I am just curious what people’s experiences have been with Honors Colleges within large public universities.
Specifically:
Do graduates have enhanced career prospects vs the rest of the university in any meaningful way?
Do the promises (which vary by school) of better housing, smaller classes, better professors, closer ties to professors, priority in registration, special events, etc. actually pan out?
Is the workload significantly more?
Many thanks!
This is incredibly college dependent.
My D’s experience in Honors College at Purdue was very very positive. Yes to better housing, priority registration, small honors seminars, guaranteed research, tight relationships with profs, honors specific study abroad, honors specific summer internships, and leadership opportunities. IMO, the combination of opportunities did help with job placement.
In terms of workload, there were 24 required honors credit hours. Some were extra classes but some were just honors versions of classes that our D would have had anyway. In addition there was a GPA minimum and a scholarly project. D didn’t find it burdensome and felt it was a very positive experience.
School dependent - and sometimes not just jobs but programs.
My daughter is having a great experience at Charleston - but she’s in a sub group of Honors. I don’t know how it will impact career wise but only Honors kids could do the DC Semester - so some schools might limit certain programs to Honors students. It was through the U of SC Honors College she attended the DC program and I believe at U of SC it’s also limited to Honors students.
My son went to Bama - the largest Honors College - and he wasn’t interested. He did it for early class registration - took a few classes but didn’t engage. Dropped it last semester - he had what he needed. Earlier registration - and nicer first year housing. My daughter - she goes to guest speakers - she lives it up!!! If the kid takes advantage, and depending on the program, it can be wonderful. But not all kids love all the things about Honors. My son, in fact, applied to Honors at some but not all his colleges whereas my daughter applied to all - because they (the content) interested her.
Don’t do it for career prospects. That’s not to say it won’t help and at some schools they might have better connections. But most jobs you apply on line and my son said there wasn’t a single application where he could enter that. I did a few with him - and he’s right.
#2 - yes.
#3 - i don’t think so but the type of work might change…as classes can be smaller and thus more interactive.
Pitts honors college was as little or as much as you wanted to make of it. The best part was the smaller honors dorm at a big school and some sections of interesting classes for honors-only kids.
I’m going to say no yes no at Clemson and UDel.
Terrific answers all! Thank you!
I know that everyone who responded was referring to Honors Colleges which is what I was looking for. I would just note, for other readers, that Honors Programs are a bit different and perhaps a bit smaller in scope (e.g., no dedicated housing) than Honors Colleges.
Just an important distinction for others reading this. And yet, many universities use the terms “Honors College” and “Honors Programs” interchangably which is probably OK since there is no formal definition for either.
My S21 did a department specific Honors program. Got small classes with top students, preferred housing, great interaction with professors and no work he wouldn’t have wanted to do. He’s still working on a thesis, but it’s a project he might have done in his spare time anyways. He had fantastic career opportunities, better than expected.
D24 is just getting started on hers. It’s likely ensured housing (with AC), smaller General Education classes she would have had to take anyways, and a handful of hours showing progress on campus projects and a final thesis like endeavor. Edited to add that early registration is also a perk in her honors program and the main driver for applying.
Overall, very happy with both so far.
Do you think this is related to Honors?
My son had fantastic opportunities - multiple interviews and offers - and Honors had zero to do with it. I’m guessing his major (and the good economy last year) did.
Other than being on his resume (and we don’t know if anyone is reading resumes), he said Honors came up nowhere…unless he noted in an interview.
That’s why I ask.
My youngest went to JMU and opted to not apply for the Honors College. I was 100% OK with that. The main reason was that you had to take a bunch of classes that he had zero interest in. Registering early for classes didn’t matter for him, as he came in with 50-60 credits and got to register early anyway. The special dorm didn’t appeal to him either.
I looked up some of the other opportunities - research. Neither of my kids wanted anything to do with research (just like me!). Special mentors? Also not his style. He is much more the kind of kid who wanted to spend his time playing intramural sports and hanging out with friends than talking to professors. When we’d visit him at school it seemed wherever we went, people were coming up to him saying hello. (This is NOT a trait he got from my side of the family, lol.)
Study abroad was listed. That was something he was very much interested in, but his IA major would only allow for it to happen in the summer session. He signed up twice, and both were cancelled at the last minute due to covid. So he probably wouldn’t have been able to do it even in the Honors College.
His major (IA) was very small. Only 55 kids are accepted into the program each year, so all of his major classes were small anyway. Not having to take those extra classes also allowed him to double major in something he WAS interested in (Geography). He thrived at that school, graduated at the top of his class in his majors. He got a fantastic internship that led to a job that has a much higher salary than I had hoped for with great benefits.
He had multiple companies come in and present just to the honors cohort. I think it did help considerably to create better opportunities in this case. Again, this was a very small cohort all with the same degree, so very enticing to recruiters.
My oldest kid recently graduated from a large public university with honors. And we looked at several between both kids. The amenities and perks vary widely by school. Some seemed worth it, some didn’t, some seemed worth it at least to start and evaluate from there. My younger kid started in an honors program. When she got into it she realized she could either double major or do honors and graduate in 4 years. So she dropped honors.
In terms of career opportunities, I don’t know any school doing anything special in their career offices for honors students. But that said, some employers want to see your transcript and value high GPAs, rigor, engagement in campus life, etc. My oldest kid landed a very competitive job at a company that regularly hires a lot of new grads. They hire at about a 1% rate and they do a long assessment test during the hiring process too in addition to transcript, references, background check,etc. So though, I don’t think maybe direct advantages are obvious. But there can be advantages to that rigorous transcript when you get to hiring (and certainly grad school paths) that can’t be easily quantified.
Are you comfortable sharing what college this honors program was at, either publicly or via DM? I’m sifting through them for my kid and struggling to see which ones have options like this. Thanks!
Purdue also has companies come in to talk specifically to the honors classes.
I had a son who was in the Honors college of a large public university in the US News top 40 (for whatever that is worth). The early registration was HUGE. By far the best benefit. There was some exposure to better research opportunities. That was pretty much it.
As people have stated, it is very college dependent. S23 is having a great experience in the Honor Program at Colorado State University. He was offered Honors everywhere he applied and did a deep dive to compare the programs. CSU had everything he wanted in an honors program while some just didn’t offer much and weren’t worth the time. All responses here pertain to Colorado State
Probably not, but in some cases, maybe. In S23’s field, they won’t care that he was in the Honors Program. It is a field where they want to see that you’ve had hands on experience. What they will care about is the research he’s done for his Honor’s thesis. He will get both financial and professor support for this.
Yes to better housing at CSU, but more kids want to live in the honors dorm than it can hold, so it is not guaranteed. In a few colleges we considered, the honors programs were not in the nicest dorms on campus. Some were in really bad dorms. S23 chose to live in an RLC for his major which just so happens to be right next to the Honors program dorm/ dining hall/ classrooms. It’s the best of both worlds for him.
Yes to smaller classes. S23 takes small discussion-based interdisciplinary classes to cover most of his gen. eds. vs. sitting in large in-person lecture halls. He loves these classes. They tend to not be a lot of extra work as it is a “show what you know” format rather than lots of quizzes and tests.
Better professors/closer ties - maybe? I know at CSU professors fight to get to teach their “passion” classes so they are more invested. He’s had easy and regular access.
Yes to priority registration. At CSU Honors students and D1 athletes register before everyone else.
S23 hasn’t done many of the special events. He’s not the “geek prom” type and is very involved in the events for his major which isn’t necessarily well represented in the Honor Program. His major advisor is so great that he really hasn’t used his Honors advisor much. That may change as he gets more into his thesis.
Not really. There isn’t busy work and most classes are discussion and project-based. There are fewer tests. As the topics are so interesting, it doesn’t feel like more work.
Sure, I have recommended it many times on CC. It’s the Turing Program at UT Austin. No special registration benefits, but you are lumped in with all the other honors programs at UT Austin for housing, you get small accelerated classes for the 6 fundamental CS courses. They have a bunch of social and recruiting events just for the 200 or so Turing students (50 per year).
One more thought about honors colleges…our experience, which is now 6 years old so YMMV now, was that the schools we toured didn’t do a great job of promoting their honors colleges. My sense is that was intentional as universities know how competitive these programs are for admission and they don’t want to turn off applicants if they aren’t accepted to honors. When we toured, the party line seemed to be that HC was unnecessary and that other living learning communities can replicate some of the experience. While I believe that to be true in many ways, we were pleasantly shocked at the robustness of the HC program once my D was accepted. It wasn’t until after acceptance to HC that we were able to do an honors specific event, tour the residence, meet the honors advisors, and really learn of the scope of the program.
Great feedback all!
One follow up question.
I have heard that some Honors Colleges are now charging extra fees.
They started with insignificant fees and are now getting into the low thousands of dollars.
This information doesn’t appear on Net Price Calculators and isn’t prominent on websites.
Still, for some of the amenities, the fees may be worth it.
Can people with kids in Honors Colleges comment?
The Purdue honors college fee is still $200/year.
Not have started. U of SC. ASU have for a while, a long long while. . My kid didn’t but I know Arizona added one. It will be school dependent so you need to look. No doubt some offerings have costs - whether they absorb them through the student body or tack on extra is school dependent. Some colleges do this with majors too - so majors get a differential fee.
So check for fees college by college that interest you if it’s going to impact a decision.