What's the advantage to Honors College?

CuttingEdge
Sun, 02 May 2010 23:31:03 +0000

It is kind of hard to say what the honors college is so i guess i will start with what it does.

The first thing the honors college does is it organizes a community of people interested in ideas and being around (somewhat) intellectually driven people. So like there is a retreat in the late summer, there is freshman and upper class honors housing, there are two floors of the cathedral to hang out in, there are clubs it runs, and SHAC (student honors activities committee) organizes fun activities. The retreat is by invitation and housing is by application. Otherwise all of these community activities are open to EVERYONE in the university.

The second thing the honors college does is runs honors classes. These are typically smaller, harder, and more in depth. Like any classes some are good some are bad. However, out of all my classes lasted year I liked 4 out of 10. Out of my honors classes I liked 3 out of 5. However, my least favorite class was also honors. All and all though i would say the classes are better. To take UHC classes as a first semester freshman you need to have a SAT of at least 1400 OR you need to ask permission which i will almost guarantee you will be granted as long as you seem interested in the class. After that you need a cumulative GPA of 3.25.

The third thing the UHC does is give the Bphil degree. This is a research based honors degree for people in any of Pitt’s schools.

The final thing the UHC does is provide support for those students seeking to win national scholarships. It also provides support for those looking to do research at Pitt.

The honors college does not have a list of people in it. There is no such thing as being “in” the honors college. If someone wants to be “in” the honors college they can just start participating in some honors clubs and hang out on the 35th floor and then they are as much in the honors college as anyone.

Anyways, I really like the honors college. It is a great community and I have really found a lot of cool people and things through it. I don’t want to put words in anyone’s mouth but some people may feel differently. Some of this I think is connected to legitimate criticism about things that could be done better. Like, for instance, i don’t think the honors college does a good enough job advertising the fact that everyone is invited and people end up feeling not included.

Anyways, I would encourage your daughter to check out the uhc website or visit. It really does have a lot to offer.