If you do not want to pay the extra fee for this “gimmick”, then skip honors and have your student enroll in the regular program.
^ Not necessarily. Honors College participation can provide a boost when applying to graduate or professional school. It might carry some weight with potential employers, depending on the field. Also, they can also provide a qualitatively different experience - smaller and more innovative classes, better access to professors, earlier registration privileges, differential housing. I think that goes well beyond marketing.
Barrett at Arizona State costs an extra $1500/year, which is about 6% of OOS tuition for Arts and Sciences. Perhaps this is the school the OP is thinking of.
I initiated this thread to inquire what magnitude of annual fee for honors college / honors program participation was typical. 6% of OOS tuition every year struck me as high. Where I’ve been able to find information online for our schools of interest, there are a number with no extra fee and some with a nominal fee like $50.
The balance between advantage and expense will vary by school and is a decision process we can manage. I was hoping the experience of other parents across a broad range of schools would yield information that’s not on Web sites or would take more online searching time than I have. Thanks @osaycanuc and @wis75 for the data points of $900 (3% of tuition) and $0 respectively. Any others?
Well, how about additional scholarship money? So -$X.
^^^ Examples of that would be great too, for completeness.
Some of the students in CBH and University Fellows at Bama receive additional scholarship $$.
My diploma states the type of Honors degree I earned- one can do honors in the major, comprehensive honors and another variation. This also meant the “with honors” information would be part of info on my degree sent out by UW. Of course, by now that is ancient history for me. It was more than just the H after the grade on the transcript for many courses.
One can make use of an Honors Program take honors courses but to get the degree one needs to meet depth, breadth and grades criteria. So I do have a different diploma than the regular one. btw- UW dropped the magna. summa et al cum laude designations because honors implies more rigor.
One needs to not only evaluate the total costs of being in an honors college/program but the courses available. Some seem to be for the first two years while others include a means of honors in various majors et al. Some schools will give merit money while others do not.
There are big advantages to honors programs and honors dorms – being surrounded by people who take academics seriously can be a tremendously positive influence. A lot of kids who were very successful in HS never got to be social or party, and like to try it out in college. Peers can make a difference between whether this is the occasional weekend bash to let off steam after mid-terms or Thursday-Monday benders every week.
Many universities are eager for bright students to enroll in their honors colleges. These honors colleges allow the schools to be open to a large segment of the population while providing an elite, or at least semi-elite, education to the brightest students. Having these brilliant students on campus elevates the level of scholarship for the entire campus, so I would think this is something the universities would want to subsidize.
And in fact some do. I know Ole Miss and Alabama give very generous merit aid for high ACT scores. Ole Miss will usually tack on additional aid for honors college participants, and I think many other schools will as well.
My wife graduated with honors from Vandy, and her diploma states that she graduated with honors. Of COURSE she would list this on any job application. This is even more relevant for some of the flagships with low admission standards, where attending the honors college is a bit like attending an elite university. Why in the world would one not list that on their resume?
My D is in the Honors College at Alabama. While there are some modest course fees for the actual honors classes, they are no different from the course fees for other classes. So I’d say there is no real cost. She’s also in a particular honors program there. Again, there is no cost.
I am familiar with two honors programs. One charges $500. The other charges no additional fee.