Tuesday, February 17, 2009
While many University departments are facing budget shortfalls, the KU Honors Program is struggling to fight a surplus.
A surplus of applicants, that is.
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Students are deciding to stay in state and apply for the University of Kansas honors program rather than go out of state because of the poor economy.
After receiving a record number of applicants this year, the honors program is considering raising the bar on its admissions standards. The honors program is also facing the possibility of eliminating some honors classes as a result of budget cuts.
Mark Daly, associate director of the honors program, said more than 2,400 incoming freshmen to date had applied to the honors program for next fall.
After reviewing every applicant, 303 freshmen were admitted, Daly said.
Daly said the current application process had no minimum requirements for admission, so all applications were at least looked over. According to the honors program’s Web site, applicants with an ACT score of 30 or better and an unweighted GPA of 3.75 “are more likely to be considered favorably.”
Megan Gust, Overland Park freshman, said she came to the University because of the honors program after considering Duke University and Northwestern University. She said the honors program made it feel like she was part of a small liberal arts college.
Gust said she thought some people in the honors program might not have deserved to be admitted.
Faculty fellow and professor of molecular biosciences Jim Orr advises a group of pre-Med students at Nunemaker Scholarship Hall Monday evening. The honor’s program is facing an increase influx of applicants.
“I think some people are in it for the wrong reasons,” Gust said. “So maybe raising the standards might be a good idea.”
Sam Anderson, Olathe freshman, said the honors program was her reason for coming to the University after looking at smaller colleges.
Anderson said she thought changing admission standards would be a tough choice to make.
“If you let everyone in, it kind of takes away the luster,” Anderson said. “But then again, if you worked really hard in high school, you might deserve to get in.”
breakbox
Students in KU Honors Program: 1,321
Number of high school senior applicants to the Honors Program for Fall 2009, to date: 2,601
Number of freshmen currently in Honors Program: 303
Mathew Shepard, Norton sophomore, said he thought it might be beneficial to make the application process tougher.
“The application process isn’t that difficult,” Shepard said. “It’s just an application, transcript and an essay.”
Sandra Wick, associate director of the honors program, said the honors program had not been asked to make cuts in its budget. Wick said if they were asked, they would probably be forced to cut the number and size of honors classes. She said honors courses traditionally had smaller class sizes throughout varying areas of study.
“It’s going to be hard to find honors classes in the sizes we want,” Wick said.
Shepard said losing honors classes would be a step backwards for the program.
“I think having the honors classes is the best part of the honors program,” Shepard said. “And losing those smaller classes would definitely hurt the program.”
In addition to smaller honors classes, the Nunemaker Center is available for honors students to meet, study or just hang out, Daly said. The honors program also offers lectures, honors advising and workshops for its students. Daly also said some small scholarships from KU Endowment were offered to honors students for books, study abroad, and unpaid internships.
Wick and Daly said the committee of academic standards would review any recommended changes, which wouldn’t be enacted until Fall 2010.
— — Edited by Justin Leverett
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Comments
Honors faces more applicants, less money
There are some problems with this article. First of all, as the sidebar shows the 303 students is for the current academic year. They are already here. Therefore, that number has nothing to do with the 2600 who have applied for NEXT fall.
Secondly, the students interviewed didn't seem to fully understand the difference between the application process and admission standards. Raising standards would not really change the process. What does Matthew Shepard want students to do to make the process more difficult? Have applicants apply to Mensa or solve the riddle of the Sphinx?
Also, Sam Anderson should realize that "everyone" obviously does not get in right now.
Also, the author of this article even manages to misquote the website, which is saying something.
It reads: "The Honors Program is committed to admitting talented, highly motivated students. We believe a student's merit and progress cannot be measured by numbers alone, however, applicants are more likely to be considered favorably if they can demonstrate: an ACT composite score of 30 or higher, a rigorous college preparatory curriculum, an unweighted GPA of 3.75 or higher, participation in activities that supplement academic work and/or demonstrate community involvement and a sense of social responsibility, and an essay that reveals intellectual curiosity and academic rigor. Admission is competitive; decisions are made by a committee on a rolling basis." So, while there are not excellent student to get in. Finally, if you look at the Honors Program website, which the author claims to have done, he would realize that the person he quotes is "Mark" Daly not John Daly.
Honors faces more applicants, less money
Dear DonJuan,
I wonder if you are an honors program reject, because you too cannot seem to get Mark Daly's name right either. I imagine the Honors Program wants students who can spell correctly and who show attention to detail. Logic aside, the article gets the facts wrong. The Honors Program has not admitted its incoming class yet. The article reads as if they have. With a huge increase in applicants, this number is misleading since the program might even be more selective than in previous years.
The students are free to their perspective, but the quotes selected for the articles makes them seem rather uninformed. By the way, as someone who has spent the better part of the last decade teachng undergrads (honors and non-honors students), I am well-acquainted with KU students.
Regarding the website, a better paraphrase would not have given the impression that there are no admission standards for the program. It's sloppy work, even for a student paper, which I wrote for myself as an undergrad.
Finally, "Bigpapi, it's not totally lame that you're taking the misname (which I don't see) personally." What exactly are you trying to say here? Are you implying that it I'm taking the misnaming error personally? Or are you are assuming that I'm Mark Daly (note correct spelling), I'm not, but I do know Mark. With this prose style it is not surprising you were rejected from the program. The Honors students I've known and taught write much better than this.
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