Will Inside Honors raise their rating on UA’s Honors College now that the Honors Village is done ?
Also, what Inside Honors liked about Barrett may be what OP disliked about ASU’s Barrett Honors College.
@Publisher I believe that UA’s new Honors Village will help with the rating, but I suspect that the next edition of the book will only come out about a year from now (because historically the book has been updated every two years).
The current edition rates ASU Barrett better than UA Honors in the following categories: Curriculum Requirements, Extent of Honors Enrollment, Honors Grad Rate Adjusted to SAT, Ratio of Staff to Students, Honors Housing Amenities, Honors Housing Availability.
Honors Housing Availability is the biggest gap, but the book notes that UA new Honors facility will house 1054 students.
I’d go for the extra $15-20k per year at U of A, especially if they are tied in your daughter’s mind.
I live in the Phoenix area and visited both ASU and UA (and the honors colleges) with two of my kids, one of whom is an engineer. Both preferred UA. I think we just got a more personal feel at UA over ASU. The engineer liked the smaller size and the structure of the UA engineering program. Both ended up OOS at smaller schools. We know several past and current ASU students and a couple at UA who all seem happy…
Some comments–
ASU has dining halls, UA basically had food courts with restaurants (maybe this will change with the honors village?). In this area we preferred ASU. Barrett is known for a really good dining hall.
ASU has some significant additional costs with the honors college and the Barrett dorms and meal plans are some of the most expensive on campus.
A few years ago ASU Barrett was an easier admit than UA honors. We knew kids who would get into Barrett but not UA honors.
We have a good friend who is an ASU Barrett student and studying engineering. This student has had a lot of different advisors in 3 years. A dozen or so. It’s taking this kid an extra year to graduate due to problems with a grade in one class in the third year. Surprise year of costs for mom and dad and the academic scholarship only lasts for 8 semesters. This kid has done a lot of neat stuff while at ASU and is active in a couple of clubs and has stayed in Barrett. The family is happy with the experience in general. Hasn’t done any internships yet. I’ve heard ( no data, just hearsay) that a lot of engineers don’t see the benefit and drop out of honors.
ASU engineering is a big program. Far larger than UA. UA had maybe 1200 engineering students when we visited a few years ago. ASU has many times more. Some are online or at the polytechnic campus.
I think they are both good programs. Kids from both schools find good jobs. We know one person who graduated in CS several years ago from ASU with job offers from Microsoft and Apple. There may be more jobs in the Phoenix area but there’s a lot of ASU grads to compete with for those jobs too and maybe a bit more personal support down at UA.
OP: Your daughter’s concerns over excessive Barrett Honors College requirements for an engineering major are valid. Engineering majors are quite demanding.
Wow, this is such a great forum. Everyone’s information and suggestions are extremely helpful. I’m close to my daughter, and I want to share with her as much good advice and information as I can, and she is also doing her own research. But what I’ve told her is, in the end, she needs to pick the one that feels right to her. I’m proud of her, she is very self-motivated, and has already applied to lots of other smaller scholarships that could help make up the difference if she decides ASU is the best choice for her. @NJEngineerDad I appreciate the other scholarship suggestions. I believe she is looking into some of those, and she’s always excited to find out about some she may have missed. It will be a really interesting weekend for us! She has been invited to have lunch with some Barrett students and staff before the info session, and to meet with the Dean of Barrett after. I just found out yesterday that she would be required to live in Barrett dorms for at least the first two years (not negotiable), so we’ll see how she feels about that. She’s also excited to see the new Honors Village at UofA. At least she’s keeping and open mind and checking everything out. Wish us luck, and thanks again for all your help!
Please remember to ask about internship placements.
@bgbg4us to answer your question about why UA has better scholarships than ASU, actually, most merit scholars will get more scholarship money with ASU. ASU automatically gives full tuition. UA only gives $5000/year (and $1000 additional from Engineering if that is your major), but that’s all you’re guaranteed. Any other money you have to qualify for with your stats. Because my D has unweighted 4.0 and 34 ACT, she qualified for full tuition before any merit scholar money. The additional $5000 Engineering scholarship is something she would apply for when it opens up.
For fun I tried to guess the rating that UA Honors might get in the next edition of John Willingham’s book by assuming that the Honors Residence Halls scores will match ASU Barrett thanks to the new Honors Village. Currently the difference between the raw scores of the two schools is 0.59 before adjustment and rounding (and I am not sure how the scores are adjusted and rounded). The difference would drop to 0.46. My guess is that UA Honors final score would likely go up to 4.5.
Due to the weighting, it would be more beneficial if UA improved its “Curriculum Requirements” score.