As honors students, we often have unique scheduling needs due to the honors coursework that is required of us, and because the program is in its fledgling years there are a very limited number of classes offered, and often the class that we may need can only be offered once a year, meaning we have to base our schedule around such classes. This sometimes makes it difficult to fit in classes that are necessary for the completion of our majors. Honors makes up a substantial amount of our coursework, usually around 20 percent. This ability to create our schedules before the majority of the students is also a major advantage because many students in Honors have been taking advanced courses throughout high school, thus they enter college having already completed many of their lower level general education courses, either through Advanced Placement, or Concurrent Enrollment programs. I myself came into my freshman year with 19 credit-hours, and there are others with more. This makes it very difficult for some students to find enough honors courses to meet the required hours, but early registration helps with preventing the opportunities to receive honors credit from conflicting with our major-specific work.
The Honors College at Southern Arkansas University definitely meets the basic model of an honors program as described by the NCHC, and although it might not be considered “fully developed”, it is still in its early years, and with opportunities such as priority enrollment that it provides, it will continue to attract the best students available and flourish.
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