Julie of KY Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 Is there a good site to find our about Honors programs across a large number of schools? What schools have a niche of honors and give out money? Do I have to simply look at individual schools or can I find the information localized somewhere? Along the same lines, what makes an honors program good? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetC Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 Publicuniversityhonors.com They have a blog and a book 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 I found CC to be the best launching pt resource. I read the college specific forums to garner tidbits that lead to more researching. For example, I had never heard of CBH at Bama until CC. CBH's program is wonderful and some students, not all, do receive scholarships. (But it was only through digging around Bama's website that I learned about their physics scholsarships. It can take a lot of time to find multiple opportunities from a single school.) Through CC I learned just how important the essays are for South Carolina's Top Scholars scholarship. Dd put a huge amt of time into that application. I personally haven't found anyway around hours of independent research for finding honors programs that match my kids' abilities if we want them to be competitive for scholarships. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted August 25, 2017 Author Share Posted August 25, 2017 Thanks Janet, I'll take a look at that site. Thanks 8, I've listened in as you've talked about colleges and scholarships in the past. I've got my first off to school and now I need to work on the finances for the second. I wish there was some easy way other than digging, but I can dig and be persistent in the search. Looking at honors programs is somewhat new as my oldest fell in love with a selective school without a specific honors program and then didn't want to look to much more - it was also the school that cost the least after they gave him a lot of money. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 but I can dig and be persistent in the search. FWIW, when I was in the college hunt (esp due to finances), I mentally considered all those hours as my job. It paid off like one. It's sort of a gamble because I know it doesn't pay off for everyone, but the odds are better that it will with research than without. I found schools that would/could fit based upon my guys' preferences (type, major, location, etc) and then dug deeper into finances to create the final application list (which was picked by my lads based upon what they wanted from that list of possibilities). After we got financial info back the final selection was made (again, by them, from among workable schools). I found schools by spending hours on CC, asking folks currently doing the jobs my guys thought they'd want to do (sometimes by e-mail), and sifting through some college search sites. Honestly, I hadn't really even heard of any of the schools my guys ended up going to prior to my research, but they all love(d) their schools so we're in the cheerleading camp for each of them now (for suitable students, of course). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted August 25, 2017 Author Share Posted August 25, 2017 Yes, I think I have a good handle on how to evaluate schools, scholarships, and potential finances. Generally, my first son wasn't looking at honors programs so that didn't play much into the decision making. I'm now trying to find out how to learn about honors programs at various schools. I'm not sure how much honors programming will play into his decision, but it's a new layer that I haven't looked at too seriously. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 Julie, I just got off the phone with dd. She loves USCarolina. She is happy and all of her classes are pretty small. Keep in mind that honors colleges can be very differently. USC's is very different from honors at schools like Bama and AZ (Which are different from UKy, UOk, etc.) Their honors admissions is limited to 500 students. It might help make your search easier if you try narrowing down exactly what you are looking for from an HC. Ds at Bama really didn't care about the HC in and of itself. He was already taking 300+ classes, so he didn't need to worry about class size. All he wanted was the honors dorm and the ability to apply to CBH (which you had to be in honors to do). Honors at Bama is pretty much automatic based on admission stats (have to submit an essay, but it isn't competitive). But the HC does allow for priority registration and smaller honors class sizes. ASU's honors is huge. I only know their published info (stats: 6800+ Students enrolled in Barrett across all 4 ASU Campuses, 1283 Average SAT score for Barrett students, 3.77 Average high school GPA for Barrett students, 28.8 Average Act score). USC's published stats for the same yr are "In 2016, the middle 50 percent of students in the South Carolina Honors College had an SAT score between 1450-1520, or an ACT composite score between 31-33. On average, students admitted to the Honors College were in the top four percent of their high school class and had an average weighted GPA of 4.65." The greatest perks at USC are associated with Top Scholars. Be aware of early deadlines. Bama's used to be something like Dec 1st (haven't looked since ds attended), but USC's is Oct 15. Barrett strongly recommends by Nov 1. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 Yes, I think I have a good handle on how to evaluate schools, scholarships, and potential finances. Generally, my first son wasn't looking at honors programs so that didn't play much into the decision making. I'm now trying to find out how to learn about honors programs at various schools. I'm not sure how much honors programming will play into his decision, but it's a new layer that I haven't looked at too seriously. Anything special you're looking for Honors-wise? Anything about a school (major, location, type, etc)? I understand you're looking for money, I assume just merit (vs need based)? There are some I know about, but as 8 mentioned, they're varied so it would be a lot of typing to just write about all of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted August 26, 2017 Author Share Posted August 26, 2017 Anything special you're looking for Honors-wise? Anything about a school (major, location, type, etc)? I understand you're looking for money, I assume just merit (vs need based)? There are some I know about, but as 8 mentioned, they're varied so it would be a lot of typing to just write about all of them. Not sure what to look for yet in honors. I have an engineering guy (probably mechanical) who generally loves to learn and experience new things. I'm familiar with Univ. of Ky and that's about it as far as honors. Investigating both need based as well as merit scholarships as he'd qualify for either at many places. I know honors programs often make a less selective school look much more appealing but haven't really gone down that route as far as looking so I"m not sure what most have to offer. I'm not really sure how to start looking at honors programs other than to look at each school specifically. My oldest fell in love his school and got offered a bunch of money so he stopped looking anywhere else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted August 26, 2017 Share Posted August 26, 2017 Not sure what to look for yet in honors. I have an engineering guy (probably mechanical) who generally loves to learn and experience new things. I'm familiar with Univ. of Ky and that's about it as far as honors. Investigating both need based as well as merit scholarships as he'd qualify for either at many places. I know honors programs often make a less selective school look much more appealing but haven't really gone down that route as far as looking so I"m not sure what most have to offer. I'm not really sure how to start looking at honors programs other than to look at each school specifically. My oldest fell in love his school and got offered a bunch of money so he stopped looking anywhere else. Gotcha. With engineering quite a few schools drop out merely because they don't have it. I know Penn St has a well-regarded Honors Program, but they hardly send money student's way through it. Last I knew the award was a mere $2500. They are the most regarded engineering program in PA though and most of our other state schools (including our true state schools) don't offer engineering at all. Pitt has an Honors Program and engineering. They offer more money - up to full rides - but one has to be very competitive to get it. Temple could be worth a look. Their engineering isn't as highly ranked, but they also have an Honors Program and are known to offer really good scholarships. They are definitely a city school though. Many from more rural areas are turned off by that so YMMV. Pitt is a city school too, but more kids seem to like their location. Near Temple is Drexel - also a city school that turns off non-city lovers - but it's more highly ranked for engineering and sometimes offers decent money. Drexel is also a Co-op school and many like that because it gives them a chance to earn money in between semesters and can set them up nicely for jobs with experience. They also have an Honors Program. If city schools are not a problem type-wise, those latter two could be worth a deeper look. Pitt as well if your student is very high with scores. Penn St, while extremely good, is not likely to provide enough $$. Those are the schools that come to mind off the top of my head this morning with info based upon what students at my high school have experienced. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkT Posted August 26, 2017 Share Posted August 26, 2017 as mentioned above ASU https://barretthonors.asu.edu/about/facts note the campuses listed together comprise ASU (which I believe is the largest college in the country) ============================================== about honors colleges in general read the discussion on: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-a-prudent-college-path.html?mcubz=1 Publicuniversityhonors.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honors_colleges_and_programs http://www.bestvalueschools.com/faq/what-is-an-honors-college/ list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_honors_programs_and_colleges_in_the_United_States Don't get too hung up on average SAT scores stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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