<p>NCeph:</p>
<p>The percentage of students doing the Honors Program had fallen to 10% by the early 1990s. I don’t think there was ever any corresponding drop in PhD production at Swarthmore. That seems to have been consistently high dating back half a century and remains high today. So that would undercut the idea that the Honors program is essential to grad school admissions.</p>
<p>To the extent that the students who embark on the Honors track may be among Swarthmore’s top students to begin with, there may be some incidental correlation. But, I think the valid way to view the two tracks is simply that they offer two somewhat different approaches to the final two years of study. There are pros and cons to both approaches. From an academic standpoint, those largely center around issues of breadth versus depth. </p>
<p>The relative merits of the two tracks will vary a bit from department to department. Even in the non-honors track, many departments require a double-credit senior thesis or research project, which is a one-on-one tutorial with a thesis advisor professor in the fall and spring of senior year. So, it’s not like the “in course” option isn’t exposing students to grad-school type independent research. In those cases, it’s a choice between one of those and four of those. In fact, that kind of research starts freshman year. One of my D’s freshman seminars this year included interning at a local organization and a final “case study” paper on that organization, including interviewing the head of that organization.</p>
<p>I don’t think a decision needs to be, or can be, made on honors until at least the end of freshman year. By that point, you will, in all likelihood, have been sharing a hall and a bathroom for 9 months with juniors and seniors following both tracks, so you’ll have a real-world look at both options and a real-world view of the various departments. As a prospective applicant, it’s a plus (IMO) that there are two different options and it’s probably important to understand the role the unique honors program has played in shaping Swarthmore for 80 years. But, I think it would be a mistake to try to “project” a decision from afar. I actually think the biggest mistake I see high school kids make here is trying to project too many decisions without even a day of exposure to college academics.</p>