Based on my son’s experience (current freshman):
1 - You have to apply to the honors college. The Scholar’s office told my son during our visit that all he had to write as an answer to each question on the app was “I am a National Merit Finalist” - but he wrote sincere answers anyway. As a matter of good scholarship and humility, I would suggest any applicant do the same, though it can’t hurt to start or end with the other other sentence.
2 - There are a variety of honors classes that count within majors and/or as gened requirements - agree with @3scoutsmom that it does resemble a jigsaw puzzle. My son took MUNM 1113 as honors this year, which counts as a course for the honors program and his artistic forms core requirement. Don’t know yet what he plans to do for the rest, but I suspect he’ll choose a few honors version of other core requirements and a few honors versions of classes for his major/minor.
3 - Ditto 3scoutsmom’s answer
4 - When the students sign up for housing, they rank their housing type preference. The preferences include the honors dorm, and NMF housing. NMF housing is various floors in Couch/Walker/Adams where at least half the residents will be NMF. My son put that as his first choice, and is on an NMF floor in Couch. His suite mates are all NMF from various parts of the US. He’s going abroad next year, so I don’t know what the plan is after that. If he wasn’t going abroad, he’d probably be going in with his friends who are renting a house off campus (half the group is NMF kids, half not).
The Scholar’s office has been very helpful for us, always willing to answer questions. Do give them a call if you need clarity on anything - and definitely sit down with them if you are able to go visit campus.