Applying to The Honors College: For Current High School Seniors
As described in the information about admissions to The Honors College at UAlbany, students are admitted during three periods: as they enter UAlbany as first-year students or at the end of each of their first-year semesters. About 125 students are admitted as they enter UAlbany and another 25-35 are admitted either at the end of their first or second semester. Because of the difficulty they would have meeting the requirements to graduate from The Honors College, transfer students are not eligible to apply.
All incoming UAlbany first-year students are eligible to apply for admission to The Honors College. Past experience shows that students with a high level of academic achievement in high school are the most competitive, presenting high school GPAs of 90 or better and combined Critical Reading and Math SAT scores of 1250 or higher.
Students who apply to The Honors College after their first or second semester at UAlbany are admitted based on their academic performance while at the University. Their high school grades and SAT scores are not considered during the admissions process.
The Process of Admission to The Honors College
High school students who have been admitted to UAlbany for the 2008/09 academic year and would like to apply to The Honors College need to submit a 500-word essay (the topic of the essay is described below). This essay and other information contained in the student’s application to UAlbany will be considered during the admissions process to The Honors College.
While there is no deadline for submitting the application essay, once the maximum number of honors students have been accepted additional applicants will be placed on a wait list. Consequently, there may be some advantage to submitting the application essay sooner rather than later. The quality of the essay is more important than submitting it right away, though, so it is worth spending sufficient time to write an excellent essay. Do not rush through an essay simply to submit it within a few days of receiving the letter admitting you to UAlbany.
The Application Essay
The application essay should be approximately 500 words. There is no absolute minimum or maximum number of words and there is no advantage to having an essay of exactly 500 words.
The essay should be single-spaced, with an extra line between paragraphs. Use one-inch margins and an 11-point or a 12-point font.
Your full name should appear on the top of the essay along with your 9-digit Albany ID number, found on the top right corner of your acceptance letter. The essay may have a title, but this is not required nor expected.
The essay should be sent as an email attachment to scholars@albany.edu. The essay should be attached as a Word document, a WordPerfect document, or a PDF file. The body of the email message should include your name, Albany ID, and preferred email address.
An acknowledgment indicating receipt of your essay will be sent by email within two days of its submission. If you do not receive this acknowledgment within two days, you should resend the essay, with a note in the body of the email stating that the essay is being resubmitted. It is your responsibility to resubmit an essay that we have not received.
The Essay Topic
If you were the Director of The Honors College at UAlbany and recently received a very, very large donation, what two programs would you create or expand to make The Honors College a better place? The programs might have an academic or a social focus, they might focus on first-year students or on more advanced students, and they might be done on campus, in the local community, or farther away. You should describe the two programs briefly. Most of your essay should be devoted to explaining why you chose these two programs.
Information about current programs in The Honors College can be found on the honors website: http://www.albany.edu/honorscollege. Essays can describe enhancing any program that is noted on the site or creating any program that is not noted. It is understood that some applicants may worry that a program they suggest creating has already been created but has not been noted on the website. Do not worry about this. If a program is not listed prominently in the website, then it can be "created" for this essay.
Because of time constraints, faculty and staff of The Honors College, and staff members in the Undergraduate Admissions Office, cannot read drafts of essays or comment on essay topics.
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