Recently we wrote that the U.S. News ranking methodology and a new way of analyzing academic reputation have an overall negative impact on public universities. Today, however, another initiative by the magazine will at least show how some public universities are able to present a quality education at relatively low cost.
Like another higher authority, the magazine can both give and take away.
Congratulations to Florida State for taking the top spot on the list. Miami of Ohio is third, followed by Alabama, William & Mary, and several other public universities we follow. One interesting aspect is that William & Mary, the smallest state school on the list, is the only national university in the U.S. News top 50 to make the value list.
One possible explanation is that the high cost of research in engineering, physics, and computer science might have kept these schools off the list. If so, then the presence on the list of Clemson and Virginia Tech, both with an engineering focus, is a special tribute to them.
Please see the list below.
This latest development appears to be a sort of U.S. News version of the Kiplinger Best Value report, which compares a school’s ranking with the tuition and debt costs of students to define value. The new U.S.News angle is to compare its own ranking of a school with the amount per student spent by the school.
Unlike the other recent change by the magazine that generally undervalues the rankings of public universities, this change uses financial resources to show how some publics can do a lot with a little. If a school has a relatively high U.S. News ranking, then the amount spent per student can likewise be relatively higher and still yield financial value. If a school has a relatively low U.S. News ranking, then the amount spent per student likewise has to be low for the financial value to be indicated.
Here are some examples from the magazine’s recent post on the new feature. We will list major public universities on the list, the magazine rank, and then the amount per student spent by the universities. The list is in rank order, by value as assessed by the magazine:
Florida State: ranking (97); expenditure per student ($17,731)
Miami of Ohio: ranking (89); expenditure per student ($19,091)
Alabama: ranking (77); expenditure per student ($20,288)
William & Mary: ranking (33); expenditure per student ($27,572)
Colorado School of Mines: ranking (77); expenditure per student ($21,417)
Missouri: ranking (97); expenditure per student ($21,226)
Binghamton: ranking (89); expenditure per student ($22,181)
Indiana: ranking (83); expenditure per student ($22,806)
Ohio U: ranking (131); expenditure per student ($18,983)
Rutgers-Newark: ranking (115); expenditure per student ($20,801)
Georgia: ranking (63); expenditure per student ($27,028)
Clemson: ranking (68); expenditure per student ($26,293)
South Carolina: ranking (115); expenditure per student ($21,389)
Virginia Tech: ranking (72); expenditure per student ($26,261)
Oregon: ranking (115); expenditure per student ($21,749)
Florida, in the news once again for its election woes, is also joining Texas and Virginia in the race to see how much havoc meddling university board members can create in the name of “reform.”
In Florida, the most controversial issue is “differentiated tuition,” a business-speak term to describe a plan to reduce tuition for STEM majors and others in Legislature-designated priority fields, while allowing tuition for students in the arts, humanities, and social sciences to increase.
(See discussion and links related to Differentiated Tuition, below.)
Florida Governor Rick Scott has expressed his admiration for the conservative push by Rick Perry in Texas to transform that state’s flagship schools into productivity machines aligned with the perceived economic needs of the state and business community. Like the recent fiasco in Virginia, these efforts stem, so to speak, from the brains of libertarian and entrepreneurial types who are all agog over the latest management trends. What they claim as their goal is “value” for the state and, occasionally, for students; what they desire is instrumental education on the cheap, paid for in part by gutting those pesky academic disciplines that examine values beyond the bottom line.
Florida Higher Ed Task Force Plan is not only poorly written in its current draft form but also ill-advised. It also has a confrontational, we-know-best tone, especially in its references to “academics.”
“A chasm…exists between the system’s colleges and universities and those who must make the difficult decisions in appropriating scare resources,” the plan says. “Many in the academy deny or outright reject the expectations for increased efficiencies and productivity as precursors to demonstrating value that is presumed, to the detriment of the institutions and systems, as self-evident.”
Despite the inelegance of the last sentence, it is more or less clear that the task force is upset with the academy. Furthermore, the task force wants the academy to know that the state’s Board of Governors does indeed have the final word in higher education: The Board is authorized “to operate, regulate, control, and be fully responsive for the management of the whole university system.”
The plan even slips in a criticism of health care as being one of the villains in causing college costs to rise, along with “the perceived demands by students for making ‘college a life-style, not just people getting an education.’” And the state of North Carolina also receives a gratuitous slap as an allegedly spendthrift state “widely held as a paragon for [sic] higher education systems” yet “it leads Florida by only two percentage points in…the proportion of its citizens who hold associate degrees or higher.”
The lifestyle quote also appeared in a New York Times story that correctly pointed out that support jobs in all colleges, public and private, have been growing. But not all of that growth is directed at pampering students.
“The growth in support staff included some jobs that did not exist 20 years ago, like environmental sustainability officers and a broad array of information technology workers,” the Times reported. “The support staff category includes many different jobs, like residential-life staff, admissions and recruitment officers, fund-raisers, loan counselors and all the back-office staff positions responsible for complying with the new regulations and reporting requirements colleges face.” And not a few of those requirements have to do with documenting the metric-driven results dictated by governors and legislatures.
Differentiated Tuition
But what about the merits of differentiated tuition? The task force wants to lower tuition for “high-wage, high-demand (market determined demand) degree programs, as identified by the Legislature.” This phrase appears repeatedly, verbatim, throughout the draft report. The success of the plan will be measured by the following:
1. More degrees in “strategic areas of importance”;
2. Higher percentage of grads who become employed or who continue their education;
3. More grads who attain employment at a higher salary rate; and
4. More “efficiencies” that lower the cost for institutions and students.
The draft somewhat vaguely identifies the “important” degree programs: 111 in STEM subjects; 28 in Globalization (whatever that may be); 21 in health professions; 19 in education (but only in Math and Sciences); and 9 in security and emergency services.
“First, you need to take it on faith that the government is capable of divining which majors are going to be the most marketable year after year,” Weissmann writes. “Second, you need to believe that there are a large number of talented undergrads who could hack it in these subjects, but are choosing easier majors instead.”
“Meanwhile,” Weissmann adds, “it’s not clear that hoards of potential engineers and computer scientists are shunning the campus lab in order to go read Baudelaire instead. Though I haven’t seen state-level data, the vast majority of bachelor’s degrees awarded in this country go to students who study business, science, engineering, and health. The kids today already approach college with a fairly pre-professional mindset.”
Berman notes that “there’s no reason to think this would help Florida economically. If the state wants to align higher education with the needs of business, it should take a look at surveys of employers, who indicate, year after year, that what they most want from college grads is “the ability to effectively communicate” and “critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills”—classic hallmarks of a liberal arts education. And studies like Academically Adrift show that it’s the humanities and social sciences, as well as the natural sciences, that lead to measurable improvements in critical thinking.”
The Washington Post article cites Hunter Rawlings III, president of the Association of American Universities and the former president of both Cornell and the University of Iowa, as believing that the humanities and arts actually help contribute to alleviating our national STEM teacher and research crisis.
“Whereas a high percentage of students who come to college wanting to major in science and engineering drop out and go into business-related social sciences, this is not nearly so much the case at liberal arts colleges,” the Post says.
According to the Post, in the “nation’s most selective liberal arts colleges, a higher percentage of students go on to graduate and professional degrees in STEM fields than is the case at the nation’s major research universities. Integrated liberal arts knowledge, where STEM is a vital component of a larger curriculum that includes a range of literacies, creative expression, and the arts, seems to be ideal for developing future STEM teachers, practitioners, and researchers.”
The same can be said of honors colleges and programs in larger institutions, where the curriculum and “lifestyle” reflect the best in liberal arts education. Honors education does not imitate a factory operation designed to meet an instrumental, external demand but instead embraces the words of a renowned Greek philosopher, whose own method has become a model of effective pedagogy: “Education is the kindling of a flame,” Socrates said,” not the filling of a vessel.”
The University of Texas at Austin will test next year whether it can increase its four-year graduation rate and reduce student loan debt by forgiving some of those loans to students who complete their academic programs more quickly.
Under the pilot program announced Thursday, 200 fall 2013 freshmen will be offered forgiveness of significant portions of the most expensive loans they take out if they make a set amount of progress toward their degrees in a particular time frame.
“The university is focused on improving our four-year graduation rate, and the pilot program is part of its broader effort to help achieve that mission,” said Tom Melecki, the university’s director of student finance services.
The new program comes at a time when state leaders are pressuring universities to improve completion rates, tuition is rising and the number of people failing to keep up with student loan payments is increasing.
Federal direct unsubsidized loans must be repaid at a 6.8 percent interest and are given out after subsidized loans and university and private scholarships are awarded to students.
The students will be selected from a random sample of students involved in the Texas Interdisciplinary Plan, a program that offers additional advising and academic support to about 900 students who receive the unsubsidized loans, said Jamie Brown, a financial aid officer for UT’s student financial services.
In Texas, fewer than a third of students at Texas public college graduate in four years, while a little more than half within six years. UT-Austin is one of the leading colleges in graduation rates, with about half of students graduating in four years and about 80 percent within six years.
“Obviously, there is a need to address this issue not only at the university level, but across the nation,” Brown said.
During the past school year, more than 14,000 UT undergraduate students borrowed $60.1 million in the Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans. Under the pilot program, half of the selected students in fall 2013 would be offered $1,000 loan forgiveness, plus interest accrued if they pass 15 hours of their degree requirements by the end of each semester.
The other half would be offered $2,000 in forgiveness, plus interest accrued, if they complete 30 hours of degree requirements by the end of an academic year.
Completion of those hours would put students on track to graduate in four years.
Tuition at UT-Austin is $9,792 per year, and students that graduate in four years borrow 27 percent less than those who graduate in five, Brown said.
An average student borrows about $19,000 in four years, $24,000 in five years and $31,000 in six years, according to recent data collected by UT Financial Services.
A recent U.S. Department of Education report showed that the number of people failing to keep up with student loan payments is increasing, with 10 borrowers across the country falling into default within the first three years after their loans are due.
Texas already has a popular financial aid program, the B-On-Time Loan, that offers interest-free loans to Texas undergraduates, forgiven if students maintain a B or higher grade-point-average within four years.
University financial aid administrators hope the program will be expanded to forgive 3,200 students per year if the pilot program is successful, which would be more than double the amount of student borrowers forgiven for the B-On-Time Loan.
About 59 percent of UT undergraduates qualify for B-On Time forgiveness, which is about 1,400 students per year.
A portion of tuition set-aside funds, meant for financial assistance, will pay for the pilot program.
“If it proves successful and we extend the program over four years of enrollment, we estimate that the total amount forgiven will be a little more than $8,000 per student but that, in the long run, this will reduce the amount students must repay after graduation by more than $12,000,” Melecki said.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas Honors College has selected 72 outstanding high school students who will make up the 2012 class of Honors College Fellows.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the historic $300 million gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation that was announced in April 2002, a portion of which funded the Honors College and its generous scholarship program.
“Including this latest group, we have provided $50,000 fellowships for 879 students. It’s incredibly rewarding to see them explore their interests, both on campus and abroad,” said Maribeth Lynes, assistant dean and director of recruitment at the University of Arkansas Honors College. Lynes recalls that administrators had to scramble to fill the roster of Honors College fellowships back in 2002.
“Nobody knew about the fellowships that first year,” she said. “We contacted national merit finalists and other top test takers in the state. Our goal was to keep the best and brightest students in Arkansas.”
Today, the word is out on the generous funding that the University of Arkansas Honors College offers to its fellows, and applications are coming in from across the U.S. and abroad. More than 500 top high school students applied for the fellowships, and the 72 new fellows who will arrive on campus next fall are a stellar group. They will benefit from fellowship funds of $50,000 over four years that largely cover the cost of tuition, room and board, books and a computer. The fellowship funds can also be combined with other scholarships and grants, such as the $500,000 to $1 million in study abroad and research grants that the Honors College awards to students each year.
Top grades and test scores are a given: students must score at least 32 on the ACT exam and have a 3.8 grade point average just to apply. The rigor of applicants’ high school course work, their letters of recommendation and community involvement also count.
Though the fellowship program is still relatively young, evidence of its success is solid. Alumni fellows are pursuing advanced degrees at top graduate and professional programs around the country and landing jobs in competitive fields. Summer Scott, a member of the second class of Honors College fellows who earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, particularly appreciated the opportunities to study abroad.
“I participated in a business program in Greece, and also traveled to Egypt, Italy and China,” she said. Scott now heads a plant for Dow Chemical that is the world’s largest producer of epichlorohydrin, a key ingredient in epoxy resins that are used in adhesives, paints and other materials. She emphasized that study abroad prepared her well for work with global teams.
“You have to respect that other cultures are very different from ours; you do your homework, and go in with an open mind. I can’t put into words how important those experiences were for me, both in terms of my career and personally,” she said.
Alumni fellows also appreciate the freedom to pursue their goals without being burdened by student loans. Dwayne Bensing was weighing scholarship offers from American University, the University of Virginia and Hendrix College when he received the invitation to join the first class of Honors College fellows.
“When the Honors College fellowship came in, it seemed too good to be true. It made the decision pretty easy,” he recalled when reached on the telephone. “The U of A offered me the opportunity to explore all of my interests without the overwhelming burden of managing student loan debt.” Bensing studied abroad in Mexico and England, completed two degrees in political science and communication and picked up numerous awards, including a Truman Scholarship. He said that working closely with faculty mentors such as Steve Sheppard, Bill Schreckhise and Stephen Smith prepared him well for law school at University of Pennsylvania, where he recently completed his Juris Doctor. He begins work at a law firm in Washington, D.C. this fall.
Critics of public higher education often allege that state colleges and universities are raising tuition and fees in order to support non-essential research and supposedly lazy professors who do not want to teach more classes. But a recent report by the New York Federal Reserve provides evidence that a lot of public institutions made it through most of the last decade by cutting expenses as state funding declined, though many have now reached the point where tuition and private donations must offset the costs of educating increasing numbers of students.
The report also finds that the public funding cuts have caused tuition to rise at a faster rate at state colleges than at public colleges. The severe recession is the main culprit.
“Before 2007,” the study reports, “changes in public institution tuition do not appear to vary closely with public funding. In fact, over the 2000-07 period, a 10 percent decline in state higher educational funding is associated with a 0.5 percent increase in public institution tuition. However, after 2007, the group of states with the most funding cuts…also has the highest growth in tuition in each year, with an average annual growth rate of 3.4 percent in tuition. Our analysis suggests that over this period, a 10 percent decline in public funding for [this group] is associated with an average annual increase of 3.1 percent in tuition at public institutions. This compares with an increase of 1.2 percent in public institution tuition for a 10 percent decline in public funding in our full sample over the same period (2007-11). That is, we observe an economically meaningful relationship between public funding and public institution tuition changes but mainly since the recession began and especially for the group of states with larger higher education funding cuts.”
The fact that public institutions raised tuition only 0.5 percent during a seven-year period when public funding declined by 10 percent and enrollment was increasing shows that most schools were able to offset the cuts with layoffs and other cost-saving measures. But after seven years, the schools in states that cut funding the most no longer could look to efficiencies and still handle increasing enrollment.
“In the public discourse, federal funding is often blamed for driving up tuition,” the report says. “However, our analysis suggests that public schools are increasing tuition as a way to make up for decreasing state and local appropriations for higher education, and that deeper cuts in public funding may be associated with correspondingly greater tuition hikes. How much change in public institution tuition is caused by a 1 percent change in public funding is a question that is much harder to answer. The reason is that public institutions can make up for the shortfall in revenues from the states in many ways aside from raising the tuition price: they can lay off instructional, administrative, or other types of staff; or they may even eliminate specific programs from their academic curriculum. Finally, a state school may be inclined to accept a greater proportion of out-of-state students, who pay more in tuition than in-state students; however, additional analysis we conducted fails to find evidence of this over the years 2001-10.”
Although the authors–Rajashri Chakrabarti, Maricar Mabutas, and Basit Zafar–found no evidence that schools were accepting more out-of-state students during the decade covered by the study, it is a fact that by now many public colleges are forced to accept more of-of-state students in order to make up for funding shortfalls.
Already recognized nationally for its outstanding study-abroad program, Indiana University and Hutton Honors College have received two more recent gifts that will provide honors students with greater financial support for studying abroad.
A $500,000 gift for the Edward L. Hutton Foundation will provide needed funding for high-achieving students who seek international experiences but are challenged by difficult economic times.
“Given the current economy and the surge in costs for airfare, living expenses and program fees, this generous gift and the IU match couldn’t come at a better time,” said Matt Auer, dean of the Hutton Honors College. “We’re thrilled that a second generation of Huttons shares our passion for study abroad.”
With the new funding and match from IU, the Hutton International Experiences Program will enable 600 students annually to incorporate international experiences into their academic programs.
Another gift of $100,000, to be divided between HHC and the College of Arts and Sciences, has come from an alumnus, Devesh Shah, through a Goldman Sachs charitable giving program. The funds will be used to support students studying abroad in developing nations, and to support those thriving academically who have financial needs.
Shah graduated in 1997 with an individualized major in applied mathematics in finance. When he arrived at IU, he knew no one on campus, but among several university faculty who helped and mentored him, he included former Hutton Honors College Dean Julia Bondanella.
According to Hutton Honors College Dean Matt Auer, the Goldman Sachs Scholarship is open to any undergraduate who meets academic and financial requirements.
“Over the past few years, the Hutton Honors College has encouraged high-achieving IU undergraduates to ‘go off the beaten track’ when they travel abroad to study, intern and volunteer,” Auer said. “This generous gift from Devesh Shah and Goldman Sachs is in sync with our goal of promoting profound learning experiences and personal development opportunities in nontraditional locations worldwide.”
In 2011-2012, HHC provided almost $745,000 for overseas study and volunteer experiences, along with nearly $324,000 for grants for research and internships and approximately $15,000 through a student funding board for student-generated extracurricular programs.
Our planned post on updates and improvements to honors programs will appear in the near future, and we hope at least a few programs will provide information about new scholarship opportunities. In the meantime, thanks to the transparency of the Colorado State site, we can report that there are some great opportunities for entering honors students there, even if they are out-of-state residents.
All students admitted to the honors program receive a $1,000 scholarship, and remain eligible for renewal through four years if they maintain program requirements.
But highly qualified OOS students are eligible for a $9,000 renewable scholarship, whichcovers about three-fourths of the OOS tuition and fees. To be eligible, applicants must meet the February 1 priority deadline and have a 1300/ACT 29/ and at least a 3.8 GPA.
All National Merit finalists, Boettcher finalists and scholars, Monfort Scholars, National Hispanic Scholars, and National Achievement Scholars also receive this scholarship automatically if they apply by the February 1 priority deadline and list CSU as their first choice school.
The good news doesn’t end there. OOS students with SAT 1230/ACT 27 and a GPA of at least 3.6 are eligible for a $7000 a year scholarship.
The regular application deadline for honors is March 1. Admission is based on a combination of test scores and GPAs, allowing students with very high GPAs to be admitted with somewhat lower test scores.
The average SAT of admitted students is 1340, ACT 31, and weighted GPA 4.15
But admission is also likely with the following test/GPA combinations:
SAT 1310/ACT 30/ GPA 3.7;
SAT 1280/ACT 29/GPA 3.8;
SAT 1240/ ACT 28/ GPA 3.9;
SAT 1200/ACT 27/ GPA 4.0.
All also require a recommendation from a high school counselor, who will be contacted.
Automatic invitations are issued to students with the following combinations of test scores and GPAs:
SAT 1400/ACT 32/GPA 4.0;
SAT 1440/ACT 33/GPA 3.9;
SAT 1490/ACT34/ GPA3.8.
Once admitted, students can choose between two honors tracks. Track 1 requires 13 hours of honors core classes and seminars; 6 hours of honors credit in the department, college, or major; and a total of 4 hours for honors research and thesis.
Track 2 is essentially an honors in the major track. It totals 17 hours of honors credit, including the 1 hour freshman honors seminar, 12 hours in the major, and 4 hours for the thesis and research.
The strongest departments at CSU are biological and agricultural engineering 23rd in the nation; civil engineering, 37; environmental engineering, 41; and overall engineering, 67. Chemistry ranks 45th, statistics 40, and all science departments are ranked number 82 or better in the nation. Of special importance to pre-vet students is the very high ranking–number 3 in the nation–of CSU’s vet school.
Honors students have a great residential opportunity. About 240 of the 360 new honors entrants each year can enjoy the amenities of the Honors Academic Village. The residence hall features two-person suites with a private bath. Immediately adjacent is one of the best campus dining facilities, Rams Horn Hall. After freshman year, honors students may live in nearby Edwards Hall, an older facility with traditional rooms and corridor baths.
While there is no doubt that competing in the workforce with a bachelor’s degree rather than a high school diploma is an advantage, the extent of that advantage varies greatly by state, according to a new study whose findings appear in Change Magazine.
The study, be researchers Matt Crellin, Patrick Kelley, and Heath Prince, finds that college grads in Connecticut aged 25-64 earn an average of almost $70,000 per year, while high school grads in the same age group earn an average of about $30,500, considerably less than half as much.
On the other hand, college graduates in Montana earn about $41,000 a year versus approximately $25,000 a year for high school grads, about 60 percent of what college grads make.
The national average in 2009 was $24,300 for high school graduates and $53,200 for those with bachelor’s degrees.
The states with the biggest advantage for college degree holders are Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, California, New Hampshire, Illinois, Texas, Minnesota, and Delaware–all of which have an income difference that is higher than the national average.
The states with the least advantage for college degree holders are Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, Maine, West Virginia, New Mexico, Mississippi, Utah, Wyoming, and Oregon.
Of course this does not mean that degree holders from these and other states are limited to the earning levels in their own states. But if states do not have employers that require large numbers of college graduates, they are at greater risk of losing home-grown college grads to other states.
Citing another study, the article in Change predicts that by 2018, some 63 percent of jobs in the U.S. will require a post-secondary credential, though not necessarily a bachelor’s degree. The percentage of these jobs will vary, from 42 percent of jobs in West Virginia to 70 percent of jobs in Minnesota.
The 2012Princeton Review measures student satisfaction in a variety of areas, and shows that Penn State, Virginia Tech, and Clemson do extremely well when it comes to making students happy. Please note that our list of satisfaction does not include the famous Princeton Reivew categories of best party schools, “reefer madness,” “don’t inhale,” and “got milk?”
Other public universities that made the top 20 lists in one or more categories are Kansas State, Mississippi, Auburn, Georgia, UT Austin, Florida, UC Santa Barbara, Virginia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Washington, Binghamton, Indiana, Miami of Ohio, Ohio University, Purdue, Vermont, Washington State, NC State, Pitt, Michigan, and UMass Amherst.
The rankings listed in parentheses are national rankings of all colleges, public and private.
Virginia Tech: Career Services (18); Students Love These Colleges (3); Town-Gown Relations Are Great (4); Quality of Life (6); Food (2).
Penn State: Career Services (2); Students Love These Colleges (7); Best Quality of Life (18); Happiest Students (13).
Clemson: Career Services (5); Students Love These Colleges (8); Town-Gown Relations Are Great (1); Happiest Students (4).
Kansas State: Town-Gown Relations Are Great (2); Quality of Life (4); Happiest Students (8).
Mississippi: Town-Gown Relations Are Great (11); Happiest Students (12); Most Beautiful Campus (4).
Auburn: Town-Gown Relations Are Great (13); Quality of Life (19).
Georgia: Best Value (8); Food (15).
UT Austin: Best Value (10); Career Services (20); College City Gets High Marks (20).
Florida: Best Value (7); Career Services (6).
UC Santa Barbara: Students Love These Colleges (11); Happiest Students (3).
Virginia: Best Value (2); Financial Aid (2).
Wisconsin: Best Value (5); College City Gets High Marks (19).
North Carolina: Best Value (1).
Washington: Best Value (9).
Binghamton: Best Value (4).
Indiana: Study Abroad (12).
Miami of Ohio: Food (18).
Ohio University: Most Beautiful Campus (15).
Purdue: Food (14).
Vermont: College City Gets High Marks (15).
Washington State: Town-Gown Relations Are Great (9).
When the President and educators across the country emphasize the importance of community colleges, the message is usually that the two-year institutions are mainly important as a means of providing the advanced technical and vocational instruction that is so important in today’s economy. Less is said about the critical role these institutions play in preparing students for high academic achievement at some of the best public and private universities.
Michigan. Cornell. Georgia Tech. NYU. Wisconsin. Mt.Holyoke, Smith, UCLA, Northwestern, UNC Chapel Hill. Columbia and Yale. These and many other institutions are among those who have accepted the outstanding honors students of the Hillsborough Community College Honors Institute, which offers honors courses at five campuses in the Tampa area.
Under the longtime directorship of Dr. Lydia Lyons, a past president of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC), the HCC Honors Institute has been the springboard to excellence for thousands of outstanding students who have gone on to obtain bachelor’s and graduate degrees, not only from most universities in Florida, but also from the schools listed above and many, many more.
There is a sound argument to be made that community college honors programs may even be the best way to graduate from a premier four-year honors program or a prestigious private college.
One big reason, according to Dr. Lyons, is that most community college students pay relatively little to attend school during the first two years; therefore, if they get accepted to a fairly expensive four-year school, even without a lot of financial aid, their total cost for four years is still much less than they would have paid if they had attended a four-year school from the outset.
Another reason is that there can be more support at the two-year schools. “In our Honors Institute,” writes Dr. Lyons, “we are mindful of creating Honors students, not simply providing services for students….”
This does not translate, however, to indulgence. Many of the Honors students “have come to understand that they had to apply themselves to be successful in their courses.” For some of the most talented students, the Institute may be the first place that has required them to accept and, ultimately, to embrace this challenge.
This process of creation requires a faculty that is committed to traveling from one campus to another when it is necessary to do so, and a staff that is ready to nurture and support students through advising and mentoring, especially, perhaps, when the time comes to apply to the four-year institution.
Dr. Lyons has established informal but effective relationships with scores of colleges around the country. When a student wants to attend one of these schools, she is their advocate. Examples of her success with this sort of outreach are the presentations that Institute students receive from outside representatives, including those from Columbia and Mt. Holyoke.
Dr. Lyons and her staff also provide counseling that helps students match their school choice with their majors, rather than just the “brand” of the four-year school.
But just as important in preparing Institute students is the extensive honors curriculum. Completion of the honors curriculum requires 24 semester hours of honors credits–as many or more honors credits as are required by a lot of four-year honors colleges and programs.
Applicants must meet at least one of the following criteria to qualify for the Honors Institute:
High school GPA of 3.4 (unweighted) or higher -or-
SAT combined score of 1160 or higher -or-
ACT combined score of 26 or higher -or-
Top 10% of graduating class with SAT combined score of a minimum 1050, or a minimum ACT composite score of 25, or CPT score of a minimum of 90 in writing and a minimum of 92 in reading -or-
12 hours dual enrollment with 3.8 GPA
As for the honors community, students from all campuses meet at the Dale Mabry Campus in Tampa for student association and board meetings and also use frequent service projects and film study groups to form closer associations.
The mission statement of the Institute says that “Honors students will be challenged to accept their moral responsibilities which include leadership, thoughtful self-governance, and service to others.”
