Information about U of Alabama Honors College

Bumping this up for any more input / more recent info. My son has been admitted to HC for class of 2029 - but waiting to hear from a few more (South Carolina and Schreyer at PSU).

Would appreciate any insights on UA Honors College - especially if you (your student) - also considered South Carolina.

My son is at UA in the Honors College…and I was a Schreyer Scholar at PSU. They are night and day different. At UA I think it’s like 25% of the freshman are in the Honors College. Not very exclusive. They do have very nice dorms though, and priority registration is great. So far he said the two two required UH classes he took were ā€œstupidā€ and he learned nothing but got As. His attitude is not great about anything non-STEM. He did Honors Action the week before freshman semester and I think it was a good experience. He says most kids don’t graduate in Honors, they just use it to get priority registration and never finish the required classes. I am encouraging him to stick with it since the requirements are pretty light. His first semester he took two Honors versions of STEM classes and I think that was good…the sections were way smaller and he got to know the profs with no real extra work. He took an honors only photography class for fun, taught by this super cool and very old artist in residence. Only 5 students in the class.

Schreyer Scholars is super exclusive…very hard to get into. My honors chemistry class kicked my ass. The discussion was on a whole other level. I would have failed but they curved it…they pretty much never failed anyone in honors classes. Regular chemistry was a breeze after that. The kids I lived with in honors housing were brilliant and so driven. We had amazing guest speakers…Dr. Cornell West was one I heard and that was in 1995. We were set up in research labs from the very beginning and did the same research for four years and wrote a big thesis about it in order to graduate from Schreyer. Everyone that started in Schreyer, finished in Schreyer. Our graduation medal ceremony was a big deal. Oh…and at the time, we got 50% tuition covered (and I had the other half covered by outside scholarships). That certainly isn’t the case now :frowning:

This was my son. His gf, however, took advantage and moved the program - so it’s there if you want it.

Approximately how many students were in the freshmen honors stem classes your son took?

Hmm…I’d had to ask but it was for sure less than 50. Maybe 30?

ETA: I just looked up the courses. All the honors sections of the Engineering Foundations class are capped at 40. The honors sections of the first computer science class are capped at 50. Honors Calc 1 is 35 students. Honors Calc 2 is 32 students max.

These are all for last Fall semester.

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Thank you for taking the time to look up the courses, I really do appreciate your time & effort!

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My senior will be choosing between Alabama Honors and PSU Honors (Schreyer) (in state for PA).

Really like Alabama a lot - but based on this - sounds like your recommendation would be to go with Schreyer?

You have to be somewhere, day after day, for four years. If one stands out, that’s where he should be - forgetting Honors.

Bama does have lots of opportunities but as noted up thread, not all take advantage. But if you decide to take advantage, it’s fine.

No doubt the PSU program is leading but you have one chance to go to college. So go where you want.

Both schools will put out successful alums.

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Schreyer is top-notch all around - personal advising, choice of courses taught by the best profs, lots of opportunities if you are willing to take advantage of that, plus peer quality if in fields that require group work/discussion it does matter (if Engineering, ABET accreditation, curriculum structure, attrition, and class content make this much less significant.)

However you have to think of

  1. finances: PSU even with Schreyer is known to be very expensive and UA could well be cheaper, so if both are affordable you have to weigh Schreyer v. cost differential
  2. where the student will be happier, what the best for is for their personality - once it’s determined both are affordable, this is the key criterion imho
  3. to a lesser extent what region the student wants to ā€œlandā€ : while both are national brands with career fairs from all over, PSU is a powerhouse in the Mid Atlantic region and UA has more alumni in the South so while it’s possible to land anywhere, where you studied may make things a bit easier for someone aiming to work in, say Virginia or NYC vs Florida or Georgia.
    But if both are affordable, I’d let the student choose where they want to go.

Aside from these criteria, if it were me (=ymmv), I’d pick Psu Schreyer if Smeal, premed, or CLA (for advising, peers, opportunities); no difference if Engineering/IST/EMS.

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Thank you!! We are in state for PSU - so costs are almost equal. PSU about $5K more - but we’d make that up in travel costs (and probably Greek life).

Other than weather, and maybe the dorms, he’d be happy at either. These are his top two choices, and one of the concerns for Alabama was deciding if he wanted to be a flight (versus a drive)away.

$$ about the same. Wants to land in Philly area.

Both have a lot to offer him, but I think Shryer honors college might be too good of an opportunity to pass up, even though we’re in love with ā€˜Bama.

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My S23 ended up picking Bama Honors over Pitt Honors (along with Denison and a handful of others), but the cost differential was substantial in our case so that made the decision easier. It has worked out well. He loves to travel, and being at Bama has given him a new home base from which to explore. He has made friends with kids from both the North and South, and he has been taking full advantage of the opportunities afforded by both the Honor’s College and the University generally. Flights back and forth are a bit of a nuisance, as Birmingham has no direct flights to any city near us. He ends up catching a connector, and I always seem to have to pick him up at the airport around midnight and then drive ninety minutes back home.

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If the cost differential is only 5k and they want to end up near Philly, I’d go with Penn State. I love both schools but if we had been in state, both my kids would have gone to Penn State even without Schreyer.

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