Mag University pro's- Wtf is up with honors college ?

[fatnslow]

Third kid is a senior in high school and most likely will be attending University of Oregon and has some interest in the honors program. First kid went there and didn't have any interest and second kid is at a small private college that doesn't have one so all my info is from other parents. My take so far is MOST info from other families about college is virtually useless cause you know whatever their kid is doing/did is the best thing ever.
Looking from 10,00 feet seems that it potentially puts kids in a slightly different group for the honors classes but nominal difference in the quality of classes/profs/environment.
My goal for the kid is NOT move back home after 2 weeks, die from fentanyl laced weed/x , get a baby momma while learning to be a functional, semi independent adult who can think for himself after a few years.

[BC.]

FWIW Honors college usually has better/nicer housing for kids......it puts all the “like minded” academic kids together to create a “better” learning atmosphere?

[east or bust]

I was very close friends with several people in the honors program at UVM, and out of about 8 of them I think only 2 stayed with it to graduation.

There were several benefits for on campus life, namely, the dorms there were far nicer than anywhere else. UVM requires first two years on campus, and from what I understood, other than obviously maintaining good grades there was only one class/semester requirement to stay in the program.

Once we were off campus, and the engineering classes were becoming more challenging, that honors college class was a major drag. Turned out writing papers on mundane topics wasn’t the best use of time when needing to focus more on truly rigorous classes. That was what ultimately led most to drop the honors college, I think.

Depending on major maybe certain employers actually look at that on a resume. From my experience they were more concerned with overall GPA and internship experience.

That said, if your kid has interest in it, I’d say encourage it.

[John_B]

I did it for a year at WWU. After 3 quarters of reading 10 classic books a quarter and navel gazing with the rest of the well off kids about the meaning of the Epic of Gilgamesh I decided my time could be better spent in classes that interested me and applied to my major.

That was 15 years ago. FWIW.

[riser4]

I was very close friends with several people in the honors program at UVM, and out of about 8 of them I think only 2 stayed with it to graduation.

There were several benefits for on campus life, namely, the dorms there were far nicer than anywhere else. UVM requires first two years on campus, and from what I understood, other than obviously maintaining good grades there was only one class/semester requirement to stay in the program.

Once we were off campus, and the engineering classes were becoming more challenging, that honors college class was a major drag. Turned out writing papers on mundane topics wasn’t the best use of time when needing to focus more on truly rigorous classes. That was what ultimately led most to drop the honors college, I think.

Depending on major maybe certain employers actually look at that on a resume. From my experience they were more concerned with overall GPA and internship experience.

That said, if your kid has interest in it, I’d say encourage it.

Thing#2 is in HCol at UVM, doing mechanical engineering. He got a shitty dorm (Simpson) 1st year. This year he's in U Heights, but he's in the overflow section fir HCol so it's mixed with some other college that he doesn't care for, says they are weird and noisy. He's going to commute from home next year to save money. It's 30 minutes from our house to the commuter lots.

[ghosthop]

Depending on major, the accelerated registration is worth the trouble alone.

I would pursue until it's not worth it.

[Iowagriz]

Agree with a lot of the above. Daughter was engineering honors at Purdue. New dorm (when they were have housing problems), preferred class registration, tougher engineering classes but better study environment.

Negative was that the tougher classes lost her $10k in scholarship for 1 year (she earned it back for the following years).

She bowed out after registering for the Soph year classes, overall didn't see the long term benefit.

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[fatnslow]

He's not a stem kid and really has no idea what he way to pursue yet. The whole nice dorm and ease of registration is not worth anything to me. I actually like the idea of him having to deal with some minor adversity , to me those things are part of the college experience. From what I have seen the honors college does have a dedicated dorm but the actual HC classes are limited at Oregon. My second kid looked at it for about 30 seconds and felt if was pretty lacking compared to other colleges.
Oregon offered a decent scholarship that he needs to maintain a 3.0 and if HC adds extra stuff without any true value I would rather have him take classes that interest him and have time to enjoy college life.

[idahospud]

Thing#2 is in HCol at UVM, doing mechanical engineering. He got a shitty dorm (Simpson) 1st year. This year he's in U Heights, but he's in the overflow section fir HCol so it's mixed with some other college that he doesn't care for, says they are weird and noisy. He's going to commute from home next year to save money. It's 30 minutes from our house to the commuter lots.

I don't have a horse in the honors college race, but as a UVM'er with a couple degrees from there... I'd love to hear his take on the MechE professors.

[riser4]

Thing#1 went to Uni in Canaduh. Of course they do things differently up there, eh? One applies to the Honors program during 2nd year. She ended up with dual honors degrees in Anthropology and History, with a minor in English. She's back at the same school to get an education degree and teaching credentials or whatever they call it. No idea if honors helped her or not, but the dual major plus a minor gives her 3 "teachables" which I guess makes her more hirable? She's doing a practicum right now in a grade 9 English class. Unfortunately the CUPE strike in NB caused her to do two weeks of that online. The NB premier misused the covid emergency rules to force the teachers and students online. Remote learning was not intended for getting around a support staff strike.

[MakersTeleMark]

She ended up with dual honors degrees in Anthropology and History, with a minor in English.

The car talk whole foods trifecta right there. Bravo.

[Sirshredalot]

The car talk whole foods trifecta right there. Bravo.

The car talk guys had much more employable academic credentials than that!

I've interviewed kids coming fresh out of school and looking for their first job recently. No one cares if they were in the honors college or not. Maybe it's different for a different industry/major.

When I was an undergrad, the flagship state U would give a full ride to honors kids with the right gpa and test scores if they were in state. Obviously, if there's a full ride scholarship involved, that's a sweet deal.

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[MakersTeleMark]

The car talk guys had much more employable academic credentials than that!

They had a running joke about the utility of an english major.

[Sirshredalot]

They had a running joke about the utility of an english major.

Ahh yes. RIP Tom.

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[fatnslow]

The car talk guys had much more employable academic credentials than that!

I've interviewed kids coming fresh out of school and looking for their first job recently. No one cares if they were in the honors college or not. Maybe it's different for a different industry/major.

When I was an undergrad, the flagship state U would give a full ride to honors kids with the right gpa and test scores if they were in state. Obviously, if there's a full ride scholarship involved, that's a sweet deal.

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Uhm, no full ride. Quite the contrary they fucking charge extra for honors college classes and dorm.

[Mofro261]

He's not a stem kid and really has no idea what he way to pursue yet. The whole nice dorm and ease of registration is not worth anything to me. I actually like the idea of him having to deal with some minor adversity , to me those things are part of the college experience. From what I have seen the honors college does have a dedicated dorm but the actual HC classes are limited at Oregon. My second kid looked at it for about 30 seconds and felt if was pretty lacking compared to other colleges.
Oregon offered a decent scholarship that he needs to maintain a 3.0 and if HC adds extra stuff without any true value I would rather have him take classes that interest him and have time to enjoy college life.

I dunno about OU, but my girl is in the honors program at UofU and it's been pretty fantastic for her. Really nice dorms first year was a perk, as was the week long Colorado float she did as part of the Outdoor Life cohort within the honors college week before school started. Her honors class ended up being some different outdoor adventure each Friday during first semester. Most of her ski/hike/climb friends have been connected through that group of 25 kids so it kind of gave her some community out the gate.
It's helped with class schedules, might have given her a leg up for getting into the design program too.

Totally wasn't on her radar but a retired college administrator she talked told her to do it and said there wasn't much downside in applying.

[LongShortLong]

Adversity. Wouldn't worry about that, life/college has plenty. Somehow it finds everyone.

Hiring. I don't think I've ever seen honors college on a resume. Nor does a resume influence my hiring input, besides small talk in an attempt to make the candidate comfortable in the hope they'll relax and perform well on the real questions. The honors likely helps get past HR so I see the resume in the first place. At a smaller company, there was minimal HR screening, but it's definitely a factor at megacorp.

College experience. If I had it to do over again, old me would tell young me to reside in the honors dorms. The social pressure would likely improve my study habits, and maybe I would have graduated on time with a higher GPA and more knowledge. Maybe a better attitude. OTOH, I mispent my freshman year at a (semi elite) college, and did not fit in at all with the rich kids. Given we're dentists here, your kid will fit in fine. You gave him his beemer already, or at least a hand-me-down, right?

Encourage him to think hard about whether he wants the payscale of a barista or something more, and pursue a degree and effort level leading in the chosen direction. Maybe aim for a sugar momma.

[Falcon3]

The classes are usually at least a bit more rigorous.

After college, for grad school or in work, I’d say an Honors 3.7 doesn’t beat a standard 3.9.

[caulfield]

I graduated from UW honors program a few years ago. I'd do it again, but don't consider it a must-do. Mileage will vary at a different school.

positive:
- small classes. UW "core" classes are mostly massive and impersonal. Honors replaced those with 15-20 person classes where you have to talk and the prof knows you
- professors have fun and care. UW's model is inviting profs from other departments to come teach something they're excited about, but isn't their direct area of work. Makes it novel for them, and the class sizes mean less work on their end.
- counterintuitively helpful for my GPA because the goal of the classes isn't to weed people out and they aren't big enough to grade on a curve. Happy professor thing probably helps. We mostly all got A's for effort.
- exposure to random things. I stumbled ass-backwards into some volunteer opportunities and my whole major by taking classes where I just thought the course title sounded cool.
- met my wife in an honors class

neutral:
- agree that it doesn't mean anything on a resume. Yea probably gets you through HR review, but only for the first job out of college.
- we didn't have honors dorms, or at least I wasn't in one

negative:
-exaggerated version of the liberal elite bubble that colleges are generally. At first it was good for me because I came from my own insulated rural bubble, but it was an echo chamber by senior year. Everyone was smart, but mostly the same kind of smart.

[fatnslow]

Adversity. Wouldn't worry about that, life/college has plenty. Somehow it finds everyone.

Hiring. I don't think I've ever seen honors college on a resume. Nor does a resume influence my hiring input, besides small talk in an attempt to make the candidate comfortable in the hope they'll relax and perform well on the real questions. The honors likely helps get past HR so I see the resume in the first place. At a smaller company, there was minimal HR screening, but it's definitely a factor at megacorp.

College experience. If I had it to do over again, old me would tell young me to reside in the honors dorms. The social pressure would likely improve my study habits, and maybe I would have graduated on time with a higher GPA and more knowledge. Maybe a better attitude. OTOH, I mispent my freshman year at a (semi elite) college, and did not fit in at all with the rich kids. Given we're dentists here, your kid will fit in fine. You gave him his beemer already, or at least a hand-me-down, right?

Encourage him to think hard about whether he wants the payscale of a barista or something more, and pursue a degree and effort level leading in the chosen direction. Maybe aim for a sugar momma.

I'm "that dad" that thinks life's shit storms are pretty enriching to a young adult. Wife's side of the family shields their kids with kryptonite where my side is a little different. Just saw my nephew navigate his first shitty dorm situation solo and thought it was pretty cool seeing him handle it.
I actually told my kids sugar momma/daddy or cozy up to the rich off shore kids to write a few papers for some easy cash and get a job working for their uber wealthy families after graduation. First 2 failed this mission so hoping third time's the charm.
So far 2 econ majors so pay scale is questionable......

[LongShortLong]

I'm "that dad" that thinks life's shit storms are pretty enriching to a young adult. Wife's side of the family shields their kids with kryptonite where my side is a little different. Just saw my nephew navigate his first shitty dorm situation solo and thought it was pretty cool seeing him handle it.
I actually told my kids sugar momma/daddy or cozy up to the rich off shore kids to write a few papers for some easy cash and get a job working for their uber wealthy families after graduation. First 2 failed this mission so hoping third time's the charm.
So far 2 econ majors so pay scale is questionable......

Agree econ can go many places. I'd also tell young me to pursue the job friend's father seemed to offer. I was too set on making my own way. But I had a good early job adventures anyway, I think most do. I'd also tell young me to switch jobs more looking for a good position. ... Always had this skiing itch interfering with career...

Life would be great if we could do it twice, or ten times, once is ok too. Wish 'em luck

[schuss]

I did the honors program at my state university years ago. I thought it was great as you got to be with smart people more than in your regular classes (as first few years you're in large gen eds or other early major classes), which is nice in a large university setting where you're just a number. It was also nice as it came with additional support, seminars and other things that I wouldn't have known about otherwise. Talking to a more recent grad, she said the honors group got to go on a paid trip to Sillicon Valley to meet with companies there and a lot of additional opportunity, so likely good to at least start with it. It's not like you're cloistered away from everyone, as everyone parties together regardless.

[EWG]

My daughter is a senior in high school. She’s applied to like 10 schools, and to the honors colleges in most of them. This conversation is pretty helpful as she tries to decide what to do.

One thing I realized when reading this: when we hire people that are younger we look for smart people who show some talent and will work hard. We don’t get GPAs on resumes, nor do we ask, so we are looking for something that shows they are sharp.

If I saw someone just out of school who had honors college on their resume and some good real world menial job experience that would be very attractive - as long as it looked like they had some talent.

So maybe it does have a benefit for job seekers.

Again, good discussion, keep it up.

[Supermoon]

I was in the HC at U of U years back. It came with a full-ride if you kept a 3.7 GPA. I of course lost that immediately when Utah had an epic snow year and I landed a job at Alta. Once the scholarship was gone I didn’t stay in. The HC class I took each semester wasn’t really that interesting to me compared to other class opportunities in my major.

Utah is a commuter school largely, so no changes in dorm accommodations

[frorider]

My undergrad years were at Oregon State University (Engineering, in-state) and this thread reminded me that I did go thru the Honors program. My recollection was that a minimum GPA was reqd to graduate with honors (duh) but also qualified me to applyfor the scholarships that paid the tuition and books. No special dorms.

Scholastically I do remember liking the honors classes….as discussed above, they were smaller, had more motivated students and teachers. Had an intense Jim Jarmusch kinda dude discussing Celine and showing us films from Warhol’s Factory. Was a nice break from EE, ME, chemistry etc. I don’t recall it being a lot of extra work, but the teachers were looking for evidence you’d read the material and could participate in the discussions that were the point of small class sizes in the first place.