The Effect of Honors Courses on Grade Point Averages

High-ability entering college students give three main reasons for not choosing to become part of honors programs and colleges; they and/or their parents believe that honors classes at the university level require more work than non-honors courses, are more stressful, and will adversely affect their self-image and grade point average (GPA) (Hill; Lacey; Rinn). Some of them are likely basing their belief on the experience they had with Advanced Placement (AP) classes in their high schools. Although AP classes are not specifically designed to be more work or more difficult, at their worst they can be little more than that (Immerwahr and Farkas; Challenge Success, 2013). Just as important as the fear of more work and increased difficulty is anxiety about the increased competition within a high-ability cohort. Anne N. Rinn, for instance, cites the “theory of relative deprivation” and the “Big-Fish-Little- Pond Effect” as factors that inhibit students from joining an honors program. Such perceptions of honors coursework are common even among some university advisors and faculty, who often perceive honors courses as entailing more work, being more competitive, and having the potential to lower students’ GPAs. As a result, high-ability students who might benefit from an honors education decline participation because they believe honors classes will jeopardize their academic standing (Hill)

The Effect of Honors Courses on Grade Point Averages

High-ability entering college students give three main reasons for not choosing to become part of honors programs and colleges; they and/or their parents believe that honors classes at the university level require more work than non-honors courses, are more stressful, and will adversely affect their self-image and grade point average (GPA) (Hill; Lacey; Rinn). Some of them are likely basing their belief on the experience they had with Advanced Placement (AP) classes in their high schools. Although AP classes are not specifically designed to be more work or more difficult, at their worst they can be little more than that (Immerwahr and Farkas; Challenge Success, 2013). Just as important as the fear of more work and increased difficulty is anxiety about the increased competition within a high-ability cohort. Anne N. Rinn, for instance, cites the “theory of relative deprivation” and the “Big-Fish-Little- Pond Effect” as factors that inhibit students from joining an honors program. Such perceptions of honors coursework are common even among some university advisors and faculty, who often perceive honors courses as entailing more work, being more competitive, and having the potential to lower students’ GPAs. As a result, high-ability students who might benefit from an honors education decline participation because they believe honors classes will jeopardize their academic standing (Hill)

Creating a Profile of an Honors Student: A Comparison of Honors and Non-Honors Students at Public Research Universities in the United States

This study uses data from the 2018 Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Survey of undergraduate degree-seeking students to develop a profile of an honors student. Nineteen research universities participated in the 2018 SERU Survey, with a resulting sample size of almost 119,000 undergraduate students, of whom 15,280 reported participation in or completion of an honors program. No other study has surveyed honors students on such a scale and across so many institutions. This study could be useful for recruiting since it would give recruiters a better idea of what to look for that would make prospects successful in an honors program/college. Knowing what high-ability students expect from their education could also be useful in structuring an honors curriculum and experience accordingly. Finally, knowing better the wants and needs of high-ability students could be useful for advising, mentoring, and counseling honors students

How the Implementation of Honors Sections Affects the Academic Performance of Non-Honors Students

Research in honors education generally credits honors students with elevating the academic experience for all students at an institution (see Andrews; Clauss; Brimeyer et al.). Honors students are seen as having a positive peer effect: setting a standard for other students to follow as well as stimulating and challenging faculty, thereby raising the level of the classroom for all ( Joseph W. Cohen, cited by Andrews 38). Thus, many assume that moving honors students into separate sections adversely affects the academic performance of non-honors students, an assumption we faced at our institution. In the context of a study done in a college of engineering, that perception is even stronger because peer-to-peer and group projects are such important pedagogical elements of the engineering undergraduate curriculum. We are unaware of any research on how honors sections of general education courses affect the academic performance of non-honors students taking those same courses, but our study indicates that the implementation of honors sections for selected core courses in the University of Iowa (UI) College of Engineering did not adversely affect non-honors engineering students taking those same core courses. In the fall of 2015, the UI College of Engineering inaugurated honors sections of core engineering courses for two reasons. First, the undergraduate engineering population had become large enough for honors sections to be economically and logistically feasible. The college’s enrollment had increased from about 1,200 students to more than 2,000 over six years. New sections of the core first- and second-year courses were necessary, thus providing an opportunity to add honors sections. The second motivating factor came from the UI Honors Program, which had recently changed the criteria for eligibility and graduation requirements, reducing the total number of honors students and making an increased proportion of first-year engineering majors eligible for honors. Although engineering students had previously made up a large fraction of honors-eligible students, they were not easily retained because of scheduling constraints and the absence of honors courses in the engineering curriculum. The honors program and the college of engineering were both interested in attracting more engineering students to the honors program and graduating more engineering students with the honors credential

Creating a Profile of an Honors Student: A Comparison of Honors and Non-Honors Students at Public Research Universities in the United States

This study uses data from the 2018 Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Survey of undergraduate degree-seeking students to develop a profile of an honors student. Nineteen research universities participated in the 2018 SERU Survey, with a resulting sample size of almost 119,000 undergraduate students, of whom 15,280 reported participation in or completion of an honors program. No other study has surveyed honors students on such a scale and across so many institutions. This study could be useful for recruiting since it would give recruiters a better idea of what to look for that would make prospects successful in an honors program/college. Knowing what high-ability students expect from their education could also be useful in structuring an honors curriculum and experience accordingly. Finally, knowing better the wants and needs of high-ability students could be useful for advising, mentoring, and counseling honors students

Forging a More Equitable Path for Honors Education: Advancing Racial, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Diversity

Despite a long tradition of social science research on educational access and barriers to inclusion for underrepresented minorities and the poor, until recently such issues have gotten relatively little attention in quantitative investigations of honors education. Public interest in educational access has grown in recent years, however, energizing discussions about the need to confront the exclusionary features of honors. The authors use data from the 2018 Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Survey to examine the degree and variability of underrepresentation in honors at a sample of major universities in the United States. They then identify a set of relatively diverse honors programs for a case study exploring the features and strategies employed among such programs. The authors find that honors programs vary widely in the degree of diverse representation and that more diverse programs engage in robust efforts both to recruit and to retain underrepresented minorities

How the Implementation of Honors Sections Affects the Academic Performance of Non-Honors Students

Research in honors education generally credits honors students with elevating the academic experience for all students at an institution (see Andrews; Clauss; Brimeyer et al.). Honors students are seen as having a positive peer effect: setting a standard for other students to follow as well as stimulating and challenging faculty, thereby raising the level of the classroom for all ( Joseph W. Cohen, cited by Andrews 38). Thus, many assume that moving honors students into separate sections adversely affects the academic performance of non-honors students, an assumption we faced at our institution. In the context of a study done in a college of engineering, that perception is even stronger because peer-to-peer and group projects are such important pedagogical elements of the engineering undergraduate curriculum. We are unaware of any research on how honors sections of general education courses affect the academic performance of non-honors students taking those same courses, but our study indicates that the implementation of honors sections for selected core courses in the University of Iowa (UI) College of Engineering did not adversely affect non-honors engineering students taking those same core courses. In the fall of 2015, the UI College of Engineering inaugurated honors sections of core engineering courses for two reasons. First, the undergraduate engineering population had become large enough for honors sections to be economically and logistically feasible. The college’s enrollment had increased from about 1,200 students to more than 2,000 over six years. New sections of the core first- and second-year courses were necessary, thus providing an opportunity to add honors sections. The second motivating factor came from the UI Honors Program, which had recently changed the criteria for eligibility and graduation requirements, reducing the total number of honors students and making an increased proportion of first-year engineering majors eligible for honors. Although engineering students had previously made up a large fraction of honors-eligible students, they were not easily retained because of scheduling constraints and the absence of honors courses in the engineering curriculum. The honors program and the college of engineering were both interested in attracting more engineering students to the honors program and graduating more engineering students with the honors credential

Adding Value through Honors at the University of Iowa: Effects of a Pre-Semester Honors Class and Honors Residence on First-Year Students

Activities that take place early in students’ college career can strongly influence their academic engagement and success. Two experiences that honors programs may provide during the initial phases of the undergraduate experience are pre- or earlysemester programs and honors residence halls. This study compares honors students who lived in an honors residence hall and/or took part in a pre-semester academic, credit-bearing class upon entry into college to their honors peers who did not elect these options. It tracks the degree of the students’ subsequent engagement with the honors program and also several measures of their academic success, such as grade point average (GPA), during their undergraduate experience. Results indicate that students who elected to participate in a pre-semester class and live in an honors residence were more engaged in the honors program and had greater academic success overall at the university than honors students who did not. This direct comparison of honors program students who have elected certain honors experiences to those who have not strengthens the claim that specific honors experiences add value to the undergraduate experience