While I agree that being accepted into one honors college/program does not mean that same student will be accepted to another (especially as those programs have more qualified applicants than spaces), for clarification there are organizations that rate honors colleges/programs and deem some as “top”, “best”, etc.
The ratings, however, are generally based more on an assessment of what the programs provide in terms of additional opportunities and experiences, better housing, etc. (i.e. the program itself) versus the stats of the students.
Different honors colleges/programs use different criteria for selecting students into the programs. Some are more top “stats” focused, some focus more on a holistic approach and look for things like leadership, how students meet challenges, strongly weigh the essays, etc. For example, if you look at UNC’s honors program stats the students in the program’s stats are not much different than the general student population at UNC. Other places there is a significant difference.
They also have different sized programs, and therefore, different acceptance rates. UofSC has intentionally kept the honors college relatively small and so has a low acceptance rate (around 10% IIRC).
Is anybody sure of the acceptance rate? I knew it was pretty competitive but I had no idea it was to this degree (if I had to guess beforehand I would say around 30/40%) 10% is incredible if true!!
I believe it was around 10% last year. I don’t have the numbers in front of me but something like 530 got into Honors last year out of 5-6,000 freshmen (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).
Just to be clear I am referring to the actual Honors College (does not include Capstone Scholars program, which is separate). The HC enrolls less than 600 students per year.
I believe the acceptance rate is higher (around 20%) because they account for students who don’t end up attending UoSC. I believe your 530 number is a subset of the larger group who were accepted. My vague recollection from a conversation with HC in October is that 1000 were accepted out of 5000 applicants in recent years, and they target about 600 spots for freshmen.
Yes, I think you are correct that they admit some additional to account for yield so overall acceptance may be somewhat above 10%, closer to 15-20%. IIRC last year number of applicants was closer to 6k than 5k. Would be interested to see how many applications they had this year with TO (albeit did have to submit an alternative supplement).
I think overall university applications were up 17%. If HC is up that much or more, acceptance rate will be heading toward 10-15% if they aim at accepting about 1000.
Remembering back to D19’s HC presentations, I believe Culbreath is correct about the around 1000 admit. That sounds familiar now that they mentioned it.
My son is waiting also… they said mid-February so think after this Friday 2/12 probably not an option anymore. I wish they would share final merit numbers also !