<p>hey, just wanted to know the difference between college park scholars and the university honors program. which one is "better", and is it possible to get into both?</p>
<p>also, what is gemstone and humanities honors like..if i'm a prospective business major, would gemstone/humanities honors be practical for me?</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>You can't get into both because honors picks which students they want first and then scholars gets to pick from the rest. Students in honors generally have better stats.</p>
<p>honors humanities is pretty pointless for a business major. gemstone gives you exposure to working in teams (good for business) but is more science/engineering/researched-focused. if you get into the business school, try for the QUEST program your 2nd semester (business/engineering/comp sci team-based program, focusing on quality enhancement and development). a lot of students who rejected gemstone end up there. (myself included, so i'll admit a bias.)</p>
<p>i don't know about the "honors picks who they want first" thing....admittedly, honors students TEND to have better stats than scholars, but they're 2 completely different types of programs which look for different things in applicants.</p>
<p>so im into maryland.. business school... honors/honors humanities... its that weird? should i just do honors cuz humanities wouldnt help me? or would it be beneficial</p>
<p>Looking for different kinds of students?</p>
<p>Then generally what is honors looking for as opposed to scholars?</p>
<p>-say<em>you</em>will: don't automatically rule it out. honors humanities students have some required honors classes to take. therefore technically, they aren't able to take as many random honors seminars as a regular honors student. (although you could, if you wanted to pack your schedule.) however, if the humanities are something you're interested in, being in honors humanities would be a great way to explore that while being in the business school.</p>
<p>-eckie: since i don't work in the admissions office, i have no idea what they are "looking for". but the two programs are different, and i would assume that since scholars is more focused, they look for students with a lot of interest and/or talent in one of their specialty areas. scholars students take a class each semester with everyone in their program, and they live in the same building. it really is a "living-learning program" in the literal sense of the words.</p>
<p>honors is more broad and academic-based. students don't all take classes together. you have the opportunity to take honors seminars. (i assume you've been to the website and seen some of the topics they're offered on.) personally, i love honors. but it's hard to say that one of the programs is better than the other academic-wise.</p>
<p>i've heard all the same things you have: honors students tend to have higher scores. this may be true, but it's not the official way the university does things.</p>
<p>Good information, lindz0722. I asked this question in another thread and was glad to see it answered here... I was accepted to Scholars but a lot of my friends got Honors even though we're all about the same, so I was just wondering what they were looking for in particular when inviting people to programs.</p>
<p>I have to disagree... it's my understanding that Honors is a better program than Scholars. My guidance office (Maryland public school) has a data sheet from UMCP with avg. stats of admitted students into honors, scholars, and regular school, and the avg. stats of honors are much higher than scholars. Moreover, in years past, and my year as well, the top kids from my school applying to Ivies, Stanford, MIT, etc. all have gotten into Gemstone plus Honors, whereas lesser qualified kids generally have been accepted into Scholars. I hope I didn't sound pompous or anything, but this is just my understanding of it from personal experience.</p>
<p>kppy, yeah. Honestly, I was way surprised I got into Scholars and not Honors, just based upon stats alone. However, I have gotten the distinct impression Gemstone is pretty science based.</p>
<p>i looked into it because i was accepted to scholars and had no idea what that meant...if i understand correctly, scholars is more for kids who focused less on academics and more on extracurrics. in my case at least, this makes perfect sense.</p>
<p>Scholars kids still have good scores (according to them between a 3.7-4.3 weighted, 1270-1370 sat), but they're much more focused on things outside of school than the honors kids, who focused more on academics than activities throughout high school. </p>
<p>So yes, the honors program would have higher stats, but the scholars program is looking for a specific type of person.</p>
<p>can't be. my friend who admits his biggest flaw is ECs has a 4.7 and a 32 ACT and got scholars. I have no clue why. he has had one B since sophomore year and has taken like 20+ honor courses including like 9 APs. He wanted honors thinking it was better but he got scholars.</p>
<p>I knwo you can apply for honors when in the school so should he? He wants honors and I tell him after a couple semesters to re-apply for honors. They will look at his HS grades and in the mean time he can continue with his internship and get some good looking ECs.</p>
<p>The way it works is this. Honors students are selected first by admission officials. Gemstone students are selected from a pool of honors students based on scores, grades, and interests. Gemstone students tend to have higher slightly higher average grades, SAT's than average honors students. Scholar's students are selected from the remaining pool of applicants who have not been accepted to honors. </p>
<p>A top flight student with regard to SAT's and GPA will be put into honors not scholars no matter what their other extracurricular interests may be. However such items could make the difference between getting into Gemstones once a student has been selected into Honors.</p>