<p>hey for those who got into the honors college could you tell me ur stats? Maybe some advice on application techniques or the way they admissions work for the fall 2006 applicants?</p>
<p>this years application has changed from last. There was no essay before. </p>
<p>d's stats
ACT 30 uw gpa 3.98 w gpa 4.42
2 APs both 4s</p>
<p>Their website says you're a NM Finalist or Semi-Finalist, you're automatically admitted into their Honors College & also guaranteed on-campus housing as desired. You can read more about it on <a href="http://www.honors/arizona.edu/NationalScholars/%5B/url%5D">http://www.honors/arizona.edu/NationalScholars/</a></p>
<p>Anyone in UA's Honor's College? What do you think of it? Feedback in general about UA would be great!!! We're seriously thinking about this school but have never visited yet (live in HI & hard to pull out of school to visit right now).</p>
<p>My daughter has completed 2 years in the honors college, next week she is getting an award for honors. She likes the UofA. Last year she lived in San Pedro the new honors dorm and now lives in La Alalda. She likes being able to register for classes before other students, an honors perk. Her only hang up is the movies in Tucson don't offer a student discount. The new union is a plus and there are plenty of new dorms. The campus is beautiful red book building. The mall is green grass that runs down the campus that many days bands play or other entertainment.</p>
<p>Thanks--any info on why she switched from San Pedro to La Alalda? Any more feedback about UA? What other schools had she considered & why did she ultimately choose UA?</p>
<p>She felt as jr she wanted to get out of the dorms. It is a growing up thing. Tulane, U of Florida, U of Miami and Zona were her schools. All offered her merit aid Tulane 14k, Miami 15K, UF full and books and Zona
in and out of state waiver.</p>
<p>She chose Zona because it was out of state, too many people she knew were going to FL. With the honors college you can register for class early. At a state school this is important.</p>
<p>She liked that many of the General Education classes were smaller than other UF. At UF, 500 in one class and break out in to 18 people the next class didn't cut it. Her biggest class was 90 with 15 in breakout.</p>
<p>Also the online reviews of classes with each professor are great. </p>
<p>Only by going and looking each campus is so different. My D loved Tulane, but the 13K a year for us to pay and she plans to go to law school. Now we talk about the what ifs from Katrina.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your insights. Glad to hear your daughter is enjoying her experience at UA (never heard of it referred to as Zona before, but I guess it makes sense). Glad they don't have those humungous classes--hubby isn't too interested in Florida because of their more frequent weather/storm exposure. He's very impressed so far from all we've heard about UA. I love their generousity. Not sure whether he will go to grad school, but told him the money we save can be used toward that or other things.
He was somewhat attracted to Tulane, but not any more.
HImom</p>
<p>Just wanted to say that my D, a NMS finalist, really likes it at the U of A Honors College. We are middle income as of the last 2 years and didn't have any assests, savings or retirement and didn't qualify for fed aid. D based her college decision on the merit aid offered by the colleges she was accepted at and the opportunities available and the location and climate of the school. (Living in Alaska her entire life, location was extremely inportant to her.) She is a physics and astronomy dual major and is being challenged in her calculus 3, intro to linear algebra, and honors physics classes. </p>
<p>D looks forward to hiking in the nearby mountains whenever she can but also loves the sunshine and the birds singing in the orange trees outside of her bathroom window every morning. </p>
<p>The environment in the honors physics class is like her Summer Science Program at Ojai - full of super intelligent kids. One person even got a 100 on their first honors physics intro to mechanics exam! I advised her to take only small classes her first semester there. (She took a number of college classes as a dual enrolled homeschool highschool student but none had more than 60 in the class. The idea of huge classes scared her away from applying to larger schools until she heard about the Honors colleges that offer many smaller classes to the honors students.) Many General Ed's and non-honors intro courses can have 150 to 300 students in them so you have to look out for the number of students per class when you register online. Their catalog is only available online but is already listing the classes and course schedule for the spring.</p>
<p>She begins the intro astronomy class for majors next semester.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your insights. My son is taking his 2nd year of AP physics right now & so far seems to like it pretty well. He's thinking of engineering & we are attracted by the good funding UA offers NMSF & NMF students. Glad to hear your daughter is settling well at school--must be quite a change for her from homeschooling. Son has mostly had classes of 20-35--band is the only class which has had 70-100. </p>
<p>UA has been flatteringly attentive, but we will see where son applies & gets in & what kinds of packages he has to choose among.
HImom</p>
<p>Here are a few quotes from D's UA college blog that may give you some more insights.
9/27/05
Hey, I should be doing calc homework, but I just thought I'd type on here for a sec. I'm leaving for bible study in 5 minutes anyway. </p>
<p>So basically all I wanted to say is that vector calculus is so cool because you can do all sorts of awesome stuff with it! Like, just a couple minutes ago I was calculating the average temperature in a room, and then I was calculating the total amount of mosquito larvae in on section of a swamp. I learned double integrals today in calc and it's so cool because you can find volumes of all sorts of weird objects. super cool stuff! </p>
<p>Not much else to say, except that the hike on saturday was super fun, and I'm going up to mt lemmon this weekend too for the retreat. </p>
<p>9/21/05
"I went to an astronomy club meeting tonight. The meeting itself wasn't that amazing, except for the fact that I realized how nerdy we are; that was pretty funny! The cool thing was that I usually don't like "club meetings" or whatever because they're stupid and all you do is sit around and talk about random stuff. I really didn't want to go, but I'm glad I went because I got to hang out with some other people from my physics class. So now I'm glad that I at least know some people in the club."</p>
<p>9/21/05
"I went on a night hike on Sunday! It was so amazing! It was a full moon so we didn't even have to use our flashlights. We could see our moon shadows. :-) It was in the desert, but it wasn't too hot... maybe like 75 or something. Still pretty warm. I could see the saguaro cacti and the ocotillo and the prickly pear cacti silloettes in the moonlight. It was so beautiful! I got to see a tarantulla! I was so excited, cuz I had been hoping to see one. ;-) I think we hiked about 6 miles. Were clipping along, and it took us about 3 1/2 hours including a few breaks. The people were really friendly. It was with the hiking club. I definitely want to go on some more hikes with them. This Saturday I'm going up to Mount Lemmon again with some people from my dorm. I'll definitely bring my camera up there and bring back some pictures. It'll be so nice to get away from the concrete and the heat. Hopefully the weather is nice and we don't get any thunderstorms. I think the monsoon season is supposed to be ending soon.</p>
<p>9/14/05
God is so Awesome!!!!!
Okay, so this morning I took two tests and a quiz. I had a test in vector calc, a quiz in physics, and a test in linear algebra. I totally bombed the linear algebra test and the physics quiz [She ended up getting an A in that physics quiz.] and I was feeling really depressed and discouraged about it... I was like, "Oh no! Why is this happening? Maybe I'll have to drop linear algebra so I won't get a C and lose my scholarship.. blah blah blah..." Yeah, I was seriously considering dropping the class! Then tonight after the resident hall council meeting, the faculty adviser brought in a couple astronomy/physics grad students and I got to talk to them for about an hour! It was so awesome! They were telling me about their research and they told me about the classes they took here for physics, math and astronomy. Get this, one of them was a quadruple major in physics, astronomy, math, and computer science! He said he's taking an average of 19 credits per semester! How insane is that! But anyway, they were both really cool and told me about what teachers are good and what ones not to get and then they told me about the classes I'm gonna be taking. </p>
<p>So the point of all this, and this is where God comes in, is that they told me how important linear algebra is for physics and astronomy. One of the guys was telling me how matrices are involved in pretty much everything, and how you do different kinds of integrals with matrices, and you use them alot in programming and in quantum theory. Sooo, yah, now I'm not going to drop linear algebra, but I'm going to stick with it and learn it so I'll be able to understand stuff in the future. </p>
<p>Now the only thing I'm worried about is how I'm going to fit in all my stupid gen ed classes when all i want to take is math, astronomy, physics, and computer science courses.... Maybe I should have gone to a tech school after all..." </p>
<p>9/02/05
Wow! I've been so busy this week. Let me give you a typical schedule: wake up at 6:30, shower, eat breakfast do devotions, then go to calc class at 8, physics at 9, linear algebra at 11. eat lunch with friends from linear algebra until 12, come home, do spanish homework and whatever else i need to do until spanish class at 1. come home, do homework until 5, take a break, eat something, do homework until 12, go to bed, wake up 6.5 hours later, start all over again. I'm so exhausted!!!</p>
<p>Wow, it sounds like she's having a great time & has adjusted well. I know my son would GREATLY prefer later classes--if he could have his 1st class at say 11am, he'd be in heaven. He'd probably like it best if he can wake about 10+ minutes before class (now he gets out of bed 5 minutes before we leave for school). Thanks for all this info--I'll share it with him when he's in the mood to talk & think about colleges.</p>
<p>Momof 4--</p>
<p>Glad to hear of your daughter's positive experiences. My son is interested in
physics/astronomy also. Glad to hear the program is challenging. </p>
<p>Does you daughter live in an honors dorm? How does she like it? </p>
<p>How are her Gen Ed classes - I guess she would be in honors sections of those also?</p>
<p>UA has a scholars weekend invitational in the spring. They pay for the student's flight, room, and board for two nights and introduce the prospective students to staff and students in the Honors College. If your son is a NMS semifinalist or an Achievement scholar then he will probably get an invitation to attend one of these. D said she could totally see herself as a student at UA once she visited it...</p>
<p>UA has mostly day time classes and some correspondence classes. Evening classes are marked so they stand out in their online catalog as they are rare... Only about 7,000 students out of their 36,000 students enrolled live on campus. There are a number of Honors dorms. D likes her honors dorm and gets along well with her roommate but found that the science majors tend to hang together in another dorm. Having found no other physics majors/astro majors in her dorm, she may move to the other dorm next year.</p>
<p>UA Tucson Honors Dorm life: D has a double room in a 3 story honors dorm made of brick. Although it has extralong bunk beds with rather hard matresses, she likes having a sink and a small refrigerator in the room. (Not all Honors Dorms are the same.) They are allowed to have their own microwave ovens. Internet service is provided to each room along with one desk and lamp per student. A laundry room is on one floor and an additional study room and larger kitchenette is located elsewhere in the building. (They buy there own laptops.) There are small courtyards in several of the Honors dorms and many buildings have the red Spanish tiles for roofing. (This is all from her description as we haven't the money to go see it ourselves.) </p>
<p>She has an RA on her floor and there is also a residential faculty advisor who doesn't live in the building but who is another contact for the students. (See additional note above from her blog.) This same faculty member went on her most recent hike up Mount Lemon with students from her coed dorm. </p>
<p>D is a serious student and was very worried about dorm life and the idea of having a roommate that she couldn't choose. She is very thankful to have the UA Honors College dorm arrangement and is thrilled to have a serious roommate who does not party with drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. She too, plans to abstain from premarital sex. D couldn't have picked a nicer and more compatible roommate! The UA asks you to choose if you want a smoker or nonsmoker for a roommate. Except for the smoking versus nonsmoking question, they do not match you up with a roommate but assign you to rooms and roommates on a random basis. You can give them your first choice of dorms and can request a particular roommate but D knew no one before going there.</p>
<p>The students receive their mail, packages, etc. right there in the dorm. The desk attendant can sign for UPS packages and leaves a slip for the students to pick up packages at their convenience... Students bring their own room phone (one phone line per room) and have free local calls. They make their own long distance phone call arrangements. D doesn't have a cell and has to dial her own UA telephone access code followed by her prepaid phone card numbers followed by the actual long distance phone number when calling us. She says she ends up dialing about 40 numbers to call long distance and would love to do away with the phone card. A cell phone is on her wish list but we can't afford the extra monthly phone payments so phone card it is until then...</p>
<p>D has had a dorm get together with another Honors dorm twice, I think. She has not mentioned any parties but did say that some kids were hollering one night in the hallway right by the quiet study room in her dorm. She didn't know if it was always noisy like that on that particular floor or what... D usually studies in her room or at various places around campus.</p>
<p>She says the campus has all of its lights turned toward the earth so as to not interfere with night observations in the observatory on campus. As a result, when it's dark, the campus does not seem lit up enough to make her feel real safe. Girls are instructed to not go around campus alone after dark. Since the classes are day time classes, this isn't too much of a problem. Thefts of bicycles are the most common crime. She loves the campus with the flowers, orange trees, palm trees, lawn, and view of mountains.</p>
<p>Having found out after the fact that one dorm seems to be the unofficial Honors science dorm, D may switch to that dorm next fall - just to be near fellow physics students who enjoy studying together. She hasn't met any physics or astronomy majors in her Honors dorm.</p>
<p>D has found quite a few very conservative girls like herself in her dorm and has become active in the Intervarsity Club on campus, two weekly Bible studies, Sunday morning church services off campus, a South town tutoring service for the poor through the Intervarsity Club and will probably get involved with the astronomy and physics and outdoor clubs when she has the time available to attend their meetings. D says there is never a lack of something to do and wishes she could do more outside of her studies.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. It sounds like your daughter has found a good "niche," and UA has a lot of promise. Will see how enthusiastic son gets about it. He also likes physics & computer science. Also seems to have a knack for economics, but it's his 1st year in it, so we'll see.</p>
<p>Glad to be of help Himom. Feel free to ask more questions. D says she is doing well in everything but her Linear Algebra. Her previous college algebra prof at the college in our home town skipped the entire chapter containing matrices (86 pages). She is still trying to play catch up in her linear algebra class as a result. She urges all students in algebra 2 classes and college algebra classes to learn matrices well if they plan to go on with math...</p>
<p>Sorry to hear your daughter is handicapped by her HS teacher's decision to skip the matrix chapter. It's really too bad when teachers make these decisions that have later consequences and make the kids play "catch up." I'm glad that math & science are among the HS's greatest strengths & feel my kids will have a solid foundation in it when they start college (tho my daughter has never loved math the way my son does).
Will mention matrices to my son & linear algebra--hopefully it will ring bells in his head (don't remember much about all of that myself).</p>
<p>UA Gen Ed's, Math and Honors classes</p>
<p>Gen Ed's
D says many freshmen do not like their English profs. No specifics as to why. D got a 4 on the AP English language so will only be required to take one semester of English - as long as she takes the highest Honors English. Otherwise she can take 2 semesters of a different Honors English class. D will take highest honors English class in spring or next fall.</p>
<p>D signed up for Fine Arts Music 101A but quickly found out that the 1 credit beginning piano that is supposed to fulfill a Tier Two Fine Arts Gen Ed requirement is only for absolute beginners. Having taken 6 years or more of piano she dropped this course before it began... Too bad, because she had been looking forward to getting back into playing the piano again after dropping it in her sophomore year of highschool. </p>
<p>D took 10 years of ballet (classical) and wanted to try out beginning Modern Dance (1 credit) which can also be used for the Fine Arts Tier Two requirement. She has been utterly disapointed because for the first month they never even moved out of their invisible 5 foot diameter circle of space on the floor. :( She says she gets more exercise just walking around campus than she does in her 1 credit dance class which meets 2 times/week. There were only supposed to be 30 students in the class but way more students ended up getting in so maybe the lack of space is part of the problem... The teacher is adding in dance history for which they've had at least one easy quizz. Easy A but not what she was looking for in a dance class. </p>
<p>Students are required to take 2 courses each from 3 different areas of studies for Tier 1 Gen Ed's and 1 course each from 3 areas for Tier 2 Gen Ed's. D scored 5 on AP European History exam. A 4 or 5 on AP Euro exam gives you automatic 6 credits in Gen Ed's. AP US History will give you some credits too. </p>
<p>Students are required to take 1 year of foreign language. D got a 4 on AP Spanish language so this req. is met... D thought of getting a minor in Spanish. She's in a 6th semester Spanish class grammar and comp and finds it pretty easy. The neat thing about the UA Spanish program is that they put the native Spanish speakers into classes of their own so that they can be sufficiently challenged by each other. I was worried that she would have to compete with many native Spanish speakers but that is not the case. After the 3rd year of college Spanish classes, native Spanish speakers are mixed together with nonnative speakers. </p>
<p>Natural Science Gen Ed is automatically fulfilled when majoring in a science.</p>
<p>HONORS classes:
Honors College suggests that you take 1 honors class per semester to earn X amount of Honors credits by the time you graduate. They advise you not to take more than 2 Honors classes per semester.</p>
<p>Honors Physics Intro to Mechanics: very challenging. Students are expected to learn the textbook on their own while the prof gives very interesting lectures on extended topics. She really likes her prof. After discovering that his office hours were not convenient to all students, he quickly added additional hours. She has a nonhonors physics class lab because they ran out of space in the honors lab but is thrilled to say that her TA in lab is excellent. </p>
<p>Honors Gen Chem lecture has 140 students and non-honors Gen Chem has 300 in lecture according to website. Most honors classes have much smaller numbers but this one is an exception.</p>
<p>There are plenty of honors classes offered that can be found at a particular webpage. I'll post it here if I can find it. <a href="http://garnet.ccit.arizona.edu/schedule.cgi?fd-Honorszz061zOpen%5B/url%5D">http://garnet.ccit.arizona.edu/schedule.cgi?fd-Honorszz061zOpen</a></p>
<p>Other UA courses
Math:
Vector Calculus or Calculus 3 non-honors: Very challenging and lots of homework. D spends 2 hours every week night studying for this.</p>
<p>Linear algebra: difficult if you haven't had a good background in matrices in previous algebra 2 or college algebra courses. Lots of homework and for some reason the homework assignments have been out of sinc with the lectures. (Lecture on new topics has been following homework due date - resulting in students having to figure out new material on their own and students being graded on their ability to figure out new material independently.) Prof doesn't have office hours during her "free" time. Math tutoring lab has 20 plus students seeking help at once with 2 or 3 tutors attending. D is going to go PAY for a tutor. Only class she is worried about.</p>
<p>Hope this all helps someone. Although she was accepted at 20 good schools, many which were rated much higher, she is so glad that she picked UA!!</p>
<p>Point of clarification. ;) I don't want the lack of studying matrices to reflect on my d's homeschooling. Matrices were not in D's homeschool algebra 1 and 2 math curriculum. Her highschool Saxon algebra 2 book, taken in 9th grade, didn't include it. (Algebra 2 An Incremental Development 2nd ed. by John H. Saxon Jr. c. 1997, pub. by Saxon. Student text and solution manual, Homestudy packet including answer key and tests.) The Saxon highschool math series has just put out a whole new edition c.2005 which I'm sure will include everything currently taught on this topic.</p>
<p>It was her local college professor with whom she had Intro to College Algebra (while a concurrent homeschooled highschool student) who skipped the entire chapter containing matrices. (College Algebra 7th ed. by Gustafson and Frisk, c. 2001, student text and solutions manual 7th ed. 2001 by M.G. Welden. Taken at Matanuska-Susitna College campus.) </p>
<p>In September I checked D's college algebra book used as a 10th grade dual enrolled college student and when I saw that that skipped chapter contained 86 pages, practically a fourth of her textbook, I was pretty angry with that college prof for omitting the material. He's no longer there at our local college and even quit one week before they took their final exams. I sent her the Gustafson book which she had really liked and the solutions manual so that she will hopefully play catch up and bring up her linear algebra grade.</p>