<p>I've been told that Arizona State's Barrett honors college is ranked near the top nationally. Is this true? Also which other colleges are considered to have the best honors programs (I understand that a lot of the top universities don't offer honors)? Also, what are the advantages of attending a top honors program as opposed to attending a top-30 or so university, and vice versa?</p>
<p>You should consider the University of Florida Honors Program</p>
<p>The Honors Program at the University of Florida attracts academically talented and highly motivated students by providing them with additional opportunities beyond those available to the general student population. There are five distinct components of the program that enhance the experiences of honors students at the University of Florida: honors courses, honors housing, honors advisors, extracurricular organizations, and special academic opportunities (prestigious scholarships, research, internships, and study abroad). We encourage you to follow these links to learn more about what our program has to offer. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.honors.ufl.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.honors.ufl.edu/</a></p>
<p>Basically, honors colleges are used in non-top universities to challenge high achieving students and give them a better learning environment.</p>
<p>For example, the typical student at UF or ASU is vastly different than the average honors student. So if you happen to be serious about academics and ambitious, I'd highly recommend making use of any available honors program - unless you just want to party in college. </p>
<p>I've heard good things about ASU, UT-Austin, and Penn State as far as honors colleges go.</p>
<p>ASU does have a good honors college, and heres some facts and evidence of that:</p>
<p><a href="http://honors.asu.edu/template1.aspx?iden=5%5B/url%5D">http://honors.asu.edu/template1.aspx?iden=5</a></p>
<p>Penn State is a top 50 school AND has a top notch honors school (ranked one of the best by Readers Digest). Some of the top state Us also have good honors programs ( U of T Austin, Univ of Michagan, UNC). Bottom line is to try to get into the best overall school, and then, yes, the honors program can make a big difference (although all of them differ in what they offer - make sure you do your research).</p>
<p>I would imagine the honors program at University of Oklahoma is rather decent. (They lure in tons of NMSF with offers of free tuition and such.) I don't know specifically about classes, but I have a friend who loves the environment and loves the people he met.</p>
<p>Texas, UF, and Penn State are all tied for 47th overall by USNews.</p>
<p>Oklahoma is ranked 112th, and Arizona State is a Tier 3 university</p>
<p>UT-Austin's Plan II liberal arts program is one of the oldest programs, and very well respected. It's been used as the model for more contemporary programs at other universities. UT also has business and engineering honors programs, as well as another liberal arts honor program, not quite the same level as Plan II.</p>
<p>Also, UT's peer reputation rank of 4.1 ties it with Rice in the top 25 of all universities.</p>
<p>Penn State has to be #1 in the country. Pitt has a unique Bachelors of Philosophy degree...you do graduate level work as an undergrad...</p>
<p>how about rutgers honors college?</p>
<p>I hear the MSU honors college is pretty good, requires a 30 ACT minimum I think</p>
<p>UTexas' Plan II Honors program is an rigorous and competitive (application wise) program. Those accepted often also decide between attending there or Rice, Duke or Cornell.</p>
<p>Penn State definitely, followed by UT-Austin, UF, and a few others</p>
<p>MSU's is one of the oldest and best.</p>
<p>UF > Penn State</p>
<p>Michigan State University and Washington State University, among others.</p>
<p>Penn State Honors' average SAT scores are on par with many Ivy league schools - ahead of a few major ones. It's highly competitive, requiring two essays and numerous short answer questions. I think it would be one of the best, if not THE best, in the country.</p>
<p>I'll see if I can find the link about the SAT scores thing.</p>
<p>Here we go.</p>
<p>The 25% SAT mark for PSU Honors is above Princeton, Stanford, Dartmouth, Columbia, Duke, and Penn. It is below only Harvard and Yale, and the average SAT score for last year's entering class was 1429. While this data may not show the whole picture, I think it tells a lot about the quality and competiveness.</p>
<p>Most of the top state schools' honors programs average SAT scores are on par with the Ivy schools... not saying Penn State honors program isn't strong, but that in itself doesn't make it one of the best.</p>
<p>At the University of Florida you need a 1400 just to be considered for the Honors program.</p>