Anyone care to share their perspective on the Clemson Honors College? I continue to come across feedback from students that it’s not worth the perks offered/extra tuition.
My daughter applied freshman year, so never lived in the honors dorm. She’s a senior and thinks it’s worth it, she likes having another advisor (she has 3) and I know she spend time in the building when on campus. She is definitely a student who takes advantage of everything college offers.
I agree with @Mjkacmom and would say you get out of it what you put into it. It was very helpful to DD especially freshman year. She opted to live in RISE instead of Core, but attended all the HC social activities. She’s taken and really loved the seminar classes; they were a lot more interesting to her than other Gen Ed options. The biggest advantage is probably early registration; she’s never had an issue getting classes she wants or needs. She still uses the study spaces in Core even as a 5th year. She’s continued with it over the years to see it through at this point. It does get harder to fulfill the requirements (at least for engineering) when you get to junior and senior years because you may need to work with professors to make your classes into honors classes or take an additional honors class. She has been able to get exemptions though. I know several students who dropped out of HC after freshman or sophomore years, so that is an option as well. She has gotten research opportunities because of HC, so that may be something to look into as well if your student is applying to a STEM major. She also loves the “free” tickets to the Brooks Center shows. I think a lot of HC students don’t take advantage of all the resources, so for them I would say it’s not worth it. It really depends on your student.
Spouse and I met in the honors housing at Clemson years ago. He continued with it, and I dropped after my sophomore year because they hadn’t yet figured out how to offer honors classes at the upper level in some majors (one of which was mine). But, honors housing was a great introduction to college because it selected for students who tended to be focused on academics.
When kid went to Clemson we encouraged him to try the honors college, and so far (one month in) it’s been great. There are quiet places to study, and the dorm isn’t disruptively loud. Students gather in the great hall to watch movies or ball games and seem to go to other activities on campus. Dining and the gym are convenient. One day honors advisors were having office hours in the dorm and kid stopped by to talk and basically sketched out what to take as honors from now until graduation.
Non-freshmen are not guaranteed on-campus housing, and some students don’t want to live on campus anyway. But, if they choose to, honors students can remain in honors housing after their first year. It wouldn’t be a perk for everybody, but for a kid who is a minimalist, doesn’t enjoy cooking, and eats too much for eating out to be an affordable option, a dorm room with an all-you-can-eat dining plan is a good fit - I could imagine kid staying on in honors housing beyond the first year.
Like many things, whether it’s worth it depends on the student. If they join the honors activities and take advantage of the perks and study spaces, it could be a big plus. If they find their people in honors housing then they’ll be glad that they lived there. If their interests are elsewhere - a time-consuming activity, a lot of time spent with a significant other, frequent trips home, etc - then they may not get much benefit from it.
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