exist among dormmates regardless of the level of their academic prowess. It’s not as if Honors students necessarily have anything else in common other than higher grades/scores. They are in different schools, have different interests, come from different places. There are boys from the midwest majoring in biology who spend all their leisure time playing video games; there are girls from Manhattan majoring in theater who hit the DC clubs every weekend–the same variety as in any other dorm. Some are in Honors because they are naturally brilliant, some because they are grinds who will be spending every free minute studying, some, like my D, because they happen to test really well. They all aren’t going to become friends, nor is there any reason they should. Bottom line, I find the whole idea of segregated Honors housing kind of repellent.</p>
<p>My son is in Hughes but from what we can tell, he already has a number of friends in Anderson and/or Letts. So I don’t think there’s any evidence of the honors students are being discouraged from socializing with the non-honors students.</p>
<p>No, of course they aren’t being discouraged from socializing with others–but it seems clear they are being ENcouraged to socialize with one another, and I don’t know why this matters. I’d love to hear some justification for having an all-Honors dorm. And I wonder what the rest of the students think of the practice.</p>
<p>My daughter opted for Hughes last year, her freshman year. All but 15% of the Honors freshmen lived in Hughes last year, according to the university. There were a lot of activities planned just for honors, but you did not need to take part in most of them. My daughter made very close friends because of another program she was in and did not take part in many of the honors programs. Perhaps this would have been different if she liked her roommates, we will never know; she just stayed away from her dorm as much as possible until she was de-tripled.</p>
<p>There are two great parts of being in Honors. One, you get 10 phantom credits that allow you to register earlier than you normally would. This was great. The other was the Honors 300 courses - special classes with a max of 20 students of varying topics each semester. You can get in if you are not in Honors, but need written approval and I think they wait until they are sure that an Honors student will not take the remaining slots. My daughter found many of the topics of interest and took one of the courses last semester. She was one of the only freshmen in the class and made an impression on the professor, who she plans on taking another class with. </p>
<p>The only downside is that it becomes hard to find enough Honors classes to take in order to fulfill the two honors classes a semester requirement. This semester, my daughter is taking one Honors class but will catch up later in her studies, taking more of the Honors 300 courses. </p>
<p>As far as Hughes, while most of the freshmen live in south campus, my daughter liked the location of Hughes as it was close to most of her classes and the shuttle stops close by. Most of her friends lived in Letts and Anderson so living in Hughes does not alienate you from the rest of the students.</p>
<p>My son chose to do University College instead of honors…he wanted to be around people with more similar interests (economics). It was very rewarding for him.</p>
<p>What’s really funny is that almost all the males in his UC ended up joining the same fraternity. Very, very impressive group of young men who are doing great things. Very serious, focused group. They also know how to have a good time and not take themselves too seriously.</p>