@CADREAMIN I’ve heard the same things. If you’re a science major at some schools, it’s sometimes hard to get in your honors classes in four years since they mostly count for more liberal arts-types credits. At some schools, honors is a completely additional program. Others, it’s by major. For example, at Wisconsin, for honors in your major, you’re in class with everyone else and then you just do extra work on top of that (research, etc). That’s definitely a perk but I really want S19 in smaller classes overall.
Ideally, we will visit schools that might be interesting to S19. Maybe they will have separate presentation for honors questions. Best case scenario is that I can find a student from our high school currently in the program so we can pick their brain and get the real deal.
This is especially true for engineering majors. Completing an engineering degree in 4 years is hard enough as it usually requires more credits than other majors. If the student needs to add 10 or 12 honors credits, you can almost guarantee a fifth year.
My S is wrestling with this right now. Whether or not to join honors colleges while pursuing an engineering degree.
@Homerdog As parents we get the benefit long term of those small discussion based classes - being able to debate, contribute, build relationships - great skills to carry forward. But I think some kids think of sitting in those and having to “be on” at 8am with a little dread. (Frankly, I would too - sometimes those early meetings at work are just too much.) So while we see honors as fabulous, sometimes mine is asking, is it necessary? I totally get that from an 18 year old brain.
Those honors presentations are the way to go and a little 1:1 time with the honors rep can be invaluable.
Top LACs typically report mean ACT scores of ~32. This may, in terms of the academic preparation of the enrolled students, be a figure to seek out in a search for honors programs of equivalent academic expectations.
@STEM2017 Is priority registration a perk and needed? I have 2 engineers that chose to not do honors - one became a TA and was able to do some organizations that gave him great experience (coding and building sites/systems for groups in LA) and helped him land a stellar job after he graduates in May. I am not sure he would have had time for those things in honors. I think real life experience/projects is the great thing to get while in college/engineering - would honors make a difference to that? Help or hinder? In their case, it didn’t add value to that. The other is just a soph and is battling all those physics and high level math courses which has been enough for her to handle. But priority reg wasn’t something they needed where they are, getting in classes is no problem and usually applies to GEs more than engineering classes, those seem to be easily available where they are.
Rutgers Honors College might work! All the freshmen live in one building together, there are honors-only classes and events, and there seems to be a lot of support in place. On their website, it says the average SAT score for the class of 2019 was 2160. For what it’s worth, I’m likely committing there for financial reasons after getting merit money from both Grinnell (top choice) and Kenyon, and I don’t feel like I’m losing out academically.
@homerdog A very close friend of my daughter is at ASU Barrett and is thriving. She was a top student at a well-ranked independent HS. BTW, ACT 28 is at the 90th %, not too shabby for a median ACT composite.
While my experience is way out of date, I am an alumni of the Rutgers Honors Program and I will second @acron611 's and @merething 's recommendations. Back in the day, the honors course sequence was based on Chicago’s core curriculum. It was intellectually engaging and I met lots of very smart classmates. I have no idea about what it’s like now, except that they have spiffy Honors housing and that New Brunswick is vastly nicer than it was in the 80s. Maybe worth a few minutes of your time to check out the website.
Michigan - competitive school in it’s own right, honors kids are especially motivated
Penn State - Scheyers Honors college has very low acceptance rate. Professor I knew from there said that he would only use undergrad researchers from honors college because he knew they were serious
Wisconsin - competitive school in it’s own right. Honors are the top of an already great school
Ohio State - Very strong program
Delaware - Graduate I knew went to MIT for graduate school. Said the honors program gave him a lot of access to top professors and was really a separate experience from the regular school
Pittsburgh - I read somewhere that their honors program was viewed as a good “safety” for nerdy intellectual types. Pitt has world class philosophy, psychology, and anything medical.
UWashington - Their honors program had a great books program along the lines of what is found at Chicago or Columbia
UTexas - Plan II is a very intellectual honors program
Of course a school like William and Mary is an honors college in it’s own right. I don’t think they need to have an honors college.
@homerdog, I agree. It aligns generally with the freshmen enrollment in 2016 (67.7% resident and 32.3% nonresident). Then again, of the 43,525 freshmen applications to UW in 2016, 27.1% were from residents, and 72.9% were from nonresidents.
A friend’s high-achieving daughters turned down Ivy-caliber schools to attend St. Mary’s, a public honors LAC in Maryland. Both had superb experiences there. http://www.smcm.edu/about/
