<p>Someone mentioned to me that having a big community-service background would most likely have you placed in the Scholars program rather than the Honors program, even if you're more qualified to be in the Honors program. Is this even true? Does community work influence your chances and does the Scholars program prefer students with a lot of community service rather than the Honors program?</p>
<p>^ No this is not true. It is strictly hierarchical, … Honors —> Scholars …<br>
Selection for Scholars may use different criteria than for Honors (such as an increased weight for service) but this would be after Honors consideration. Maybe someone here knows more details on Scholars selection …</p>
<p>Plumazul - According to an admissions rep I spoke with a while ago, Honors picks their kids first and then sends the other apps to Scholars to pick from. Honors is more likely to take kids with more of an “academic” background and leave the kids with the more “service oriented” background to Scholars, according to the rep.</p>
<p>^ I happen to be in Scholars, by the way. This is just what I was told, I have no idea if it’s correct.</p>
<p>@lb801, I believe you are correct. The OPs concern about being placed “in the Scholars program rather than the Honors program”, however, won’t happen. If you are qualified for Honors, by their selection criteria, then you WILL be selected and “having a big community-service background” will not disqualify you …</p>
<p>Honors does have first pick, because they’ve been established at the university longer.</p>
<p>Plumazul - To be fair, fitting the “qualifications” really doesn’t mean much. I mean, I technically fit the qualification stats-wise (albeit was on the lower end) and I still got Scholars, though I think that Scholars is a better fit anyway. Honors/Scholars can be funny with who they pick for what.</p>
<p>^ I meant I fit the qualifications for Honors, I realized I wasn’t clear there.</p>
<p>I have one daughter in honors and one in scholars, and I think each are in the best fit for them…two separate programs, and both were/are outstanding.</p>
<p>i guess my main question is, if i have a pretty good gpa, ecs, sats etc., should i still write about all of my summer volunteer work on my resume if i prefer going to honors?</p>
<p>I put all of my community service on my resume and I still got in Honors. And I had a good amount of community service, including being the president of the club in my school that does community service. I wasn’t even expecting to get into either Scholars or Honors though, so I just put everything I’ve done on my resume.</p>
<p>I mean you shouldn’t tailor you app to one program or another (unless you’re talking about gemstone. But that’s another story). You still want scholarships, right? Focus on those. If you’re a great student, you’ll get into scholars or honors. And you’ll have perks either way. That’s the way I feel (coming from a person who got honors w/ friends who got scholars and are all happy).</p>
<p>I had ridiculous amounts of community service, but my other extra-curriculars were lacking. My stats were about average for honors (however after knowing honors people, these average stats came from a very below average school compared to others in the program)
I am still in Honors. In fact, it’s probably the community service that got me in.</p>
<p>Basically: Don’t worry about it.
They can’t tell a group of scholars kids…well Honors took who we really wanted. They say “We took more service oriented people.”</p>
<p>Why is everyone acting like you can only get selected for one or the other? I was invited to both Honors and Scholars (I chose Honors). I don’t know if the school considers one program to be above the other, but among students Honors is considered better and I would imagine that it looks better to employers just because they are more familiar with the concept of Honors than of Scholars. To the OP, just submit the best application you can and include everything. If you belong in the Honors program, you wont be excluded because you did too much community service</p>
<p>^^^I had no idea you could be invited to more than one…but I agree with you.</p>
<p>ubuntu – When was this? I know that they used to double-invite, but I believe that they don’t really do that anymore…</p>
<p>I was accepted last year. With my acceptance letter I got an invitation to Scholars. I was kind of upset because I didn’t know what Scholars was and since I had really high SAT’s I had been expecting to get into Honors. I called the school intending to ask exactly what Scholars was, but before I said anything they congratulated me on having been accepted to both programs. I got an invitation to Honors the next day in the mail; I hadn’t complained at all or asked to be switched.</p>