Well, here's what real Honors Students have to say:

"The Honors Program is not an assembly of "the smart kids," a line on your transcript, or a compilation of easily-forgotten lectures your parents will be pleased you attended. Honors students do not measure success purely by grades and accolades, but by days well-lived.

"The Honors Program is unique classes, engaging faculty, lunches with foreign diplomats, and unforgettable late-night conversations over pizza. It is a philosophy of living that emphasizes leadership, passion for learning, and the search for surprising and meaningful relationships. Through academic engagement and expansion of cultural knowledge, the Honors Program cultivates well-rounded individuals who become leaders on this campus and beyond. " (From the "What's Up Honors?" brochure, written by the Honors Residential Advisors.)

The Honors Program is a program within the College of LS&A. All requirements which apply to students in LS&A apply to Honors students, and all opportunities available to students in LS&A (Michigan Learning Communities, student activities, Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, etc.) are available to Honors students. Honors students have access to expanded opportunities for social and academic growth above and beyond those offered by the college, and benefit from being a member of a smaller, more personal unit within the larger College of LS&A.

There's no one way to describe an Honors course.

Several types of Honors courses are offered:

• Courses offered by various departments intended only for Honors students which take the place of the standard course offering for non-Honors students. A few examples of this type of class are Honors Calculus I, II and III, and Honors Intro Philosophy.
• Honors discussion sections of LSA courses. All students attend the lecture for the course, but a special discussion section is reserved for Honors students for more in-depth discussion and exploration of the topics presented in lecture. Honors sections are frequently taught by the professor teaching the lecture.
• Courses sponsored by the Honors Program, such as Honors seminars, which are small courses taught by LSA faculty on very specific topics. These courses are often interdisciplinary in nature.

In general, an Honors course covers material at an accelerated pace or at a greater depth than its non-Honors counterpart, which may result in additional reading or writing. Yet the major difference is not how much you do, but what you do. Most Honors students say that their Honors courses require less "busy work" and more stimulating assignments, with the total workload being similar to that of a mainstream course.

Not unless you want them to be. In your first two years, you'll be expected to take an average of half your coursework in Honors courses, although you're certainly permitted to take more if you wish. During the first year, every Honors student is expected to take one course each term which is designated to fulfill the Texts & Ideas requirement; the remaining Honors courses are of the student's choice, to average two Honors courses per term. Honors courses are offered by nearly every department in the College, so students are not "forced" to take Honors courses in subjects in which they do not feel appropriately prepared or interested. However, many students find an Honors course an engaging way to explore a discipline they have not studied before.

You can (and should) major in whatever you're most passionate about! All LS&A departments offer Honors concentrations (U of M's word for majors). You may choose to concentrate in whatever most interests you.

Well, it's really more that you'll get interesting ways to fulfill the same requirements. All Honors students are members of the College of LS&A, and as such you'll be required to fulfill the college's requirements, such as language, quantitative reasoning, race & ethnicity, writing requirements, and area distribution. Many Honors courses are designated to meet these requirements, so that meeting Honors expectations and taking Honors courses shapes how you meet LSA requirements rather than changing what those requirements are. For example, the courses designated to fulfill the Texts and Ideas requirement also fulfill humanities distribution and Introductory Composition. To participate in the Honors program, you'll fulfill the T & I requirement, which forms the backbone of our program, take an average of two Honors courses per term in the first two years, and maintain a 3.4 GPA. Most students find that their Honors courses are so engaging and interesting that maintaining the required GPA is not overwhelmingly difficult. Graduation with Honors involves completing the Honors requirements in your area of concentration; which usually involves writing an Honors thesis demonstrating your own research in your field. In addition, or alternatively, you can pursue Honors in the Liberal Arts by taking especially challenging courses outside your area of concentration.

We doubt it-quite to the contrary! Our students find that they tend to do as well or better in their Honors courses as in their other courses because of the intellectual stimulation offered by these courses. It can be hard to do your best work when you're not being adequately challenged. Students frequently report that their Honors courses are more engaging than their non-Honors courses and thus they are motivated to do better work. In addition, graduate schools view Honors work as a sign that you are motivated and willing to work hard.

Yes, as long as you do a joint program. You must be enrolled as a student in the College of LS&A in order to participate in the Honors Program. However, if you'll be attending another college in the University which allows dual enrollment in LS&A, for example, the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, you may participate in the Honors Program as part of your LS&A degree.

Sure, as long as you want an intellectually stimulating undergrad education, too. Participation in the Honors Program will expose you to more critical thinking and research, which will make you a more attractive candidate for professional school and better prepared for its challenges. However, the Honors Program is not designed merely to increase your chances of admission to professional school. While Honors work will likely be viewed favorably by admissions committees, only those students truly concerned with pursuing challenging intellectual coursework during their undergrad years should join the Honors Program. It's about the experience, not about the kudos.

Once you are admitted to the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, you may apply to the Honors Program even if you are interested in transferring to the Ross School of Business.  You should not think, however, that being in the Honors Program will give you an advantage if you apply to the Business School. 

The Honors Program primarily offers opportunities for students with passions in the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences.  If you have expressed interest in another school or college in your UM application, we will admit you to Honors only if it is clear that you also have significant interest in the fields that are studied in LSA. 

If you do go on to transfer to Ross, you will then leave the Honors Program.  It is possible, however, to pursue a joint degree in LSA and in the School of Business. It is rigorous and requires you to complete 150 credits for graduation.  If that becomes your plan, we would be delighted to re-admit you to Honors.

Pretty much everything you can think of.

Honors students participate in every type of student group on campus. In addition, the Honors community itself provides a wide range of opportunities for exchange of ideas and faculty-student interaction. The Perlman Honors Commons is the intellectual hub of the Program, where students and faculty interact in beautiful surroundings. Weekly discussions, cultural and arts events, and quiet conversation bring the space alive with constant activity. Famous campus visitors are available for conversation with students during our Lunch with Honors series. A number of fun social events are sponsored by the Honors Residential Advisors in Honors Housing, and the Program makes it possible for students to attend an amazing variety of dance, theatre, and musical events both on and off campus at greatly reduced prices.

None of this, of course, precludes Honors students from participating in all of the other great opportunities that Michigan has to offer: Honors students serve in student government, write for the campus newspaper, play in the bands and orchestras, sing in the glee clubs and a cappella choirs, and participate in just about every student organization on campus.

Honors Housing is an option for Honors students who wish to extend their intellectual lives beyond the classroom and live with like-minded peers.  You are not required to live in Honors Housing.You are welcome to choose to live in other residence halls if you wish, and students can be in Honors and also be members of one of the other Michigan Learning Communities (for example, the Residential College, Lloyd Hall Scholars, Michigan Community Scholars, Health Science Scholars, etc.) that do require students to live in their residence halls.

Honors Housing is available in two residence halls: the South Quadrangle Residence Hall and and the women-only option is the Martha Cook Building. South Quad is a large, co-ed high-rise residence hall located in the Central Campus Housing neighborhood.  South Quad offers a computing center, convenience store, training room, and piano practice rooms as well as the usual amenities of dining, laundry, and lounges. Martha Cook is a small, traditional, independent house for women in the Central Campus Housing Neighborhood; it features beautiful rooms, formal events, and a warm community for its residents.

The Honors Program works closely with the Housing Office to accommodate the Honors students who wish to live in Honors Housing each year; however, because we can’t predict in advance the number of incoming and returning students who will request Honors Housing, space cannot be guaranteed. To increase your chances of getting a space in Honors Housing, you should apply to the Honors Program as soon as you are admitted to LSA and pay your enrollment deposit as soon as you are certain that you plan to attend UM.

We urge you to apply right after you learn that you have been accepted to the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Our Prospective Students website has our application deadlines that fall in late spring, but the sooner you get your Honors essay to us, the better.

Only Honors students can live in Honors Housing, so you will not be able to live in Honors Housing with a friend who hasn’t been admitted to the Program.

We will evaluate your application—based on your Honors essay and your entire Common App—for Honors within a couple of weeks after we receive your essay. Some decisions are easy, and we are able to let some students know early on whether or not they are in Honors. In many cases, however, we need to hold off on our decisions until late winter or early spring when we have a good sense of our applicant pool.

Last year, approximately 1500 students applied to Honors. We expect about the same number of applications this year.

500 students is our target for the incoming class.

Maybe: we invited you to apply to Honors based on raw data (gpa and test scores) that we received from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, but those numbers tell us only part of the story. Once we receive your essay, we’ll use it and a review of your entire Common App to do a holistic evaluation of how well you will fit in the Honors Program. In our evaluation, we’ll try to view your grades and scores in the context of how you approached high school, how well you did in your specific high school, how your mind seems to work (this is where your essay comes in), and how we think you’ll do in college.

We strongly urge you to apply to Honors even before you know that you are going to come to Michigan. That way it is likely that you will be able base your decision, in part, on whether or not you are in Honors.

Students are invited to apply to the Honors Program after being admitted to the University and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. The Honors Program searches for incoming LSA students whose admission files strongly indicate that they are well suited to an especially challenging academic program. We are looking for students who want to engage in active inquiry and who are eager for a vigorous intellectual community. There is no "typical" Honors student because Honors students' academic interests and extra-curricular activities vary widely.  Therefore, the supplemental Honors essay is a vital part of our evaluation process.
While we don't have hard-and-fast "cut-off" numbers for students we admit to the program, we do use test score and GPA data to invite students to apply to Honors.  But we know that numbers are only part of the story, which is why we may invite students to apply to Honors based on those data, but we do not invite students to join the Honors Program on the basis of numbers alone.  All students who wished to be admitted to Honors need to write the supplemental Honors essay. -Essay Prompts-But don't wait for our invitation to apply!  Once you are admitted to LSA, you can contact us at honors.admissions@umich.edu  and ask about applying to the program.

Yes, you do need to write the essay for us to consider you for the Program, as the essay is one of the most valuable tools we have in determining whether or not your interests and talents are a good fit for the Honors Program. Without it, it is very difficult for us to make a truly holistic evaluation of your application materials.