<p>I am curious if anyone has a child who has turned down Honors College because they “didn’t want to work that hard”. I personally think it is another form of senioritis.</p>
<p>I think as a parent I would have to find a way of overruling this. You might want to point out the difference in starting salaries, admission to grad school, future job satisfaction, etc., for kids in an honors-type college program vs. regular.</p>
<p>The world is full of plenty of mediocre people who never challenge themselves. A challenged person often rises to the occasion and learns new things, has new experiences and meets new people. The same people your kid meets in an honors curriculum might be folks who can help later on as he/she enters the working world. The kind of colleagues and contacts that money can’t buy.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but I just wouldn’t accept this from my kid. I’d find a way of having others speak and convince him/her that this is an honor that should not be passed by. College is not easy anyway. You might as well get something good out of it!</p>
<p>Are there any data to support the idea that honors graduates ‘outearn’ other graduates of a particular college? </p>
<p>Is is possible your child could start in the regular classes and then move into the honors college if he finds classes not sufficiently challenging? What about a gap year, if senioritis is the culprit? </p>
<p>I can’t imagine forcing anyone into an honors college works out. At some point, our children do get to make - and live with - their own choices. Why not start with this one?</p>
<p>The college will still put kids in Honors College if they keep their grade point average up the first year.</p>
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In general different strokes for different folks … </p>
<p>I can imagine lots of situations where I would think this is a fine decision … here are a couple. First, a kid has absolutely busted their hump in HS to do very well and their stats are at the low end of the kids in the honor’s program and they are not confident they will do well without working 100+ hours a week … maybe going somewhere with a more balanced life makes sense. Or perhaps, a kid does much better when one of the stronger kids in a learning environment and does not thrive when being an average student … maybe this student would be better off going somewhere they are a big fish. Just a couple scenarios … each kid is different and what is the great learning environment varies by kid.</p>
<p>My D is in an Honors Program at a State University. I think besides being more challenging, you get smaller classes, better/more engaged Profs., meaningful assignments. Some students do better in honors classes because they are more engaged. It makes a large school seam smaller.</p>
<p>My S didn’t turn it down, but wishes he did. The school (UPenn) requirements were to take special Honors courses which never seemed to be anything he was interested in. The courses were labor intensive, and kept him from taking courses he really wanted. After 2 years or so, he ended up not completing the program. His diploma indicates that he took 5 (I think) semesters of Honors. Doesn’t say which 5, so you can’t tell by looking if he was admitted late, or left early. He got his job offers prior to graduation, so his diploma was merely a formality.</p>
<p>I would not suggest a gap year. I took a gap year because my parents said I would have to pay for college myself and ended up working and never stopped. Never made it to college. I really regret it. Had a job that never went anywhere but too afraid to quit it.</p>
<p>I know a guidance counselor whose offspring turned down the Honors Program despite 3 h.s. friends going into it. two quit it after a semester. at that particular school it just seemed like a grind without joy in learning. depends on the place I think.
GC felt it was the son’s decision how he spent his freshman year. You can always get dept. honors etc.
I think the GPA requirements should be considered as well. If they want a 3.5 to stay in, perhaps they are most concerned with how the program looks, not how these new honors students adjust and learn.</p>
<p>I have never seen anything that shows the differences in wages and other things for Honor College graduates compared to regular college graduates.</p>
<p>Depends on the particular honors program and how the college markets it to prospective employers. Some are awesome at this, others not.</p>
<p>My sons honors program requires a thesis. Often times these are published and if you are headed for grad school this would be a great advantage.</p>
<p>Find out if he’s also not telling you about a social concern. My S was offered “honors program” in a private Uni of 40,000 students (grad & undergrad). When he contacted an alum of his high school who’d done the same program, here’s what she said, “The classes are great and you get to go places in the city together, but you are with the same 75 students for 4 years. After a year, I had no social life, having dated the few guys I was interested in, and half of the guys were gay anyway so that cut the dating pool. I couldn’t get to know anybody else well because we didn’t share classes.” After a year, that girl left for a regular spot in a much smaller university where “everyone” was smart like the honors kids in her first situation. She finished the second school very happily.
Because he heard this, in part, my S reasoned that even though the dating thing would work to his advantage (straight guy), studying with the same 75 students for 4 years wasn’t what college was about. He learns from other people as well as the classes.
So find out if he’s either imagining or has heard any social descriptions of the Honors program he’s ready to decline. Including: that the rest of the school puts the Honors kids at arms’ length…</p>
<p>Older S would have done that for the same reason, but didn’t only because his merit aid was tied to honors college. He ended up having a fine time during his brief stay in college. Unfortunately, that fine time wasn’t connected to doing academics.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the one honors class that he had to take, an English class, was doing things that he said he did as a junior in an IB program. He literally said some of the class discussions and assignments were exactly what he did in h.s. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, that didn’t motivate him to get an easy A. It motivated him to skip class and not to go to the final. </p>
<p>This was an honors class at a second tier college where he was among the top entering students based on his scores.</p>
<p>I can imagine more thoughtful students not wanting honors for reasons that would indicate more of a chance of success in college. For instance, if honors college required a thesis, many students wouldn’t want to do that. They may not be that into research, and would prefer spending their free time doing productive ECs. Yet the same students might eventually go on to get doctorates.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the school and the program. At our state U, honors program means you can live in Honors house, which is one of nicest on campus. I think all my Ss friends live there. It hold way more than 75 people, and includes people in different years. </p>
<p>I was part of a different Honors program. We signed up for classes thru the program and got first pick. Taking H classes was not required, but my favorite classes were taking small seminars only offered thru the program.</p>
<p>In sum, it depends on the actual program. I would never do it for the prestige.</p>
<p>The kid is on the low end of the honors bunch regarding ACT and SAT scores. You all had a lot of interesting answers. Honors programs seem to vary widely depending of the college. Also vary on the majors taken.</p>
<p>My son, who is now a college junior, deliberately did not apply to any honors programs when he applied to college. Even when one university specifically sent him an invitation to apply for its honors program, he said no.</p>
<p>The reason: the honors programs at the colleges he was considering were focused on liberal arts. They gave students opportunities to take more rigorous and challenging alternatives to the usual liberal arts courses that students take to fulfill their general education requirements. But my son had little interest in liberal arts. He intended to major in computer science (and in fact, that is the major he ended up in). Being in honors would have meant having to work harder in subjects he didn’t like, thereby taking attention away from computer science and related fields, which is what he really did want to study.</p>
<p>His rationale made sense to me, and quite frankly, I never considered trying to overrule him.</p>
<p>Oh, I wouldn’t try to overrule him. In many ways he is smarter than me. Yes, I am disappointed and yet I also understand where he is coming from. Everything will be new to him and he doesn’t want to get in over his head. He assured me that he will be trying for A’s in his classes.</p>
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<p>WashDad Jr is going to study engineering. As he put it, “I’ll have enough work to do without worrying about Honors College.” He might have a point, especially since the Honors programs I’ve seen are mostly liberal arts focused.</p>
<p>At my son’s state university, the Honors dorm is like a Hilton compared to the rest of the dorms.</p>
<p>The honors program offers the same gen ed courses, but with honors designation. (Honors Calc II, Honors Chem I, etc.) Son found very quickly that it was in his best interest to get into the honors classes. They are small (ex: math class with 18 people), the teachers are good, they know each student personally. Unlike the equivalent 400 student class, it is not “sink or swim.” He said he gets the impression that in the large classes, the teachers really don’t care how the students do; in fact he suspects some feel it is their job to weed out the students. Not so in the Honors classes. The honors courses do go into more depth, and maybe move a little faster, but overall the learning experience is of much higher quality and therefore “easier” in the long run. Definitely a much more pleasant learning environment.</p>
<p>Had the same experience with D. that Marian had with son. D’s school called her and tried to talk her into honors college. When she found out that all her “core” classes would be honors–she said no way. Those were classes she just wanted to get through and had no real interest in. She was already at a very small school, so all classes were small–that was no added attraction. We told her that like her college choice, this was up to her.</p>