My son is heading to utd and has the National merit package. He chose the honors dorm and is majoring in biology. Does anyone have any insight on the benefit of honors dorm vs LLC? He is coming from out of state and won’t know anyone. I am thinking the LLC would be better but he said the LLC requires a lot of extra required activities.
My daughter was in a similar situation but she was majoring in CS and she did chose honors over an LLC. The advantages of honors are:
You will be rooming with other NM students which are serious, dedicated students.
Many of the students are on scholarship and are more invested in their studies and less social pressures to party.
The NM students do come from everywhere in the US. I think it might be easier to make friends.
You will become friends with people from all majors, so a bit of diversity.
Many of the NM students are biology or premed students - so for study groups you are covered.
My daughter switched majors and her friends are still her friends because it wasn’t based on a major.
My daughter has never regretted her decision and your son will do fine in the honors dorm.
I had to make a similar decision last year, choosing between the honors dorm and the LLC. Ultimately I chose LLC because I wanted to be with students on the same pre-health track as me. I really enjoyed the atmosphere living in the LLC, as a lot of us would study together in the study rooms. Because we had many of the same classes (CHEM, PHYS, etc.), you would often see many students studying in the elbow lounges the nights before tests. The PA would also host study sessions for us where he would go over previous tests for that class. As I recall, LLC events are not required. In fact, my roommates and I only went to a couple of the events (but they were fun events with free food). The honors dorm is also the oldest dorm, which is another reason I chose LLC. The honors dorm does have its perks, however. Sometimes the honors college hosts events there like pancake nights. It’s also the closest dorm building to the center of campus, which means a shorter walk to classes.