My son is trying to understand the UW interdisciplinary honors curriculum, and whether it makes sense to write the essays and apply. It would be great to hear from anyone with personal experience with this program.
UW guidance on the web site states, “Generally, students entering the University with less than 45 (AP credits) will still choose to participate in the Interdisciplinary Honors or College Honors tracks. However, if a student has completed the majority of their general education requirements (45-90 credits) Departmental Honors may be the best option for them.”
Is this because of the requirement to take Honors Core courses?
My son plans to apply to engineering. (His first choice major would be ISE, but he is open to most engineering majors, just not interested in CS.) We estimate that he will be eligible for 60+ units from AP credits. In general, he is attracted by “interdisciplinary” programs in which he would study topics outside engineering. However, he would also like to study a language that he wasn’t able to study in HS, which will take up a chunk of his schedule.
He looked at the Honors courses and although they look interesting, it seems the course selection is somewhat limited, with only a few options in each category per quarter.
While I have not attended the UW Honors program, I did write the essays and was accepted. My major was Computer Science.
You are correct on their reasoning for advising against participating in Interdisciplinary Honors for students with a lot of credit coming in: you must take 4 core honors courses, which will help fill Gen Eds, along with several other honors “electives” (which can be honors courses in other departments, for example, the honors physics 14x series). By completing the honors curriculum, a student will usually have finished most of their Gen Eds.
This suggestion is, however, merely a suggestion, and should be treated as such. When I applied to UW last year, I had approx. 105 credits coming in. Many of these were Running Start credits that applied to my major. I found that the honors courses at UW would still be very helpful in fulfilling my Gen Eds, and that they were more interesting than comparable non-honors courses due to the interdisciplinary nature of the honors program. I think your son in engineering will love the honors program if the course topics excite him: not only is it a prestigious program, but the courses are much smaller than comparable Gen Ed-fulfilling courses, allowing more contact with professors.
With regards to your son’s interest in a new language – these courses will most likely not fulfill honors program requirements, but then again they won’t fill Gen Eds for engineering either. He may consider a minor if he is interested.
Finally, Interdisciplinary Honors opens a student up to receiving a host of merit-based scholarships that students ordinarily are not considered for, especially for in-state students.
Hope you find this helpful. Feel free to PM me with any more questions you may have!
Thanks! That’s very helpful. I do think the smaller courses would be a plus and the course topics sound interesting.
We are OOS (CA), so most of the merit based scholarships won’t apply. I don’t know if Honors admission is more difficult from OOS.
(We’ve been asked by a few people why he’s interested in UW when we have strong options here in the UC system, but the only UC that offers the IE major is UCB, and he also likes the way the UW engineering program is structured, as he would like to explore major options in his first year. Plus, he prefers Seattle weather…)
Very interesting - our son is also applying to UW Seattle (astronomy major) from OOS and was also trying to figure out whether to apply to the honors program. I figure may as well apply.
Actually, most merit scholarships are for OOS! Look at the Purple & Gold Scholarships. Honors scholarships are also available OOS.
Honors admissions is pretty much a wildcard – they look very heavily at your essays for both in-state and OOS. Make sure your son’s essays talk about tying together various different disciplines he’s interested in and unifying it under one theme!
Hi there, not sure if this is too late, but I thought I’d share my piece anyways
I am currently a freshman in the UW Interdisciplinary Honors Program. I would say that the advice relating to credits primarily applies to students seeking to graduate early, as the Interdisciplinary Honors program is structured so that students take an Honors course once a quarter, every quarter, for four years. If your son is planning to graduate early, the course load for the Interdisciplinary Honors Program may not be too much.
Many prospective in-state Honors students have completed Running Start in High School, which usually allows them to graduate HS with an Associate’s Degree (~90 credits).
Departmental Honors programs tend to be a way lower course load, usually having the same amount of required courses as a regular minor.
My recommendation would be to go ahead and apply! The Interdisciplinary Honors program here provides a great sense of community and offers a lot of academic support to students.
There doesn’t seem to be a separate application for the purple and gold scholarship - but it also doesn’t seem to say you will be automatically considered or if you need to fill in the financial aid forms to be considered!
