We measure eight characteristics of the 50 honors programs we recently reviewed, but two of those characteristics–the number of honors courses and the size of honors classes–may be the most important for most parents and prospective students.
In our review, we use a scale of 2 to 5 “mortarboards” to rate the eight characteristics: (1) honors completion requirements; (2)the range and type of honors classes; (3) the average enrollment in honors class sections; (4) honors graduation rates; (5) ratio of honors students to honors staff; (6) honors housing; (7) prestigious awards earned by students; and (8) the availability of priority registration for classes.
In this post, we will focus on numbers 2 and 3 above, bearing in mind that a rating of 5 mortarboards is the highest possible rating, while a rating of 4.5 mortarboards is also outstanding.
When it comes to the highest achievement in both the range and type of honors classes and the availability of small honors classes, only one honors college received the highest rating possible–5 mortarboards–in both categories. With an impressive range of honors interdisciplinary seminars to go along with almost 70 department honors courses, the University of Mississippi’s Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College certainly has a lot of honors courses to choose from, along with an average honors class size of fewer than 15 students per section.
Here are nine other honors colleges and programs that have at least a 4.5 rating in both the range and type of courses offered and the average size of honors classes. Note: an average class size rating of 5.0 means the average class size is 15 students or fewer, and a 4.5 rating means that the average honors class size is 20 students or fewer.
Alabama Honors College: range and type of honors courses=5.0; class size=4.5
Arizona State Barrett Honors College: range and type of honors courses=5.0; class size=4.5
Indiana Hutton Honors College: range and type of honors courses=5.0; class size=4.5
Mississippi SMBHC: range and type of honors courses=5.0; class size=5.0
Penn State Schreyer Honors College: range and type of honors courses=5.0; average class size=4.5
South Carolina Honors College: range and type of honors courses=5.0; average class size=4.5
Temple University Honors Program: range and type of honors courses=5.0; average class size=4.5
UCLA Honors Program: range and type of honors courses=5.0; average class size=4.5
Colorado State Honors Program: range and type of honors courses=4.5; average class size=4.5
Texas Tech Honors College: range and type of honors courses=4.5; average class size=4.5
It is no coincidence that only one of the programs listed above has an overall honors rating (all 8 categories) of less than 4.0, and most have an overall rating of 4.5 or 5.0.
