My son is debating between University Honors and ILS for his honors choice. Any feedback? He is a well rounded student, great in math and science, but uniformly good across all areas (didn’t get it from me). He plays tennis and likes to work out, is outgoing and fun, but can hunker down with the x-box with the best of them. Geeks out at his single-gender school but always has a nice girlfriend and a low-key but active social life.
Should I encourage one choice over the other?
Is the relative living experience (Hagerstown for UH, LaPlata for ILS) a factor?
@jackjenson He does indeed seem very well rounded. My daughter chose UH and I can speak to her experience a bit. I have no experience with ILS so won’t try and address that. She chose UH because she thought it was the most flexible program available. She is also well rounded and wanted to be able to have plenty of time to pursue events/opportunities/activities within her particular school (Smith), as well as other university groups (greek life). She lived in Hagerstown her freshman year and now as a sophomore has an apartment. Hagerstown is one of the high rises on north campus. Nothing special about it. It doesn’t have ac so September was difficult, but after that it wasn’t bad. She has enjoyed a couple of the honors seminars. The people were all nice in the dorm. Dr. Dorland heads up the program and he is an amazing/inspirational/brilliant man. Look at the thread @SoofDad posted about him. Really great piece. She is much more active in activities/groups outside the honors college than within. For her UH was the best choice.
@terpmom7 - My D selected University Honors for much the same reason. In fact, she is Hagerstown Hall right now doing homework. You’re right about it not being special, but it is close to the Football stadium and the Honors seminars are awesome. Anyway, here is the link about Dr. Dorland
Both of these are awesome choices. When my daughter was making this decision 2 years ago, these were the two programs that interested her the most. In the end, she chose ILS. The program sounded really appealing to her, and this was solidified when we attended the admitted students day at Maryland. In fact, I’m not sure she would have ultimately chosen Maryland if it were not for the ILS session she had attended on admitted students day!
She is currently a sophomore in ILS and she continues to enjoy the program. I couldn’t be happier- a happy kid makes a happy parent!
As for the dorms, they are essentially the same except LaPlata has a/c and Hagerstown still does not. I think they are supposed to get it, but I personally do not know when. Both dorms are located in the Ellicott community and the dining hall is centrally located between them.
I think your son would fit in ILS just fine, if that’s a concern of yours. A lot of the kids are very well rounded, be it music, sports, video games, etc…
Let me know if you have any specific questions about ILS. I will try my best to answer them.