<p>Everyone always mentions it, but I'm unclear of what it is. It is at state schools? How do you get into it? How is it different?</p>
<p>All of them are different. What it means depends purely on the context of the school.</p>
<p>Alright, in order to attract brighter students/students with better stats/students to please professors, public schools and some private schools have started honors programs and colleges which offer smaller more intimate classes, more close knit feeling of community. The programs are fantastic and one of the best examples of an Honors College is Penn State's Schreyer Honors College, which is an excellent program. Students get funding from the school to do research and get money if their internships don't pay them enough to cover costs, and also get travel abroad/other expenses paid for by the school.</p>
<p>An Honors College is usually a merit-aid program intended to attract better students that the school would otherwise enroll. The inducement for these students is an academic program that mimics the scale and academic engagement of a good liberal arts college plus cash money.</p>
<p>In some ways, it's a tacit acknowledgement that the regular students at these school may not benefit from as much focus on undergrad education as the school would like.</p>
<p>Only difference is that the parties are a lot better since you have all the resources of a state school :-P
And by that I mean the madness that comes with being D1 :-)</p>