Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

I would like to get some more information - and a discussion - on the relative merits of honors programs at state schools as opposed to just going to a top LAC.
As I see it, the benefits of an honors program are as follow:
low tuition
special access to faculty (have heard stories about how students in UMD honors program have taught classes to single students)
Great research opportunities (Univ. of Maryland has special program where 12 person multidisciplinary research team actually publishes book @ end of snr year)
Special citations (good for grad school)

If you havent guessed - I'm from Maryland - and if anyone has info on UMD College Park Honors Program(s) (especially gemstone)- i would love it

What are the vaeious tradeoffs
Which would be better - Especially for grad school where school prestige is less of an issue

By Natalia (Natalia) on Wednesday, May 07, 2003 - 06:41 pm: Edit

I'm from MD too - it really comes down to where you'd feel more comfortable. If you really want the small college feel, think the large campus is overwhelming, etc., then a LAC is probably better for you. Yes, the UMD Honors program is EXCELLENT. I went to the Honors open house, and they had some professors talking... you get a lot of special opportunities, but it's not necessarily any easier to get yourself known. According to the pre-med advisor, you really have to get in there and MAKE yourself known to get the special attention. In the honors program, you will be the "cream of the crop," and that's good. It also depends on what you want to go into - different colleges have different reputations on placing people into certain graduate schools. If you go to a good LAC, and do well, you'll have a lot of individual attention, and you'll have great access to faculty (by sheer virtue that there aren't that many people at the school, in comparison with a huge public university). I think that the atmosphere at a LAC is different than the atmosphere at a public university, especially when you're comparing the LACs to UMD (from my experience). One of my best friends is going to UMD next year, just cause she loved the variety of people there and loved it when she visited. Some other people I know absolutely hated UMD because it was big and impersonal. For grad school admissions though, you really can't go wrong.

By Lki (Lki) on Saturday, May 10, 2003 - 06:06 pm: Edit

bump

By Pisces (Pisces) on Saturday, May 10, 2003 - 07:00 pm: Edit

"In the honors program, you will be the "cream of the crop," and that's good."

I guess you can look at this statement two different ways. It's good because, yes, you are at the top and you have more opportunities than some of the other students, but your whole school wont be filled with people who are as motivated, as intelligent, and as excited about being at school as you will be. It seems like there might be a lot more to strive for at a LAC. I dont know anything about umd, but som schools give preferential housting to honors students, which may not be great for making friends. There would be more cultural diversity at a big state school, but more intellectual diversity at a lac.

i dont know if this helps, but its just what i was thinking.

btw- what lac's are you thinking of?
oh, and in case you couldnt tell, i'm going to a lac next year, so i'm obviously biased (just "take it with a grain of salt" or whatever your grandparents say)

By Lki (Lki) on Saturday, May 10, 2003 - 07:50 pm: Edit

what I'm particularly interested in @ UMD is a program called Gemstone (more selective than plain ol honors, ~150 students/class) in which interdisciplinary research teams of ~12 ppl work on a 3 year research project and publish their results in a book when they graduate.
http://www.gemstone.umd.edu/
Does anyone know of any other programs that might be like this?

By Amd (Amd) on Saturday, May 10, 2003 - 09:03 pm: Edit

When I started worrying about college for my son about four years ago, I had not heard of LACs. (The son involved finished his freshman year of college just last week.) I heard about the virtues of LACs - small class sizes, personal attention, bright fellow students, etc - from boards like this. I pondered about this single decision for the next three years or so. My son attended an admissions event at Purdue and hated it. He next attended an admissions event at Wabash and loved it except for the all male aspect of it. Seeing the difference in his reaction to the two types of colleges, I was absolutely convinced that he should go to an LAC. I started touting the virtues of LACs in boards like this. He applied to Kalamazoo, Grinnell, and Carleton (among others) and I was positive that he would pick one of these.

Here is the clincher. He ended up choosing a big state university and now feels that its size is one of its positive points. Go figure. I don't know what kind of program Gemstone is. However, the big state university has worked out well for my son. None of his classes have been larger than 25. He has taken stimulating classes and come across stimulating fellwo students. Would these have even been better at Kalamazoo/Grinnell/Carleton? Possibly, I will never know. All I know is that big bad state U Honors program can work well.

I just looked at the Gemstone Web page. I will grab this in a heartbeat (even over Ivies).

amd

By Lki (Lki) on Saturday, May 10, 2003 - 09:24 pm: Edit

where does your son go?

By Amd (Amd) on Saturday, May 10, 2003 - 09:57 pm: Edit

Hi,
This is amd's son, just thought I'd post to give a little better idea of why I'm still happy at the big, bad state school. By the way, I go to Indiana University in Bloomington.
Anyway, while doing the whole college applications process I thought I should go to a liberal arts college, mostly because I am kind of shy and sometimes have trouble making friends. But I ended up going to IU, and I love it. The honors college has been a big part of it, allowing me to meet other academically inclined students. The honors physics class that I took was especially good--in addition to doing high level physics, we had lots of pizza party's and fun activities and were encouraged to collaborate--I met a lot friends there who I'll probably keep for a while. Also, I had a chance to take a class with the new honors college dean and I'd have to say she's very receptive to student input and wnats to make the program even better. I've also taken two honors seminar courses, and they were both very good.
Of course there were other things that made IU good for me. It'l close to my home, which didn't sound that appealing while in high school, but it really helped when moving things down. Moreover, I roomed with my best friend from high school, and it really helped to have someone I knew during the first two months. It actually worked so well that we're going to room together again next year. Oh yeah, the cheap cost of the state school was nice too, it means I have more money to eat at nice restaurants and go to the opera (<--best in the country)and things like that.
What I was trying to get at with this rambling post is that honors colleges can be a good option, but it might be hard to tell beforehand. At least in my case, there were a number of other factors that made IU the "right" place for me. Anyway, good luck everyone.

By Lki (Lki) on Saturday, May 10, 2003 - 10:37 pm: Edit

thanks for your input

By Amd (Amd) on Saturday, May 10, 2003 - 11:04 pm: Edit

This is amd [who has wrested the control of the computer back from my son ;-)]. He was born in Gaithersburg, MD. [We lived in College Park, MD at that time ;-) My brother has a PhD from UMD.]

amd

By Lki (Lki) on Sunday, May 11, 2003 - 08:39 am: Edit

I wonder how many people from MontyCo frequent these boards - it seems to be alot

By Mr_Mbuna (Mr_Mbuna) on Saturday, September 27, 2003 - 11:53 pm: Edit

The honors programs at UMD are what make the school really stand out to me. Especially the interdisciplinary living-learning honors programs and things like Gemstone.

Ben