Ok, so yes, if you are in Blount you get automatic admission to Honors, and you don’t have to do any of the regular honors stuff (the first year class and book, set number of ‘honors’ classes, etc. But, and this trips people up sometimes, you do still have to apply to honors as well, if you want honors designation on your degree. You just automatically get accepted (but honestly you’d get into honors anyway).
The Blount dorm is suites: two double rooms with a shared bath. It’s not the nicest rooms on campus, but the dorm is widely reputed to have the best community spaces of any dorm. Lots of lounges, a kitchen, the classrooms on the first floor that are always free for students to use if class is not in session. When assignments are due the kids will proofread each others essays and the double rooms make it so the kids really do hang out outside the rooms and socialize.
This year they switched up the curriculum a bit, so it’s not exactly what we thought it would be when she applied (they said short essays every week and a couple longer ones) and she hasn’t been assigned that much writing, but has done more journaling so far.
We did some orientations with Blount alumni and every single one said the writing skills developed in the program really prepared them for grad school.
The application changes a bit every year. Some things stay the same (the song list), but hers had a haiku about nature and giving two books that ‘yearned’ for each other. That question about AI was the topic of her Blount interview, if I recall correctly.
Let me know if you have any other questions. I think last year they had almost 500 applications for the 120 or so spots, so they do heavily utilize a waitlist at the end.