My dd is a NMF. We visited both UK and UA, and on paper both looked like good deals for NMF and had lots to offer for my dd’s interests. We really would have been happy if we’d liked UK better, as it is half the distance from home, full ride for 4 years (as opposed to a mostly-ride for 5 at UA), and we love, loved one (important specialty department) professor there. The honors rep who met with us seemed reluctant to make time to visit with us, and seemed to strangely boast that they’d turned down 20+ NMF students last year for the Honors College. It wasn’t an awful visit, and UK surely has lots to offer, but the UA visit was night-and-day different. UA made dd (and I) feel so welcomed, encouraged, and confident that dd would get support and opportunities. My dd did get in to the UK honors, but doesn’t plan to attend. (She is a great writer, great stats, and from former CC threads, she knew to take the application seriously.)
Anyway, the attitude of “exclusivity” at the Honors College at UK was a huge turn-off to us compared to the UA attitude of “UA and the Honors College offer these great opportunities, and we want to make them available to everyone who could benefit from them . . . So, if you’ve got the stats, you have proven you can benefit from and offer benefits to the Honors College, so our doors are wide open. Come on in!! (And, BTW, don’t sweat it if you don’t have the stats right now, just kick butt your first year, and then come on in!”) At UK, the Honors College exclusivity felt more like an attempt to create an arbitrary sense of elitism, which felt contrived and rather ugly. It is understandable that any Ivy or similar high-status college has to be somewhat arbitrary in excluding many/most applicants since their resources are limited and they can only have so many students. The same rationale doesn’t apply to a big school Honors College, and so their exclusivity seems pretentious and simply unkind. To me. And to dd.
Needless to say, dd is excited to be enrolling at UA, and I am happy to cover the extra costs and handle the more complex travel logistics . . . (She hasn’t totally closed the door to UK or to our local uni yet, but she is enrolled, confirmed, registered for orientation and housing at UA . . . So unless something bizarre changes in the next few months, she’s Bama Bound and very happy about it.) I hope that UK’s Honors College shifts their approach for future classes, because the location and the overall school has much to offer. But, we’re super excited about UA.