<p>do you know of anyone who has ever won a capstone appeal?</p>
<p>i’ve never heard of a capstone appeal before. The selection is based on pretty basic criteria that follow SAT scores, GPA etc. My son is a Capstone scholar and while it was nice to be invited and be able to live in Capstone, it has not meant a great deal otherwise. Yes, there are some additional opportunities for study abroad $$ but I think there are plenty of students that would tell you it is kind of hyped up to be more than it is. I’m sure I am going to get a flood of negative responses for this post, but I am being honest from the perspective of MY student. I am NOT saying that this applies to all students! I don’t feel that it is a negative reflection on a student who did not get invited to Capstone and I don’t think they are missing out on anything by living in Columbia instead of Capstone. In fact, some would say that they have it easier as there are no “participation requirements” to live in Columbia. Especially if those “requirements” are not of interest to your student.</p>
<p>I don’t think Capstone is worth an appeal.</p>
<p>^ Agree. While it was nice to have D in Capstone dorm many of her friends today lived in other dorms. After freshman year she didn’t take advantage of Capstone housing because everyone she knew who had lived in that quad had “stories” to tell about it that dissuaded her from living there. Two of her current roommates lived there and they said the same thing.</p>
<p>This should not be a deal breaker because there is no financial incentive attached to it.</p>
<p>I am currently a Capstone Scholar and also in USC’s Honors College. To be honest, the Capstone Scholars Program does not offer its members any unbelievable benefits. On the other hand, the honors college is incredibly advantageous not only in terms of the quality of courses students have the opportunity to take, but also in terms of course scheduling and advisement.
As far as housing is concerned, I have had an oustanding experience living in Capstone and would reccomend it to any incoming freshman Capstone scholar or otherwise (yes this is possible).
In January of this year, I had applied to live in the quads for this coming fall, which I had assumed would be a virtual guarantee since Capstone Scholars supposedly have an edge over all other students applying. To my dismay, I ended up not having enough “capstone points” to qualify for quad living thus placing me in the lottery with every other student looking for on-campus, second year housing.
This frustrated me because the only true benefit of being a Capstone scholar that I could discern (other than living in Capstone House freshman year) was the second year housing security. Without this, Capstone proved to be virtually useless to me.
Upon hearing that I would not be guaranteed housing in South Quad, I decided to look for off campus housing with a few of my friends which, it turns out, is actually much more cost efficient than living in the quads. In fact, it is cheaper for the 12 month lease off campus than the virtual 9 month lease to live on campus in the quads.</p>
<p>ja’mie
why would someone be in Capstone and also in the Honors College? And if so , why wouldn’t you pick the Honors housing over the Capstone options?</p>
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<p>That’s my question, also - I thought the two were mutually exclusive programs. If you were in Honors, there is no reason to be in the Capstone program and if you got into Capstone, then you didn’t get into Honors.</p>
<p>Also, all honors freshman are guaranteed a dorm in the Honors college dorm and my understanding is virtually 100% of them live there. Did you get into honors after your freshman year?</p>
<p>I did not apply to the honors college in my senior year of high school, so by default I was put into the capstone program, or at least that is what happened to the best of my understanding. I applied and was accepted into the honors college for second semester of my freshman year.
The two programs are in fact vastly different. They’re hardly comparable. Though they both have a reputation for being “smart” clubs, honors college provides its members with academic advantages whereas capstone offers its members only housing with other capstone students.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed living in capstone, I just haven’t seen any benefit of being part of the scholars program in and of itself.
To answer your question MomLive, yes, all honors students are guaranteed honors housing to my knowledge. It is also true that virtually 100% of incoming honors freshman live in the honors dorm. This can most likely be attributed to the fact that it is the newest dorm on campus and it’s in a great location. I spend a lot of time there and the dorm is gorgeous.</p>
<p>^Makes sense - thanks for the clarification. Son is going into Honors. Glad to hear the good feedback about the program. From what I have read, Capstone seems to do a lot of ‘community activities’. I don’t get the impression that Honors does so much as a group. What has been your experience with that?</p>
<p>Son was in Capstone and many of the groups did community service. They also had some Capstone sections of classes --he took a freshman English class that was open only to Capstone scholars. It was challenging and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Capstone also houses students by majors on the floors and it was easy to make friends and study. That was a couple of years ago, so things may have changed. He didn’t even apply for Honors although he was qualified because the Capstone program appealed to him more.</p>
<p>MomLive, you’re absolutely right. There have been numerous service projects associated with being part of the Capstone Scholars program, but I have had no service requirements being in honors college thus far (nor will I as far as I know). The only requirements that I must fill to stay in honors college are academic based.
There aren’t too many honors bonding activities to my knowledge. I’m fairly certain that the only consistent “bonding” is everyone living together in the same building. There are various events that the residence hall sponsors and organizes to bond the students living in the building, however, if you’re an honors student who is not living in the building then you aren’t notified of this directly by the residence hall government. In any case, since honors students all live together, they make friends within the building quite easily. Most of my friends are in either honors or capstone because the respective residence halls house students in those programs specifically.
To be more direct, honors college is different from capstone in the sense that honors college is not as much of an organization as it is an academically based entity. In my experience it seems as though honors college is for students who are looking to excel academically past the level at which most other students at the university will have the opportunity to. It is not an organization of students with similar interests or goals necessarily. Even though most honors students do have similar interests and goals, the program is not oriented around this correlation. The program’s focus is to offer students who are academically capable an opportunity to excel.</p>
<p>^Thanks, ja’mie. That is what I suspected. I appreciate you confirming it so succinctly. Nothing wrong with the academic focus of the Honors college. That is what you would expect from a honors program. I didn’t hear about Capstone Scholars until after son got into Honors and was intrigued by the concept and was curious as to whether Honors had a similar ‘theme’ to it. Son fell in love with the honors program several years ago when he first heard Dean Bard speak of it - I do think it will be a good fit for him. Thanks!</p>