For what it’s worth, Honors offers a community beyond sororities and fraternities (also communities). My daughter didn’t want to pledge in the fall, so her community are people from Honors, mostly who live in the Residence.
She was able to cobble together her essays from other places, so not that much work, and she really likes the Honors class she’s taking this semester (not harder, just different). Very personal choice but made a big difference in our case.
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Does the Honors college have a separate dorm and is it better?
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Yes, the Honors College has the Honors Residence dorm for freshman - my daughter lives there and has met her best friends there. There are suite style (what she’s in) which are two doubles connected by a shared bathroom, some singles and other configurations (the rooms aren’t all the same). There’s a gameroom on the first floor, an all you can eat dining hall (Honeycomb) and a coffee shop (The Buzz). So, many days, she just has her first meal and/or second meal right in the residence, which is very convenient. It’s also centrally located near the Horseshoe and Fitness Center.
‘Better’ is a relative term as some people like the more modern buildings, others like more traditional dorms with doubles/hall bathrooms. For her, it’s a great fit and her hall is VERY social so they spend a lot of time together. For admitted student day if you go, the Honors Residence is typically a dorm that you can visit and go inside.
Thank you, this is very helpful, and motivating to finish up the Honors app
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Do you think that Honors can benefit someone interested in both sororities and more challenging academics? Seems that it kind of offers the benefits of both worlds.
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Yes, I would agree. My daughter’s friend is in the Honors College, lives in Honors Residence and is in a sorority (she jokingly calls it the ‘smart girl’ sorority) 
My daughter isn’t interested in Greek life other than academic based ones like the Medical co-ed Fraternity as she plays rec sports, does research and other clubs. So she has plenty to do without pledging a sorority (which I hear are quite large and even if you get in, still can be tough to connect with other girls there, which is a little surprising).
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Any dates for early admission - my daughter got hers last year from USC in November …?
It says mid-December but maybe in-state is earlier?
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My 2023 grad got her acceptance on 11/18. I’d keep a close eye on emails this weekend and next week.
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Well, we sent the application, hopefully the effort to write those extra essays will be worth it
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Really appreciate you sharing this information!!
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Good luck!
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For class of 2028 cycle (current freshman), EA decisions were released on Dec 15th. As part of that admission, she was notified that she was admitted to Honors College with a scholarship, but no specifics of what it was until later (but did say she received in-state tuition + something more). We then got the details on March 8th of what the scholarship would entail and appealed that close to May 1st once other offers had come in (and received a bit more $).
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Yes, my S28 also received his EA acceptance and initial scholarship of in-state tuition on 12/15, but he did not receive his acceptance to the Honors College until mid-February. So, if you do not receive the honors college acceptance in December, that doesn’t necessarily mean you will not receive acceptance later.
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Good point. My understanding is that acceptances to HC can increase (along with merit potentially) as they see/decide on RD applications (and they see kids going elsewhere). So, yes, can always get accepted to HC later (our daughter’s friend did, as a matter of fact) if their yield isn’t where they’d hoped or based on institutional priorities.
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Can you tell me what your stats were to receive the instate tuition ?
Sure. She got a 1490 on the SAT, and her weighted GPA was 4.8 or so (her school didn’t do AP/IB - they did DE senior year) and practically, what matters is unweighted GPA as they will recalculate it. She went to a rigorous STEM magnet school and while she had a lot of nice extra-curriculars: Varsity VB, Lifeguard, Started her own biz at 12, Peer leader, etc,
Another perspective from a freshman honors student in the business school. My daughter did not officially decide on USC until we went to admitted student day in April. At that point she was looking at Clemson, Penn State (Smeal), and Villanova. What really sold her was the honors college, and the fact that being in the honors college gave her automatic acceptance into their International Business Program, which is #1 in the nation. Typically, freshmen will apply at the end of their first year, and she was able to skip that step completely.
I will say that she hasn’t been too involved in honors events yet (outside of a fireside chat that they did with Coach Dawn Stanley), but that is primarily because she joined a sorority, and that keeps her extremely busy. She also elected not to live in the honors dorm (she really fell in love with Campus Village), so that means she is not quite as connected to the honors community as others.
She has loved the early registration, which for spring semester was a full week before the rest of the campus, but she did struggle to get into a couple of honors classes that she wanted because they only take 20 people. In the end she was still able to get 2 of them, and she will be checking in to see if any others open before the spring semester starts. In regard to non-honors classes though, it is a huge advantage as there were tons of seats open during her time frame. I have heard that regular freshman registration was brutal and almost impossible to get classes if you were in a slot on the last couple of days. The change in advising did not really effect her because her new advisor is the same honors advisor that she had in the summer.
All in all, she is happy with her choice, and absolutely loves the campus and the city.
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Anyone have an informed perspective re: test scores/SCHC? My student is OOS and his test scores (1320 SAT and 30 ACT) are lower than the SCHC 25% numbers (1350 SAT and 31 ACT). He self-submitted both scores as part of his general admission application via the Common App. He was told he could not opt out of the Honors College seeing them (even though many schools allow for that option) so I guess they are going to see them. I think he’s pretty well-rounded and has very strong essays, LOR, leadership roles, owns his own BBQ business that he started at age 12, decent volunteer activities and a 4.0. But that testing piece isn’t going to help them bump their averages up. Anyone have any informed perspective on this?
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I second this and came here to say: For non-honors kids, course registration for spring seemed brutal. Saw numerous messages from parents that their student couldn’t get classes they needed for their major and are checking Coursicle and waiting for other sections to open, whereas, my daughter got all her classes except for her third HC class (which isn’t a big deal) that she needed. It’s a significant benefit having early course registration and early option to apply for residence hall of choice.