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Every year, freshmen are drawn into the honors program for its many perks, but the benefits aren’t enough to keep all of them in the program.
Though honors students get priority scheduling and are permitted to live in DeHority Complex, approximately one-third of all honors students drop the program, said James Ruebel, dean of the Honors College.
Although Ruebel said the persistence rate is good, he still wants to maintain a higher number of honors students.
“We would like it to be better,” Ruebel said. “The most common reason [to drop] is fear of thesis. The second most common reason is transferring to another institution.”
Sophomore speech pathology major Elizabeth Kreipe knew she wanted to drop honors from the beginning of her freshman year. She came to college with credits from high school and decided to graduate within three years.
“I would have had to go back and retake classes that I had already gotten credit for,” Kreipe said. “If I had stayed in honors, it would have held me back and I would have had to pay for a fourth year.”
She said the university doesn’t accommodate for majors that are easier to obtain in three years because of how many required courses there are.
Not including the senior thesis or freshman seminar, four-year honors students could receive credit for the necessary courses by taking one honors course per semester.
Ruebel said an honors diploma is still obtainable within three years if students plan ahead and take the right summer classes.
Kreipe would have stuck with the honors program if she went to school for four years because of the benefits. She said the priority scheduling has enabled her to get into every class she has wanted.
Even though she has not officially dropped out of the Honors College, because she wants to continue to receive the benefits, she doesn’t think she is cheating the university.
“I don’t feel bad because I feel like I earned it,” Kreipe said. “I did well in high school, and I applied.”
Nicole Conflenti, a sophomore telecommunications major, said she would never consider dropping the honors title, mainly because of the experiences she has had with classes.
“I actually fell in love with the program,” Conflenti said. “… It’s something that challenges you, but in a way that can help you improve your perspective on the world.”
She also said most of the honors professors are invested in the courses, as opposed to some traditional professors. Despite scheduling difficulties, Conflenti has chosen to stay with the same professor for her honors sequence, which is three-course series of classes interrelated to each other.
Junior architecture major Caroline Lawson decided she didn’t want to be in the honors program the spring of her freshman year and recently received a letter saying she was removed from the program because she had taken only three honors courses.
Students are typically cut out of the program if their GPA falls below a 3.33 and doesn’t improve or if they have not taken three honors courses by the end of sophomore year and are not signed up for one in their fifth semester, Ruebel said.
They receive a warning and are allowed to talk with Ruebel before being cut off. If students have a plan and are taking 18 credit hours per semester, exceptions can be made.
Lawson said she has taken 17 or 18 credit hours every semester and many of her friends ran into the same problem and dropped the program.
Ruebel said they are working to keep people in the Honors College by helping them early on in the program. The freshman seminar, a required course for all honors freshmen, helps students develop a four-year plan in hopes they will see how it is possible to graduate with an honors diploma.
There are benefits to sticking with the program, including smaller class sizes, Ruebel said. The honors Living-Learning Community is an asset for high achieving students because they live together in DeHority Complex.
“Students can find a community of people that have similar goals and expectations,” Ruebel said. “They feel comfortable in an environment that it’s OK to be smart. They don’t get a lot of social put back from their honors students if they get a bunch of A’s.”
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