<p>Why is Northwestern getting brought up? I’m confused.</p>
<p>As an honors mentor, I’d just like to point out a couple of things that aren’t entirely correct from the above explanation about honors.</p>
<p>Honors is top 10% of applicants in each college, not of the class. That means there may be more or less than that in the actual class. Also means that an engineering student with awesome grades might not get in but a CJ student with lesser stats (still good though) might. You can re-apply during your freshman year if you are a strong student.</p>
<p>You can graduate with honors in three ways. You can take 6 honors courses, one of which is a “seminar” (supposedly modelled after grad courses), to get Honors Course Distinction. For the most part these classes are only smaller; they are NOT always harder. My honors microeconomics class had a higher curve than the other microeconomics courses because it was assumed we “deserved” a higher average since we were honors, even though we had the exact same assignments and tests. Seminars can be very tough, but the only hard part about mine last semester was a term paper that was 50% of our grade, but he was an easy grader.</p>
<p>You do NOT get an “extra scholarship” for being in honors! Your scholarship is an ENTIRELY different process and admissions group. Yes, most of the time honors students have higher scholarships than non-honors students. However because it is the top 10% of the applicants in a COLLEGE, I’ve known several non-honors engineering students who were given higher scholarships than honors students in CAS. They re-applied their freshman year and most of them got into the program.</p>
<p>If you are honors, you have the option of living in International Village (the new dorm) with other honors students your freshman year, and living in West Village F (second newest dorm) as an upperclassman. However not everyone chooses to do so.</p>
<p>It does look good. When you have the same gpa and the same (lack of) experience as other co-op students, every little bit helps to get an interview offer-- such as saying you’re in the honors program.</p>
<p>To graduate with honors you have to keep a 3.4 gpa. Starting the end of the second semester of your freshman year, if you have between a 3.0 and 3.4, you are put on probation and are allowed two semesters of classes to bring your gpa up to a 3.4. If you have below a 3.0, it is typically assumed you won’t be able to bring it up and ask removed from the program (although expections are made, so you should talk to the honors advisors). </p>
<p>Also, the other ways to graduate with honors is to do a Junior-Senior Honors Project, which is similar to a graduate thesis but not as much work. It involves taking two 4-credit courses your junior/senior years, doing research with the guidance of a professor, writing a paper, and presenting your research. Non-honors students who wish to do the project and have a 3.4 their junior year are allowed to apply to do the project. If you do that, you graduate with Honors Project Distinction. If you do the project AND take the 6 honors courses, you graduate with Honors Program Distinction (I believe that is the name of it).</p>