Honors programs at big universities

anon94785555
Fri, 06 Jun 2014 19:58:33 +0000

Honors Colleges are different than Honors Programs. Flagship U’s vary in eliteness from state to state. Not too long ago I checked on various Honors colleges and programs. They vary so much in offerings. Some isolate the students in specific housing and have a junky list of Honors survey courses to choose from the first two years with nothing after that. A student chooses Honors for the courses, not validation as suggested in a post.

UW-Madison has had an Honors Program since before my time. They added more to it in son’s day such as a lot of online extras they couldn’t do in those pre-internet days of my schooling (UW had comp sci- even its own department and building since the 1960’s). They decided not to segregate Honors students in housing- a good thing as there is too much diversity among top students to think they would want the same dorm setting.

UW is one of the upper echelon public flagships (I would argue that Michigan is no better, but that’s another topic). Honors students are so diverse I can’t imagine them being housed together- even my fellow Honors Chemistry women friends and I chose different areas of campus for housing. Being in the Honors Program at UW means being eligible for Honors courses, Honors discussion sections of courses and doing extra to get Honors credit in others. One can enter/leave at will- no hassles. However, to meet the requirements for an Honors degree (and UW dropped magna, summa, cum laude distinctions eons ago) you need enough Honors credits with a B or better and a thesis or grad level courses (for Chemistry lab work in a grad lab setting with a thesis- a top 10 grad chemistry school, for son math grad courses in a around top 15 for math grad school setting) you need to start early enough to finish in 4 years. Hard core versions of math, chemistry, physics and biology (organic chem required) sequences for sciences and others for liberal arts also. At UW you take the Honors courses because you want the extra material et al, not for prestige.

Given the numbers of undergrads- eg with around 6000 entering freshmen at UW- there is a core of Honors student numbers likely equivalent to many upper level private schools’ total freshman enrollment. A large public U is many groups of students, not one cohort. Depending on the field of study/major a student could be at a better U than some elite U’s (eg Harvard for computer science or engineering fields).

People have mentioned ASU’s Honors College. But- unlike UW, the rest of the university may not be as good or the student body have as good credentials as at UW. This is why the specific school matters as much as how they approach Honors. At some schools Honors courses disappear after the general ed courses. So many variables. same thing with Ivy League schools- not all offer all majors.

Costs matter. It is not worth going into significant debt for one college instead of another with similar academic possibilities. Choosing some public U’s Honors colleges/programs because they give merit money instead of others- you may get what you pay for. UW doesn’t need to offer money to attract enough top students.

More than a long enough post.