<p>@GMT: I’ll give you one example of a hidden-gem honors college that walks the talk.</p>
<p>The Barrett Honors college within ASU is truly a residential college, school-within-a-school, with its own nine-acre campus featuring private honors housing and dining. It features small class sizes and direct access to the brain trust of the larger university. The current dean comes from 28 years at Swarthmore and during his 11 years at Barrett has attempted, in his words, “to drop Swarthmore down into midst of the larger U.” Working with the architects of the new campus, he instituted the “house” system he enjoyed as an undergrad at Harvard and many campus features, like the amphitheatre, that he loved at Swarthmore. The refectory is modeled after a similar room at Oxford; the students refer to it as the “Harry Potter Room.” The campus is modern, high-tech, and also boasts several awards for best food (wood-fired brick oven pizza, vegetarian and vegan options that change daily, sushi, and other made-to-order foods).</p>
<p>Though ASU is the largest public university in the nation and probably no BS student’s top choice, Barrett is in a class of its own. It is among the top producers of U.S. Fulbright scholarships. Last year, Barrett students submitted 58 Fulbright applications for 23 awards, an astounding success rate, higher than Harvard, Brown, and Yale for that year. Internship and research opportunities are impressive as well. Students matriculate to the best grad schools.</p>
<p>I’ve had the opportunity to meet and spend time with the dean, and I can say that he is focused on bringing an ivy-like experience to this honors college. I really like how he describes admissions to the program. Though the school is certainly looking for top students, it is really interested in those “quirky” bright students , the ones whose scores may not be what sets them apart. He says they are looking for evidence of intellectual rigor, and they often find it in students whose stats may be lopsided or overshadowed by something brighter in their application. For this reason, he says, Barrett’s profile of incoming students may not appear quite as impressive as the schools he considers Barrett’s peers, but the evidence of their good admissions choices is seen at the other end, in the number of national scholarships and matriculation to the best graduate programs.</p>
<p>This article from publicuniversityhonors.com does a good job of describing Barrett:</p>
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<p>If you are looking for an honors college, Barrett is definitely worth considering.</p>