Should I Do Honors in the Liberal Arts College

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For students who are really set up on enrolling in a quality honors program, information technology'south important to larn well-nigh some of the best honors colleges earlier making that big decision. That's especially truthful because your honors program will dictate how difficult your classes are...and the perks y'all get from doing well in them!

We're here to help y'all go all the information you need about the top honors programs in the state and so y'all can pick the plan that's correct for you. In this article, we'll:

  • Explain what an honors college is
  • Provide our research-based ranking of the 9 top honors colleges and programs at U.Due south. colleges and universities
  • Give you five tips for applying to meridian college honors programs

Ready? Let's dive in!

Characteristic Image: slgckgc/Flickr

What Is an Honors Higher?

Honors colleges and honors programs are supplemental and/or culling learning programs that undergraduate students can consummate while pursuing a traditional available'southward degree.

Honors colleges typically part independently within a larger university arrangement, similar to the college of business or the college of arts and sciences at a big academy. Additionally, honors colleges typically come with their own funding, facilities, faculty, course offerings, and perks for their students. In many instances, honors colleges can offer their students more rigorous educational opportunities since they serve fewer students and often have better funding than the bigger colleges within a academy arrangement.

College honors programs, on the other hand, part like an academic rails. Eligible students can follow honors programs' guidelines to receive a more rigorous teaching and an honors stardom at graduation. At many universities, these honors programs are managed by individual departments. While honors programs aren't ordinarily big plenty to constitute a college within the university system, honors programs can yet offering students the opportunity to take special courses and participate in extracurricular activities that aren't open to "regular" students.

If honors colleges and honors programs sound similar...that'south because they are! They both give qualifying higher students the opportunity to pursue a more challenging educational track and graduate with honors. Even more importantly, honors colleges and programs provide students with the opportunity to get an aristocracy pedagogy at colleges and universities of all kinds.

While honors colleges across the U.S. are pretty similar in terms of their rigor and individualized attention, some honors colleges stand out from the residuum. The best honors colleges back up and reflect their universities' mission and identity, create ties to their community, and offer top-tier resources to back up their students' career goals. Enrolling in an honors college can assist set yous on the path to long-term success.

If you lot're still curious almost honors college and want to acquire more than, check out our introductory guide to honors colleges in the United states of america.

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We considered many unlike factors, like bookish rigor and funding opportunities, when deciding which schools to put on our list.

Our Methodology for Choosing the All-time Honors Colleges

Now that you know a little more about honors colleges, it's time to look at the all-time honors colleges in the US. Here's our methodology for our honors higher rankings.

To put together our list, we evaluated honors colleges based on admissions requirements, curricular and extracurricular program offerings, customs, financial help opportunities, and innovative approaches to the honors educational experience. The colleges that made our listing offer rigorous coursework, tailored learning plans, excellent funding opportunities, and unique or out-of-the-box learning experiences.

During our inquiry, we constitute that in that location are many dissimilar types of honors colleges and programs out at that place, and every honors college is unique. And you know what? That's a great thing! Every student is unlike, so our goal is to include a diverse array of honors colleges and then you can find your perfect fit.

Now that you know how to navigate our list of the ix best honors colleges, let's wait more closely at our picks for the nine all-time honors colleges and programs in the U.S.

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Barrett College at Arizona State University tops our list of best honors colleges in the United States.

The x Best Honors Colleges

We've divided upwardly our list of the ten best honors colleges into three main categories: the all-time honors colleges, best honors programs, and best affordable honors colleges.

The Best Honors Colleges

These are honors colleges that are stand-lone schools inside a university. They can have the benefit of boosted funding, school-broad extracurriculars, and sometimes even additional distinctions at graduation!

Here are the honors colleges that are at the top of PrepScholar's list.

Barrett College, Arizona State University

  • Location: Tempe, Arizona

Barrett College, the honors college at Arizona State Academy, is a stand-solitary college within the ASU arrangement. Ranked #1 among honors colleges in the United States, Barrett College has a presence on ASU'southward four campuses in Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe, and Glendale, Arizona

In the 2020-2021 academic yr, Arizona State had an 86% acceptance rate, which ways it's an attainable schoolhouse for many students. Though Barrett Higher doesn't publicize its acceptance rate, it does provide other stats that tin can aid prospective students know where they stand every bit applicants. For instance, the boilerplate unweighted loftier school GPA of students admitted into Barret in 2020 was iii.81. In terms of test scores, the average composite score on the SAT was 1347, and the average composite Human activity score was 29. If your GPA and test scores are above average, you have a better shot at getting into Barrett.

Despite the large number of students attending Barrett College, honors class sizes are notwithstanding pocket-size. In addition to offering a required sequence of signature honors courses (the central theme being "The Human Event"), Barrett Higher allows students to conduct research and thesis projects, has a individual writing center for Barrett students, and offers many global internship, report away, and real-world service opportunities. Barrett College also provides quality housing facilities for the bulk of its most 7,500 first- and second-twelvemonth undergraduate honors students.

Barrett is nationally prestigious, and it has the nearly National Merit Scholars of any honors college in the nation. Information technology'due south also the only honors college that has a Nobel Prize recipient teaching undergraduates.

Schreyer Honors College (SHC), Pennsylvania State University

  • Location: University Park, Pennsylvania

Schreyer Honors Higher is Penn State's honors higher. Considered ane of the pinnacle honors colleges in the nation, Schreyer provides approximately two,000 honors college "Scholars" with an educational feel that is defended to bookish integrity, fostering a global perspective, and rich opportunities for leadership and borough date.

The acceptance rate to Penn State is about 49%, but the average acceptance rate to Schreyer Honors Higher is between 19-25%, making this one of the more than competitive public university honors colleges. Another unique feature of Schreyer Honors College is it doesn't consider Sabbatum/Act scores or high school GPA as part of the awarding process. Instead, the Schreyer admissions commission is interested in the creative thinking and actuality applicants demonstrate in their admissions materials.

Schreyer also offers an abundance of honors-specific courses for admitted students. In fact, Schreyer offers over 220 smaller-sized honors courses to its students, usually taught past senior faculty members. Schreyer students too have the benefit of admission to priority registration and living learning communities (LLCs) in residence halls that primarily business firm honors students.

One stand-out offering at Schreyer Honors College is the Integrated Undergraduate Graduate (IUG) Plan. The IUG program allows exceptional students to complete their undergraduate and graduate degrees meantime, or at the aforementioned fourth dimension. Eligible students will be able to come across the requirements for this accelerated program by completing an honors thesis that meets both undergraduate and graduate standards and taking a series of cross-listed undergraduate and graduate courses. If you're interested in enrolling in an honors higher and completing an accelerated graduate degree program, Schreyer could be a good fit for you!

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Clemson Honors College at Clemson University offers honors students a rigorous academic experience. (Spyder_Monkey/Wikimedia)

Clemson Honors College, Clemson University

  • Location: Clemson, S Carolina

Clemson University's honors college is called Clemson Honors College. Of the first-year students admitted to Clemson each year, just under 10% are accepted into Clemson  Honors Higher...which means getting in is tough. That selectiveness is reflected in the examination scores of honors students: the typical profile of by and current honors students includes an SAT score of 1500 or Human activity score of 34.

In that location are plenty of benefits to being an honors student at Clemson. Honors students receive priority registration, extended library privileges, and are eligible to apply for research grants to support their Departmental Honors inquiry projects at the beginning of both the fall and spring semesters.

Some other stand-out feature of Clemson Honors Higher is the brand new Honors Residential Higher (HRC) facility, which includes housing and dining for honors students, administrative offices, a library, report rooms, classrooms, and a kitchen. These facilities are bachelor exclusively to honors students, so yous'll take the infinite you demand to study (and have fun, too).

Clemson Honors College also offers many unique academic opportunities, including the highly selective EUREKA! Plan. The EUREKA! Programme brings approximately 33 incoming honors freshmen to the Clemson campus to participate in research projects over a five week menses earlier the start of the fall semester. Many EUREKA! Program participants become on to receive elite scholarships and fellowships, such as the Rhodes, Fulbright, Goldwater, Marshall, and Truman scholarships.

Rutgers Academy Honors College

  • Location: New Brunswick, New Bailiwick of jersey

The Honors Higher at Rutgers University is both a stand up-alone schoolhouse and a student living-learning customs. The goal of the honors college is to blend the classroom and the customs to create a transformative learning experience for its students.

The Rutgers acceptance rate is 60%, and while the honors college doesn't publish its admissions rates, it'south rubber to assume that getting in is more competitive. The test scores of accustomed students reflect that idea: the median SAT score for the Honors Higher class of 2022 is 1530 (the blended Sat score for not-honors students is 1300).

Luckily for incoming students, there isn't a separate or additional awarding for the Honors College. The Honors College admissions commission uses the full general Rutgers application to make up one's mind who volition exist admitted into the honors program.

In one case admitted into the college, honors students have admission to acme-notch facilities and academic resources. The Honors Higher at Rutgers has its own state-of-the-fine art building, which is the hub for honors courses and seminars, research opportunities, an Innovation Lab, on-site academic advising, and lounges where honors students can build community and fifty-fifty become to know live-in kinesthesia.

One of the all-time things nearly the Honors College at Rutgers is that all honors students receive a four yr renewable scholarship. The Honors College also provides boosted scholarship opportunities for study abroad, research projects, and even has an Honors College Student Emergency Fund for students who run into unexpected fiscal hardship.

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The University of Texas at Austin takes the top spot in our listing of the best honors programs in the United States. (Kumar Appaiah/Flickr)

Best Honors Programs

The biggest difference between an honors college and an honors program is that honors colleges are stand-lonely schools within the academy system, and honors programs are non. For our list, we focused on finding the best academy-wide honors programs in the Us.

Plan II Honors Program, Academy of Texas at Austin

  • Location: Austin, Texas

The College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin offers the Plan II Honors Plan, which is an interdisciplinary arts and sciences major with a core curriculum. Unlike stand up-alone honors colleges like the ones listed above, the Plan Two Honors Program is housed within UT'due south College of Liberal Arts.

Sometimes chosen a "public Ivy," UT has a 39% acceptance rate. Programme II, withal, usually receives around 1600 applications always year and merely admits around 175 freshman honors students every fall. (In other words, getting into Plan II can be a little tough!)

Program II Honors is a prime number example of the difference between an honors college and honors program. Every bit an honors program, Plan 2 Honors doesn't have its own housing, nor are its programs consolidated in ane stand up-alone honors college. However, Plan Ii does have its own scholarship and grant programs, report abroad opportunities, and educatee clubs.

A major perk of the Plan Ii Honors Plan at UT is its flexibility. For students who are interested in double majoring, combining multiple UT honors programs, or fifty-fifty getting a second caste concurrently, Programme Ii Honors is a great choice. Over 70% of Programme II Honors students complete the requirements for a second, third, or quaternary major, and close to 35% complete the requirements for a second caste. That makes the Plan II honors program great for ambitious students who are pursuing a more interdisciplinary course of study!

Echols Scholars Program, University of Virginia

  • Location: Charlottesville, Virginia

The honors program at the Academy of Virginia (UVA) is called Echols Scholars Program. UVA'south Echols Scholars Programme is housed within the College of Arts & Sciences at UVA.

The acceptance rate to UVA is around 24%, making information technology 1 of the near competitive schools on our list. Luckily, all applicants to the College of Arts & Sciences first-twelvemonth class are automatically reviewed for admission to Echols. Each new class of Echols students typically has between 225-250 students, then if you want to get into Echols, you'll need to make sure your UVA awarding stands out from the crowd.

The key value that most defines the Echols is that students go the opportunity to shape the programme. For instance, the Echols Council is a pupil-led governing body that represents Echols students and works with the honors program'due south assistants to design and implement initiatives that give students the best learning experience.

Some other unique opportunity that the Echols Scholars Program offers is the Echols Interdisciplinary Major. The Echols website explains, "The principle underlying the Echols Interdisciplinary Major is that no existing major, or combination of majors, fully satisfies a student's broader interests." This ways that Echols students have the chance to create their own course of study that best fits their future career goals. If y'all want the chance to chart your ain course in higher, you may be a great fit for the Echols Scholars Programme.

Academy Honors Program, the Academy of Kansas

  • Location: Lawrence, Kansas

The University of Kansas Honors Programme, which is more than normally referred to every bit "University Honors," is a campus-wide honors program open up to students of all majors.

The credence charge per unit to KU is about 93%, but acceptance to the University Honors Program is highly competitive. The average GPA for freshmen inbound the honors program is iii.95, which is much higher than the boilerplate GPA of all incoming freshman, which is 3.half dozen. To get into the honors programme, students have to utilise to University Honors equally part of the KU admissions application, which requires you to submit an boosted resume and essay response.

The Academy Honors programme at KU is built on the concept of experiential learning. To graduate from University Honors, students are required to earn "Honors Experience" units by engaging in Enhanced Learning Experiences (ELEs). ELEs at KU include opportunities in public service, cultural literacy and social justice, global citizenship, artful appointment, professional development and social entrepreneurship, leadership, and research. Honors students tin even propose alternative experiences of their own design to see the ELE requirement.

Honors College, University of Due south Carolina

  • Location: Columbia, South Carolina

The Honors College at the University of Southward Carolina is one of the larger honors college programs on this list, with roughly 2,300 students, only that doesn't mean they receive fewer resources. In fact, the honors college offers most 600 honors courses, as well equally the option (merely available to honors students) to blueprint your own major. Average form size for honors college classes is but sixteen, so students there also get more ane-on-1 interaction.

The acceptance rate to the University of South Carolina is roughly 67%, with an estimated Sat midrange of 1180 to 1370 and an estimated Deed midrange of 25 to 31. For the honors college, the SAT midrange is 1430-1520, the Deed midrange is 32-34, and the weighted GPA midrange is iv.5-v.0.

Honors college students benefit from additional perks similar honors-specific living communities in particular dorms and potent financial aid packages. The Honors College at the Academy of South Carolina has also received the highest ranking among public school honors programs for the 5th straight time by the publicationInside Honors.

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An impressive 87% of Macaulay Honors College students graduate debt free! Beyond My Ken/Wikimedia

Best "Bang for Your Cadet" Honors Programs and Colleges

If you're looking to get the most out of your educational dollars, you might consider enrolling in an honors higher or program that offers financial help. Here are two honors colleges that can give you a pinnacle-tier teaching without breaking the banking company.

Macaulay Honors College, City Academy of New York (CUNY)

  • Location: New York City, New York

Macaulay Honors College is the contained honors higher housed within the City Academy of New York (CUNY). Macaulay is affiliated with eight senior colleges inside the CUNY arrangement and has a presence on the following CUNY campuses: Baruch College, Brooklyn Higher, Metropolis College, Hunter College, John Jay College, Lehman College, Queens Higher, and the College of Staten Isle (CSI). And guess what? All of these campuses are located in New York City!

CUNY is pretty selective—the academy's acceptance rate is near 48%. Macaulay itself is besides competitive, offering just 520 seats to incoming students across all eight campuses each yr. To apply to Macaulay, prospective students must submit a high school transcript, SAT/Human action scores, two messages of recommendation, and 2 maximum 500 word essay responses.

While Macaulay scholars volition spend most of their time studying at their home campus, they will have the opportunity to attend lectures, seminars, and even take courses at the other CUNY campuses in New York Urban center. In fact, Macaulay makes learning about New York Metropolis a central feature of its honors instruction. To that finish, Macaulay students receive complimentary admission to hundreds of the city's cultural institutions, and participate in required honors seminars that utilize New York Metropolis as a teaching tool.

Too its infrequent honors education, peradventure the most appealing thing almost Macaulay Honors Higher is its fiscal assist package. Macaulay offers all of its students a merit scholarship package that includes tuition and a laptop computer, plus access to funding to back up study abroad, research, and internship opportunities. Almost impressively, 87% of Macaulay students graduate debt-costless!

Macaulay'south excellent academics—they even have a Nobel Prize winner on faculty— and its generous fiscal aid parcel makes information technology an fantabulous value. Loftier-achieving students who accept limited funds (merely want to get a pinnacle-tier education!) should definitely consider CUNY's Macaulay Honors College.

The University of Alabama Honors College

  • Location: Tuscaloosa, Alabama

The honors higher at the Academy of Alabama, which enrolled students telephone call "UA Honors," is a stand-alone higher within the larger University of Alabama campus.

Admissions into UA Honors is every bit competitive: applicants must accept a minimum ACT score of thirty, minimum Saturday score of 1360, and a 3.5 high schoolhouse GPA or higher to get accepted to UA Honors. At that place is a fast runway into UA Honors for sure students: National Merit Finalists and National Achievement Finalists are admitted automatically once they consummate the honors awarding.

UA Honors offers admitted students tons of academic opportunities. Ane of the most prestigious is the Randall Inquiry Scholars program, which is the first interdisciplinary research program in the United states of america. Randal Research Scholars learn how to combine computing skills with their academic interests to perform high-level enquiry in their field.

UA Honors also offers top-tier leadership and service opportunities through the University Fellows Experience. This four-year plan allows students to develop elite leadership skills while empowering them to requite back to the community around them through service and mentorship. The combination of academics and service offered by UA Honors helps honors graduates stand out as they embark on their hereafter careers.

The amazing bookish and extracurricular activities available through UA Honors comes at a reasonable price, likewise. That's because UA Honors offers some of the most generous merit assist packages in the country to its students. At least xi dissimilar types of merit and need based scholarships are available to UA honors students. On top of those scholarships, UA Honors students are eligible for study abroad scholarships and research fellowships.

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v Tips for Applying to Top College Honors Programs

Applying to college is already a demanding task. If y'all're planning to apply to honors colleges on height of that, y'all've got your work cut out for you!

Our list of five tips for applying to meridian honors colleges tin can help simplify the honors application process.

Tip one: Exercise Your Research Before You Use

Lots of prospective honors students consult the annual honors college rankings to help them decide which honors colleges to employ to. Merely rankings are just the tip of the iceberg! You can—and should!—learn a lot virtually higher honors programs just by browsing university websites before yous brand any decisions almost where to apply.

Honors higher applications tin be long and involved. You lot desire to make sure you know that an honors college is a good fit for you before y'all dump your time and free energy into a secondary awarding. By doing a trivial research up forepart, you'll salve yourself precious time during college awarding season.

Tip 2: Learn How You're Being Evaluated

You can almost e'er observe out the average SAT/ACT scores and GPA of students who are accepted to a schoolhouse'southward honors college before you apply. Many college honors programs have higher requirements for standardized exam scores and GPAs that make up one's mind whether an bidder qualifies for admission.

Though you shouldn't necessarily let your GPA, grade rank, or standardized test scores deter you lot from applying to honors colleges, these numbers can help give y'all an thought of where you lot stand going into the application process. If your scores and GPA are a lot lower than the honor program's stated requirements, then y'all may accept a difficult time getting in.

On the other hand, some schools no longer take SAT/ACT scores and GPA into account as a function of their honors college applications. These schools are more than interested in learning well-nigh who you are through written essays and curt answer questions. If you're applying to these schools, you can't program to merely rely on a perfect Sabbatum score or iv.0 GPA—yous'll need to make certain you're a well-rounded candidate earlier yous decide to apply.

The bottom line? Go into the application procedure knowing how unlike honors colleges are going to evaluate you lot and what qualities they're looking for. This will help you lot know which components of the application to focus your energy on.

Tip 3: Brush Up on Your Writing Skills

Nosotros've already mentioned that honors higher applications are more demanding than regular higher apps, usually because they ask you to write additional essays every bit part of the awarding process.

Also, the essay prompts usually require yous to recollect creatively about yourself, your intellectual interests, and global problems. While some honors colleges inquire standard questions like "why this school," most are going to enquire you to think way outside the box. (For examples of essay questions similar these—and to prepare yourself for what you may see on an honors college application—cheque out the University of Chicago's essay prompts.)

Yous'll also desire to apply for special scholarships or fellowships available through your selected honors programs. Most merit-based scholarship applications include a required essay section that asks you to explain what experiences, achievements, or goals brand you the all-time candidate for the scholarship. That's right—more writing!

Are you lot starting to run into how the essays tin add upwardly if you program to use to an honors higher? Don't worry, though! If you lot're prepared to write persuasively well-nigh your skills and achievements, you're prepared to show that you're an amazing honors higher candidate.

Tip four: Be Set up for an On-Campus Interview

Sometimes (though not e'er) honors colleges will narrow their applicant pool by inviting select applicants to visit their university's campus for an in-person interview. In that location are some great things about being invited to an on-campus interview: you get to meet kinesthesia and current students, and you'll get to tour the college'southward facilities.

At that place are too some scary things virtually an interview: namely, it will help admissions officers make up one's mind whether you lot'll be invited into the program or not.

Does this sound nerve-wracking? Don't worry: you can accept a lot of the anxiety out of the interview procedure with a piddling training. Our guide to conquering the higher interview is a dandy identify to first!

Tip 5: Be Yourself!

It may sound cheesy, simply honors colleges desire to become to know you lot through your application. Don't lie or exaggerate to endeavor and print the admissions committee! Yous're already a great student: all y'all have to exercise is put together an equally great, accurate application.

Keep in mind that creativity and curiosity are two of the qualities that honors colleges desire the nigh in potential students. If you tin can demonstrate what makes y'all a creative thinker and what intellectual topics get you lot excited in your application essays, you'll exist more likely to stand up out to the faculty and staff members who evaluate your awarding materials!

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What's Side by side?

If getting into an honors higher your goal, then y'all demand to make sure you're setting yourself upwardly for success. This starts with having a solid GPA. First, make sure yous're calculating your GPA correctly. Once you figure out what your current GPA is, you tin can focus on raising information technology every bit quickly as possible!

Once your GPA is looking adept, it's time to start focusing on your test scores. Having good exam scores is ane cardinal to getting into the honors program of your dreams! The first step is deciding whether you should have the Saturday or Human activity. Then information technology's fourth dimension to start studying. Check out our skilful Sat study tips and expert ACT study tips to brand sure you're studying smarter and harder.

But like we mentioned earlier, the best honors programs know that y'all're more just your grades and test scores. Honors colleges want to see that y'all're involved in things beyond school, which is where extracurriculars come in. This article will teach you everything you need to know nigh writing about extracurriculars on your college applications so that you stand out from the oversupply.

Desire to build the all-time possible college application?

We can aid. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. Nosotros combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their meridian selection schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League.

Nosotros know what kinds of students colleges want to acknowledge. We desire to go you admitted to your dream schools.

Learn more well-nigh PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your risk of getting in.

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About the Author

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth data they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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Source: https://blog.prepscholar.com/best-honors-colleges-programs-ranking

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