<p>How do you find out what the top honors colleges in the US are? Is there a website, or can anyone just post 5-10 that are good and public?</p>
<p>East coast bias here:
PSU- Schreyers Honors College (SHC) - Excellent program - very selective. Voted top honors college in the country by Readers Digest. My s is going there this fall!<br>
Maryland
UDel
I understand that UT Austin has a great honors program</p>
<p>Plan II Honors is highly regarded by many and the Business Honors Program at McCombs is usually considered on par with Stern/Ross/Haas/etc.</p>
<p>I don't even think there's a clear definition of "honors college," let alone a list.</p>
<p>For example, in Maryland, where I live, St. Mary's College of Maryland calls itself an "honors college," and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (known as UMBC) calls itself an "honors university," but students say that is is considerably more difficult to get admitted to the University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP), which does not call itself honors anything, than to either of the others. Go figure.</p>
<p>Speaking of UMCP, it has a very nice honors program, but it's mostly a first-two-years program, not a four-year honors college.</p>
<p>College Park is the overall best of the U. Md. campuses. Hence, the college was ranked nearly in U.S. News' top 50 national universities.</p>
<p>However, Baltimore County (2nd or 3rd tier?) has some excellent undergrad programs, particularly in pre-med. If that's something you're interested in, then UMBC would be a better choice, since its programs sends its graduates to great medical colleges, Johns Hopkins being most prominent.</p>
<p>Otherwise, UMCP is usually the Marylander's choice when choosing home-state public.</p>
<p>Look at Ohio University's "Honors Tutorial College" They have one-on-one education in a tutorial environment, the only type offered in the nation. Very unique and very selective.</p>
<p>i dont recall the list but according to ARCO some of the top 9 honors programs in the country are UCLA, Maryland and 6 others. i dont remember. but Maryland- college park has a stellar honors program, better than hopkins actually.</p>
<p>but ya if you get into the honors at maryland, thats quite an achievement on my book.</p>
<p>lol come on now abe...I'm doubting Maryland's honors program is better than Hopkins. Do you have anything to back that up? Not to say Maryland doesn't have a stellar honors program (b/c it does), but if it is better than JHU I'd think we'd hear more about it.</p>
<p>yes brad i do have proof to back it up, people who are admitted to the honors program at maryland have higher SAT scores and GPA's then Hopkins honors students. i read it in an article about the honors program. and brad i am 100% right on that. college park spends an unbelievable amount of money for full ride scholarships to compete with Hopkins and many other state and public schools. Call maryland what you want, but i know, 100% there honors program is one of the top notch in the country.</p>
<p>I don't know the east coast programs, but best in the west:</p>
<p>UCLA College Honors Program</p>
<p>.......so got any proof? Like a link or an article? I recall you starting a thread earlier a/b you getting into Maryland's honor program with what you called "not so stellar" stats and you said you weren't so happy to be going there.</p>
<p>I was curious about UMD too so I looked on wikipeida for some info on the honors program - all I found was a link to the honors website and I was unable to find any specific info there.
Here's a link (below) with info on Schreyer Honors College at PSU. Even though it's an excellent program, I don't think it compares to schools like JHU or Duke - even though the admissions folks like to call it a "patch of Ivy in a sea of blue". It does provide fabulous benefits for the students in the program - and it also helps to make PSU smaller. The track record of the graduates is very impressive - for example, getting into top graduate programs. All honors programs are not equal and it IS tough to find info on them to compare quality.<br>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schreyer_Honors_College%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schreyer_Honors_College</a></p>
<p>Echols program at UVA hands down. The 60 they take could get into HY etc.</p>
<p>Same with the program at Michigan</p>
<p>I want to second kazz's post and make what should be a fairly obvious statement: as a general rule of thumb, the better the university, the better the honors college. If you've got a bunch of universities taking the top 5% or so of their students and putting them in an honors program, the best program (at least in quality of students, hence expectations and level of material taught) is going to be at the universities who have the more talented student body overall. Obviously if Harvard had an honors program, it would be the best in the country.</p>
<p>generally agree with chibear's statement. But I still think you need to look deeper. For example, if having small honors classes is important to you, you should check to see if that'a an option (some honors programs at big universitites allow priority registration and housing and that's it). Some programs give grants for overseas travel. Also, the criteria for acceptance varies significantly when you get outside of the top 25 schools. Would I go to UVA honors over PSU honors? Likely yes - especially if I'm in VA (not PA) and money is not an issue. The comparison gets harder once you compare schools that are out of the top 25.</p>
<p>Here is some consistent criteria for "fully developed" honors programs and colleges as established by the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC). The NCHC's members include hundreds of colleges/universities with honors programs and colleges. To quote:</p>
<p>"Basic Characteristics of a Fully Developed Honors Program</p>
<p>No one model of an honors program can be superimposed on all types of institutions. However, there are characteristics which are common to successful, fully-developed honors programs. Listed below are those characteristics, although not all characteristics are necessary for an honors program to be considered a successful and/or fully-developed honors program. </p>
<p>A fully-developed honors program should be carefully set up to accommodate the special needs and abilities of the undergraduate students it is designed to serve. This entails identifying the targeted student population by some clearly articulated set of criteria (e.g., GPA, SAT score, a written essay). A program with open admission needs to spell out expectations for retention in the program and for satisfactory completion of program requirements. </p>
<p>The program should have a clear mandate from the institutional administration ideally in the form of a mission statement clearly stating the objectives and responsibilities of the program and defining its place in both the administrative and academic structure of the institution. This mandate or mission statement should be such as to assure the permanence and stability of the program by guaranteeing an adequate budget and by avoiding any tendency to force the program to depend on temporary or spasmodic dedication of particular faculty members or administrators. In other words, the program should be fully institutionalized so as to build thereby a genuine tradition of excellence.</p>
<p>The honors director should report to the chief academic officer of the institution.</p>
<p>There should be an honors curriculum featuring special courses, seminars, colloquia and independent study established in harmony with the mission statement and in response to the needs of the program.</p>
<p>The program requirements themselves should include a substantial portion of the participants' undergraduate work, usually in the vicinity of 20% or 25% of their total course work and certainly no less than 15%. Students who successfully complete Honors Programs requirements should receive suitable institutional recognition. This can be accomplished by such measures as an appropriate notation on the student's academic transcript, separate listing of Honors Graduates in commencement programs, and the granting of an Honors degree.</p>
<p>The program should be so formulated that it relates effectively both to all the college work for the degree (e.g., by satisfying general education requirements) and to the area of concentration, departmental specialization, pre-professional or professional training.</p>
<p>The program should be both visible and highly reputed throughout the institution so that it is perceived as providing standards and models of excellence for students and faculty across the campus.</p>
<p>Faculty participating in the program should be fully identified with the aims of the program. They should be carefully selected on the basis of exceptional teaching skills and the ability to provide intellectual leadership to able students.</p>
<p>The program should occupy suitable quarters constituting an honors center with such facilities as an honors library, lounge, reading rooms, personal computers and other appropriate decor.</p>
<p>The director or other administrative officer charged with administering the program should work in close collaboration with a committee or council of faculty members representing the colleges and/or departments served by the program.</p>
<p>The program should have in place a committee of honors students to serve as liaison with the honors faculty committee or council who must keep the student group fully informed on the program and elicit their cooperation in evaluation and development. This student group should enjoy as much autonomy as possible conducting the business of the committee in representing the needs and concerns of all honors students to the administration, and it should also be included in governance, serving on the advisory/policy committee as well as constituting the group that governs the student association.</p>
<p>There should be provisions for special academic counseling of honors students by uniquely qualified faculty and/or staff personnel. </p>
<p>The honors program, in distinguishing itself from the rest of the institution, serves as a kind of laboratory within which faculty can try things they have always wanted to try but for which they could find no suitable outlet. When such efforts are demonstrated to be successful, they may well become institutionalized, thereby raising the general level of education within the college or university for all students. In this connection, the honors curriculum should serve as a prototype for educational practices that can work campus-wide in the future. </p>
<p>The fully-developed honors program must be open to continuous and critical review and be prepared tochange in order to maintain its distinctive position of offering distinguished education to the best students in the institution.</p>
<p>A fully-developed program will emphasize the participatory nature of the honors educational process by adopting such measures as offering opportunities for students to participate in regional and national conferences, honors semesters, international programs, community service, and other forms of experiential education.</p>
<p>Fully-developed two-year and four-year honors programs will have articulation agreements by which honors graduates from two-year colleges are accepted into four-year honors programs when they meet previously agreed-upon requirements.</p>
<p>Approved by the NCHC Executive Committee (3/4/94) </p>
<p>Basic Characteristics of a Fully Developed Honors College </p>
<p>An honors educational experience can occur in a wide variety of institutional settings. When institutions establish an honors college or embark upon a transition from an honors program to an honors college, they face a transformational moment. No one model defines this transformation. Although not all of the following characteristics are necessary to be considered a successful or fully developed honors college, the National Collegiate Honors Council recognizes these as representative: </p>
<p>A fully developed honors college should incorporate the relevant characteristics of a fully developed honors program. </p>
<p>A fully developed honors college should exist as an equal collegiate unit within a multi-collegiate university structure. </p>
<p>The head of a fully developed honors college should be a dean reporting directly to the chief academic officer of the institution and serving as a full member of the Council of Deans, if one exists. The dean should be a full-time, 12-month appointment.<br>
The operational and staff budgets of fully developed honors colleges should provide resources at least comparable to other collegiate units of equivalent size.<br>
A fully developed honors college should exercise increased coordination and control of departmental honors where the college has emerged out of such a decentralized system.<br>
A fully developed honors college should exercise considerable control over honors recruitment and admissions, including the appropriate size of the incoming class. Admission to the honors college should be by separate application.<br>
An honors college should exercise considerable control over its policies, curriculum, and selection of faculty.<br>
The curriculum of a fully developed honors college should offer significant course opportunities across all four years of study.<br>
The curriculum of the fully developed honors college should constitute at least 20% of a student's degree program. An honors thesis or project should be required.<br>
Where the home university has a significant residential component, the fully developed honors college should offer substantial honors residential opportunities.<br>
The distinction awarded by a fully developed honors college should be announced at commencement, noted on the diploma, and featured on the student's final transcript.<br>
Like other colleges within the university, a fully developed honors college should be involved in alumni affairs and development and should have an external advisory board. </p>
<p>Approved by the NCHC Executive Committee (6/25/05) </p>
<p>Last updated 08/30/05.</p>
<p>mm bobby, i don't know what you're talking about. unless im drastically misinformed about uva, being an echols scholar is not the same as being in an honors program. it simply lets you get priority registration, and possibly a few other unnotable perks - not something you'd get with an honors program at say penn state.</p>