What is an Honors Student? A Noel-Levitz Survey

for Rodney K. Delasanta, il miglior educatore In an impressive article published in the 2005 summer issue of JNCHC, Cheryl Achterberg laments the lack of empirical data available to provide a workable definition for honors students. While she duly notes that there is an "ideology" that honors students are "superior" to other students in an institution or of "high ability" or "the best and brightest," she laments that "[t]here are few characteristics of honors students that can be standardized, measured, or uniformly compared across institutions" (Achterberg 75). She concludes her article with these considerations: honors students are "not a homogeneous group with a set of absolute or fixed characteristics"; they "have much in common with other non-honors students of their own age group"; they "are (or should be) academically superior to their non-honors counterparts within any given institution"; and they "are probably little different today than the honors students of yesteryear. " Achterberg calls for more research to understand "how honors students develop academically, intellectually, socially, emotionally, and as leaders relative to their non-honors peers" (79). In the same issue of the JNCHC, Rosalie C. Otero finds honors students "ask probing questions that tend to differ from non-honors students'" in their depth of "understanding and frequency" (52). They "all have interests in many areas" (52), and they "either can't settle on a major until their sophomore or junior year or they come to the university already focused on their goal" (52). Unlike Achterberg, however, she suggests that today's honors students are different from those of the past. While honors students in the late 80s and 90s were "superachievers," they now "seem to be more cheerful and deal with things with humor" (52). Furthermore, they are "less influenced by hype and status," "more optimistic and inclusive," "enjoy collaborative learning and working in groups," and "selfless"; they are "e-learners," often "into extreme sports," and they "value speed" (52). But these characteristics might just as easily be attributed to their whole generation, as applicable to nonhonors as honors students. Most honors directors or deans would probably agree that honors students are academically superior to their non-honors students, but beyond that, few--if any--could pinpoint what defines an honors student. After teaching both honors and regular courses for over fifteen years and having been Honors Director for six, I know that not all the best and brightest, or even the most enjoyable, students I have taught were honors students. However, I have also found honors students somehow different from non-honors students: they are quirkier and more engaged, unconventional but also subject to the same problems, frustrations, and anxieties as their non-honors counterparts. Trying to define an honors student with some precision is not simply of academic interest but addresses the very basis of honors education. Murray Sperber famously lambasted higher education and large public universities in general for abdicating their responsibilities and reserving a quality education for a few that should be available to all. But Sperber is ignoring the practical, economic, and demographic realities of higher education today. Most honors programs have not been created and promoted (at least at the administrative level) to address high-achieving students' special needs or characters but rather to convince heavily recruited students (and their parents) to attend a particular public institution as an inexpensive alternative to a private liberal arts college or university. Given that honors programs will continue to be part of higher education, Achterberg makes an important point: The key question each institution must answer in practice, within it own context, is whether the honors students within the institution are sufficiently different from other students to necessitate and justify differences in the pedagogical, curricular, and personal advising experiences offered them. …