Annie Brackemyre never envisioned herself going to Indiana University—Bloomington.
Back when she was a high school senior in Fishers, Indiana, with a 4.2 GPA and an ACT score of 31, she had her sights set on a constellation of private East Coast schools, including George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Tufts University in Massachusetts.
Back when she was a high school senior in Fishers, Indiana, with a 4.2 GPA and an ACT score of 31, she had her sights set on a constellation of private East Coast schools, including George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Tufts University in Massachusetts.
Though she applied to IU as her safety, "it was hard for me to wrap my mind around going to a state school," she admits. "I sacrificed so much for academics. And it was important that my college choice reflect that." But clarity came in the form of a full academic scholarship to IU's Hutton Honors College. As Brackemyre, now an IU senior, puts it, "Indiana made me an offer that I couldn't say no to."
With tuition at top-tier schools pushing $50,000 a year, competitive applicants – and their parents – are taking a long second look at honors colleges at public universities. Most of these schools-within-schools offer students small, seminar-style courses and a built-in community with all sorts of perks, like dinners with visiting luminaries.
They encourage interdisciplinary work and study abroad, and often require capstone projects or undergraduate research – all with a state-school price tag. It's the best of both worlds, says Hutton Dean Andrea Ciccarelli. "Students receive the elite education of a smaller private university with much broader class offerings."
Applications have gone up 43 percent over the last five years at the University of South Carolina Honors College. And the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College at the University of Mississippi now sees roughly 1,300 applications a year, up from 500 in 2008. The school has tried to keep pace by expanding enrollment from 175 freshman spots a decade ago to 390 today.
"The privates have outpriced themselves," argues Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez, dean of the Ole Miss program. Even out-of-state tuition at state schools is more affordable than the tab at many private colleges. Ole Miss, for instance, charges residents $7,000 a year; out-of-state students pay $19,000. And honors colleges frequently sweeten the pot with merit-based scholarships on top of any need-based financial aid, as well as funding for studying abroad.
Money isn't the only factor driving interest. Honors students typically benefit from the same sort of special attention and rigorous academics as their counterparts at elite schools, but with such large-university attractions at hand as competitive sports teams, hundreds of student organizations, and a greater range of course offerings and majors. That alone can be a game-changer for applicants who haven't decided what to major in.
Lower-division honors courses at Middle Tennessee State University, for example, are limited to 20 students, and upper-level classes max out at 15. Three advisers help the honors college's 750 students arrange internships. Honors students at the University of Pittsburgh read and discuss more material and do more writing than students in standard courses. Mississippi emphasizes discussion in small seminars taught by the most experienced professors.
The VIP treatment typically extends beyond academics. USC plans group outings to the opera, theater and zoo. Barrett, the honors college at Arizona State University, offers an exclusive dining program that features local organic and sustainable foods. Hutton organizes special meet-and-greets with speakers coming through campus.
The extent to which students are required to participate in honors course work and other activities, curricular and otherwise, ranges widely. At Hutton, students who wish to graduate with a general honors notation are required to take at least 21 credits of honors courses, in which they must maintain a 3.4 GPA, and they must have an overall 3.4 at graduation.
South Carolina expects all freshmen to live in an honors residence hall. Students earn at least 45 honors credits, complete two "beyond the classroom" requirements such as undergraduate research or study abroad, and wrap up with a senior thesis project. Many honors programs encourage community service, and some, including Florida International University, require it.
Some educators argue that the exclusivity of honors colleges is unfair.
"The idea of giving special opportunities to some preselected group of students is not the way we do things," says Edward Stricker, dean of the University Honors College at the University of Pittsburgh. Pitt invites all undergraduate students to participate in honors classes, assuming they've taken any prerequisites and have a 3.25 GPA, as well as its intensive Brackenridge undergraduate research program, in which fellows conduct an independent research project under the guidance of a faculty mentor and present their findings at weekly seminars.
The honors experience isn't for everyone. While one of the best predictors of success is high school GPA, the kind of students who succeed in these programs are looking for an extra challenge and have a "fire-in-the-belly excitement" about knowledge, says Hallie Savage, executive director of the National Collegiate Honors Council, an association of honors programs and colleges.
Brackemyre, for one, says she now feels she will graduate with opportunities every bit as impressive as students who graduate from elite schools. She has her sights set on getting into a top law school next year, following in the footsteps of her brother, a Hutton alumnus who is now at Harvard Law School.
Source taken by/usnews.com
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