<p>University of Southern California Thematic Option program takes 200 students a year and offers the 6 major gen ed requirements in small, interdisciplinary seminars taught by great professors. The writing courses include 1:1 attention. Another plus -- if a student qualifies for this, it is very likely that he or she qualifies for merit aid (automatic 50% tuition break for NMF, for example.) There is also an honors program in science.</p>
<p>My son is strongly considering the honors program at the U. of Alabama. We have been to the school twice, and he loves it. The classes are limited to 15 students. There are several branches to the program, including University, Computer-Based (which has just 40 freshmen a year) and International (one of the places you can study is Cuba). The honors housing is amazing -- suite-style, and every kid gets his own room -- a huge selling point with my son. UA has a great scholarship program, too. So you might check that out.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My daughter is in Pitt's Honors College. She's a sophomore, and this semester she took her first honors class.
[/quote]
LurkNessMonstor, that sounds bad. No honors courses freshman year?? So what are the advantages of Pitt's honors college? Could you tell us more about your daughter's experiences and what's good about the program?</p>
<p>As I mentioned, Pitt's honors college doesn't have a lot of rules. So unlike some other colleges, a Pitt honors student doesn't have to take a certain number of honors courses per semester or per year. If something tickles your fancy, you can take it. The upside of that is that kids aren't sitting in classes unless they really want to be there. My daughter looks at the honors schedule each semester, and finally this semester she saw something appealing in her major. Every kid is different. One kid who spoke at the honors open house said that he took almost all honors classes freshman year and nearly worked himself to death. So the honors college experience at Pitt is very individualized. The important thing is, the resources are there: small, intimate classes and dedicated profs.</p>
<p>The benefit of any honors college is that it attracts a cadre of high-achieving, serious students to a large state university. At Pitt, there is a full slate of honors activities so that the kids can get to know one another. There is an honors dorm, but my daughter's essay apparently didn't pass muster and she wasn't admitted. No problem: she loved her regular freshman dorm (Towers). And lots of other honors kids didn't want the honors dorm anyway. There is also a cool, two-story Hogwarts-looking honors center for the kids to hang in. </p>
<p>Pitt is definitely worth a look if your student is interested in some of its strong programs: East Asian languages and linguistics (and a lot of "unusual" languages are taught at Pitt), premed, predental, and any of the health sciences, physical therapy, nursing is a nationally ranked (and very difficult) program, psychology, engineering (a whole lot of money was just donated), etc. Let me know if you have any other questions about Pitt.</p>
<p>We are New Yorkers, and Pittsburgh wasn't even on the radar for us when my daughter started thinking about college. Mailings from the honors college began to arrive in junior or senior year of high school, and she gradually got interested. It doesn't hurt to give Pitt a look, especially if your student is in full-scholarship territory, which is 1450 and above CR and M (although who knows what will happen next year).</p>
<p>Michigan State's Honors College is great, but no one ever seems to give it much credit on here</p>
<p>first off, you don't have to do a senior thesis, which i didn't like about PSU Schreyers
then the requirements are minimal and there a lots of options (one honors class per semester)
can help profs w/ research and sign up for classes second, only after athletes
LOTS of scholarships to cover costs
can get 8000 or out-of-state tuition covered</p>
<p>it's awesome, but def. part of the larger partying university</p>