Anonymous wrote:All of the offerings of a big state school (research opportunities, lots of clubs and activities, athletics, diversity, etc.) with a small college feel (small classes and seminars, getting to know the professors, nicer/smaller dorms).

- Graduate of honors program at my big state university and hoping for same for my kids

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They vary widely but generally help academically-focused students find like-minded peers. Some have rigid requirements, others have minimal requirements (generally a GPA floor). DC is in a loosely structured one and has really enjoyed the community and the honors class options. They serious considered a much more structured honors program at another large university that offered $$$.

All schools have info about what’s required to be considered (some are automatic, some are an additional application with general application, some are separate application after receiving an admissions offer).

I agree with the advice above. It varies a lot from school to school. I picked my big state U for the honors college and lived in the honors dorm. It was not a good experience. The participants skewed male/Engineering and I was female/Liberal Arts. So the social benefits were minimal. I didn't make any good female friends that year and my roommate proved to be a jerk. The dorm was a bit nicer but other things were wrong with the whole school culture (very drinking and sports-focused, not intellectual).

I ended up transferring to School A's rival state school which also had an honors college. The honors college kids and classes were more to my liberal arts taste there but also a bit quirky and pretentious. The administrators were comically snobby about certain majors (pharmacy, etc.). From hanging around School B's honors college, I learned valuable lessons in how to create a personal "baby genius" impression to get scholarships to grad school. However, I quickly decided I'd had it with trying to integrate with the "elite" and gave up on taking honors college classes after sophomore year. The regular ones were just as challenging and meaningful with less instructor quirkiness and I was one of the top-ranked students in my major and graduating class. Overall, I was quite satisfied with School B, highly recommend it, and would "do it again". But I remain skeptical of honors colleges.

Summing up what I learned:

1) the university has to be an excellent fit first;

2) the demographics of the program matter to having peers and making friends;

3) much better to talk to students actually in the program about it vs. reading materials;

4) employers probably don't care about honors vs. non-honors degrees and it remains unclear to me whether special efforts and degrees have any value proportionate to the effort required to complete them. I was never disadvantaged by forgoing the opportunity to write a thesis or to get a special degree name.

Anonymous wrote:They vary widely but generally help academically-focused students find like-minded peers. Some have rigid requirements, others have minimal requirements (generally a GPA floor). DC is in a loosely structured one and has really enjoyed the community and the honors class options. They serious considered a much more structured honors program at another large university that offered $$$.

All schools have info about what’s required to be considered (some are automatic, some are an additional application with general application, some are separate application after receiving an admissions offer).

Anonymous wrote:U of SC gives in-state tuition to honors students. That’s a big benefit.

Some kids want to leave the State of Maryland and have a restricted budget so an honors program at a big state school can help them have what they want.

The UMD program sounds good and also stressful. The honors dorms are not all new, and they take classes with non-honors students. That said, it sounds ideal for kids who want to do the extra reading and hard work to have “honors” on their diploma.

I view honors as a marketing ploy to attract a certain level of student. My kid was offered honors at some schools, and I saw it as a way for the school to get a better student than they would have otherwise.

My oldest would melt under the pressure due to anxiety and adhd, so honors is not for them.

My friends at UMD were honors. I’m not sure how their experience contributed or didn’t in the long term to their happiness. I have learning disabilities so honors was fine in high school but not for me in college.

My view is it doesn’t matter to long term happiness or success (honors or not) and choose what path interests you the most.

The people who do the best seem the best at developing positive relationships. That alone can make up for a lot.

Anonymous wrote:The honors program was one of the major reasons that I chose Ohio State over other universities I was admitted to. It meant that about 1/3-1/2 of major and some gen-ed courses were offered as advanced seminars capped at 25ish students vs the larger 50-100+ standard lectures. As a social sciences major this meant more writing-intensive/discussion-based courses and the opportunity to complete an independent thesis research project, all of which helped me to get into top graduate schools. SLACs weren’t an option financially for me, but the honors program helped me to develop some of those close faculty relationships and critical inquiry skills on a big campus while staying on budget.

Anonymous wrote:The Honors program at DCs school comes with a $28k/year scholarship that made the school affordable for us. It also allows DC to take smaller, specialized seminars and receive more personal advising. There is no special housing or registration advantage.

As far as requirements, there is a minimum GPA to stay in the program, a sequence of required courses (1 each semester except for second semester freshman year when there are two) and an Honors thesis written during senior year. So a bit more work, but a number of the requirements are just honors versions of courses DC would have had to take anyway, but DC found most of them worthwhile.