Hi,
There is actually no separate application for the Honor's College. If your son has a 3.5 GPA (or 3.75 if he is going into the business college) and a 28 or higher on the ACT, he'll automatically be invited into the Honor's College. Honor's Convocation will be held on September 20th and it a great opportunity to learn more about what the College has to offer.
Best wishes,
Michelle
Hi! I have been all over the U of A website looking for information about the Prestigious Fellowships. Could you please tell me more of the specifics regarding the use of the funds? The website is very vague about spending on personal educational expenses, and what qualifies. For instance, the website mentions travel to conferences, books, and a couple of other things. What I am looking for is very specific rules for the use of the funds. I'm sorry if this is on the website somewhere, but I simply can't find it. Can you help please? Thank you!
Here's the information that I received from the Honors College. If you have more specific questions, I would recommend calling the Honors College at 479-575-7678.
The fellowship pays up to $12,500 per year and is intended to be applied towards tuition, mandatory fees, double room at Pomfret and a meal plan. If the student brings in other scholarships that can combine with the fellowship, those other scholarships will be applied to the afore mentioned basic necessities allowing the fellowship funds to be applied to other educational enhancements such as books, study abroad, travel to conferences, etc., as funds allow. We work with students individually to determine how they can best use their fellowship funds.
The website address the general requirements for fellowships in terms of GPA and test scores. Are stats available to determine the competitiveness of the fellowships? In other words, what are the actual GPA's and test scores that would result in a fellowship offer?
victorjg,
The staff at the Honors College might be willing to give you an estimate for "competitiveness" in the sense of averages last year of applicants and recipients, but it likely varies a bit from year to year. Another thing to consider is the importance of the interview and application outside of pure numbers. Stats alone aren't enough, and from my experience, the selection panel takes a pretty "whole-package" approach to determining who will become a recipient. Getting invited to interview is of course important as it signals your paper application was competitive, but the interview is crucial. I have known applicants that had stellar scores and resumes (perhaps better than some of the eventual recipients) and weren't awarded a fellowship because they apparently didn't take their interview seriously enough.
UArkansas may have, or be able to acquire, stats regarding the average fellowship recipient for this year's cycle, but if you'd like to contact the Honors College you can call 479-575-7678. I would venture a guess that any of the assistants can help you with that question, but one of the GAs or Ms. Lynes might also be available to talk to you about the application and consideration process. I highly recommend talking to Maribeth Lynes if you get a chance (and tell her Matt says hello from med school!), she knows the Honors College inside and out and can offer top-notch advice.
Hope that helps.
-Matt
Hey Matt, are you at UAM? My daughter wants to go to Fayetteville and follow up with UAM. She is interested in the Medical Science major in the liberal arts school. Are you familiar with it? It says on the website that you can go to medical school after your junior year and complete the BA/BS degree while at medical school. Do you know of anybody who has done this.. pros... cons...? Thanks....
Thanks for the info as respects fellowship in the honors program... I am not going to sweat it. She has the credentials to get the interview and she is a good communicator.. I will just go with that.
And she has back ups in case she doesn't get a fellowship as she qualifies for "full rides" at other out of state university that she is interested in. Her first choice is UA but the other schools are just as good or better and offer generous scholarships for out of state students with her credentials.
victorjg,
I think you meant UAMS (UAM is the school in southeast Arkansas with the boll-weevil mascot from those commercials ), and yes, I am at UAMS. Although med school is a by no means an easy path, I believe I'm happier at UAMS than I would have been elsewhere and the facilities and faculty here are top notch (I was very pleasantly surprised when I first came and toured, honestly). I actually don't know a single person, or anyone in our medical school class, that did the "accelerated" degree program in Medical Sciences, but I would urge caution before doing something like that. It's certainly possible to do programs like that and enter med school early and shave a year off the process, but it's difficult enough to put together a competitive resume, prepare for the MCAT, and get the necessary science background together in 4 years without trying to pack it into 3. It can be done, but it is likely very hard on a pre-med student's already strained free time and social life to do such a program. She's going to have enough stress, studying, and hours spent in the library during medical school to push the envelope on sanity as it is, so I would encourage taking advantage of the more relaxed timeline of undergrad and enjoying life for a little while. You also have to consider the usefulness of a chosen undergraduate major as a standalone degree/back-up if she has a change of heart and decides not to go to medical school, or in the worst case case scenario, doesn't get into a medical school. The pro to doing an accelerated program is obviously shaving a year off the whole process, but I don't know if 1 year out of the very long path that is a medical education will make that big of a difference in the long run. That's just my take on it though, naturally I don't know what path would be most suitable for her. I would strongly recommend meeting with Jeanne McLachlin (one of the directors of the premedical program) and talking to her about those options. She was an invaluable resource to me as a pre-med student and as an Arts & Sciences (largely pre-med) Admissions counselor, and she should be able to help your daughter weigh her options, no matter where she decides to attend.
Even if she does not receive a fellowship, don't write off the UA too quickly. When I was solicited by what I (at the time) felt were more prestigious out of state schools, I considered a lot of factors but the pre-med program at Arkansas was unique enough and so much more personalized that I just kept feeling like it was the best option all around. Their acceptance rates were impressive too, and since it is not a restricted program, I knew that meant they were doing something right. The Honors College there has unmatched (literally) financial resources that they use to give their students opportunities she may be hard pressed to find elsewhere, but I think you'll hear more about that as you continue to tour prospective schools and meet with staff at the respective Honors programs. The financial options in Arkansas are pretty good for top applicants- if she gets invited to interview, she'll likely have already been offered a Chancellor's scholarship, which is $8,000 off the bottom line up front, $10,000 if she's National Merit and designated Arkansas. If she applies for the in-state scholarship programs, namely the Governor's Distinguished scholarship, she could have a "full-ride" covered right there. The cost of tuition, fees, books, room, and board is somewhere around $15-16,000 a year and the Chancellor's + Governor's Distinguished would put her at $18,000 in awards. The fellowship would be icing on the cake if it came through and make paying for study abroad and other educational activities pretty easy without having to apply for additional study abroad scholarships or grants, but what I'm trying to say is it can still be a very good deal even without it. She'll definitely want to put forth a good application for state scholarships and institutional scholarships and weigh her options from there, but I turned down what seemed like more money from OOS schools to attend the UofA and I'd do it over again too. (I might go back and tell my high school self to apply for more scholarships and not to try to do E.E. with Biology/Pre-med, but I'd still stand by my college choice.)
I wish you and your daughter the best of the luck in the college search process! I try to keep up with what happens on here as well as possible and I'll respond if you have any questions I can help with. If your daughter comes to tour UAMS or look around, she'll probably run into me then (I'm an ambassador for the admissions office so I give a lot of tours), and she can feel free to contact me via PM on here if she has any questions she wants someone who has been through the ringer and knows the process from both sides to answer.
-Matt
At this time UA is number one but money will be a factor. She has earned through hard work automatic scholarships at OSS and I know she will be in the running for good scholarships at UA. Personally, I like UA but it isn't about me is it?
About the interview - 12 students from my high school were invited to the interview. All 12 were offered the fellowships. It's funny only 4 of them accepted their fellowships.
It is impressive that all 12 of them were interviewed and offered fellowships. On average, less than half of those interviewed will be awarded fellowships, and far fewer are invited to interview than apply. I imagine those students must have had several compelling offers, and I certainly hope they found a good fit for them where ever they will be attending!
-Matt
I think I didn't make it very clear. Far more than 12 students (at least 40?) were qualified for the fellowships. 12 were interviewed and were offered scholarships.
The thing is that they tend to award fellowships to only in-state (mostly) and neighboring state students. They probably interview out-of-state students but not offer fellowships. That's might be why on average, less than half of those interviewed are awarded fellowships.
Actually, I think it might just seem like that form skewed statistics because many of the applications they receive are from Arkansas; thus, a huge amount of the recipients (and people who do decide on going) are from Arkansas. However, location is definitely not a factor, I believe - I know of someone who received one from Nebraska.
Perhaps I guess I didn't factor in the state school aspect...but still, determining scholarships from location seems sort of lame...I understand the yield percentage aspect, but it seems like it would devalue the quality of students. I will say though, for the Sturgis scholarship (9-10 interviewed, 5-6 recipients) half of the students were from Arkansas, while half were scatter throughout Texas, Colorado, and I think Mississippi/Missouri and somewhere else. *shrugs*
), and yes, I am at UAMS. Although med school is a by no means an easy path, I believe I'm happier at UAMS than I would have been elsewhere and the facilities and faculty here are top notch (I was very pleasantly surprised when I first came and toured, honestly). I actually don't know a single person, or anyone in our medical school class, that did the "accelerated" degree program in Medical Sciences, but I would urge caution before doing something like that. It's certainly possible to do programs like that and enter med school early and shave a year off the process, but it's difficult enough to put together a competitive resume, prepare for the MCAT, and get the necessary science background together in 4 years without trying to pack it into 3. It can be done, but it is likely very hard on a pre-med student's already strained free time and social life to do such a program. She's going to have enough stress, studying, and hours spent in the library during medical school to push the envelope on sanity as it is, so I would encourage taking advantage of the more relaxed timeline of undergrad and enjoying life for a little while. You also have to consider the usefulness of a chosen undergraduate major as a standalone degree/back-up if she has a change of heart and decides not to go to medical school, or in the worst case case scenario, doesn't get into a medical school. The pro to doing an accelerated program is obviously shaving a year off the whole process, but I don't know if 1 year out of the very long path that is a medical education will make that big of a difference in the long run. That's just my take on it though, naturally I don't know what path would be most suitable for her. I would strongly recommend meeting with Jeanne McLachlin (one of the directors of the premedical program) and talking to her about those options. She was an invaluable resource to me as a pre-med student and as an Arts & Sciences (largely pre-med) Admissions counselor, and she should be able to help your daughter weigh her options, no matter where she decides to attend.
