This spring, Houghton hosted three honors weekends, inviting academically-gifted prospective students to interview for the college’s honors programs, while also giving those students and their families the opportunity to experience life at Houghton firsthand. Each weekend ran from Friday morning through early Saturday afternoon, with a rigorous schedule of interviews, discussions, panels, and information sessions.
“The overall goal of our honors interview weekends is to help prospective students discern if Houghton is the right school for them, as well as to help Houghton decide who should be admitted to our Honors tracks,” said Betsy Rutledge, assistant director of admissions events and office operations.
Rutledge and others in Houghton’s visit office are responsible for organizing the logistics of the weekends and making sure that everything runs smoothly. This extends beyond just lining up classrooms for discussions and scheduling interviews. “We want students to get the whole picture of a Houghton education,” said Rutledge. “So we try to emphasize and help them experience not just academics, but also Houghton’s spiritual climate and student community.”
Houghton has three honors programs for incoming first year students: Science Honors, East Meets West, and London Honors. “Students are divided among those interviewing for Science Honors and those interviewing for the two humanities programs (East Meets West and London Honors),” said Professor Peter Meilaender, interim director of honors. Science students and liberal arts students have separate schedules for Friday, both of which include interviews and interactive experiences designed to give students a taste of what the programs will be like.
“Science students have departmental information sessions; humanities students attend an East Meets West class,” said Meilaender. “Science students do a problem-solving team exercise; humanities students participate in a simulated class discussion on an assigned reading.”
Ryan Spear, Director of Admissions, said the honors weekends help the college make decisions on scholarships and admission to the honors programs, but also provide the opportunity for students to get to know Houghton and to interact with other prospective honors students.
Rutledge agreed, describing prospective students’ exposure to Houghton as a critical part of the honors weekends. She said, “We want students to be able to envision themselves as Houghton students and ask themselves, ‘Can I see myself spending the next four years here?’”
Spear said the intensive nature of the honors weekends is intended to communicate to students that Houghton’s honors programs are more than just “a collection of a few ‘harder’ classes dubbed ‘honors.’” According to Spear, many students who interview for Houghton’s honors programs excelled in high school and are used to performing well academically. He said, “Our goal is help these students see that Honors at Houghton isn’t simply about slapping a ‘feel-good’ label on their existing accomplishments in order to entice them to enroll,” but is instead “a rigorous experience that is intended to further develop their God-given potential.”
According to Rutledge, the most recent honors weekend (which ran February 12 and 13) had 64 students, the most of any interview weekend to date. Spear estimated a total of about 120 students for the three weekends combined, which he said is on par with previous years.
Both Rutledge and Spear emphasized the preparation for the honors weekends as a personalized process designed to connect with students on an individual level, and not just as throngs of intelligent young minds.
“We work really hard to make the Honors weekend a personal experience,” said Rutledge. “Because we strongly believe that the Houghton experience is a personal one.” She added, “We want to welcome as many of these students into our Christian academic community as possible, and we want students and families to come away from the weekend feeling that we got to know them as individuals.”