Martinson Honors Program

S

saapplicant232

Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2022
Messages
16
I received a letter in the mail offering me "early admission to the Martinson Honors Program".

Does anyone have any information about this? What are the pros and cons of? How is it compared to the regular USAFA curriculum or other SAs?
 
www.usafa.edu

Martinson Honors Program

The Martinson Honors Program supports and promotes academic excellence, intellectual curiosity, and engaged learning at the Academy.
www.usafa.edu www.usafa.edu
 
Let me clarify the question: I am a high school senior applying to multiple SAs. I have received appointments to two of them. In making my decision between SAs, I would appreciate any insight on how to weigh this honors program compared to another SA.
 
saapplicant232 said:
Let me clarify the question: I am a high school senior applying to multiple SAs. I have received appointments to two of them. In making my decision between SAs, I would appreciate any insight on how to weigh this honors program compared to another SA.
Click to expand...
My daughter accepted the offer to join a similar program. It uses a Socratic method of teaching -- more student involvement/dialog/direction vs the standard teacher talks-students listen.

My daughter was involved in the older program -- this one appears to be new, but looks to also use the Socratic method of teaching. To be completely transparent, her high school also employed this method of teaching, so she was very comfortable with it. You have the option to leave the program if you determine it isn't for you. There are minimum GPA requirements to stay in the program as well.

www.usafa.edu

Curriculum

The Martinson Honors Program curriculum incorporates learning outcomes and core values to enrich learning and intellectual development
www.usafa.edu www.usafa.edu
 
Last edited:
saapplicant232 said:
I received a letter in the mail offering me "early admission to the Martinson Honors Program".

Does anyone have any information about this? What are the pros and cons of? How is it compared to the regular USAFA curriculum or other SAs?
Click to expand...
Hey! I am in the Honors Program here. I will warn you, it might not be what is promised -- I am unaware of "early admission" into the program. As of this semester, everyone who wanted to be in the Program had to submit an application.

The breakdown of MHP: replace ten core classes with ten honors core classes. You learn slightly different materials, with a slightly different teaching methods. Really the Honors Program here is still in its foundational stages, but it is growing quickly.

My last word: Dont base your decision on any college because a certain Honors Program, these programs regardless of the institution you attend will not change the school enough to make them any better or worse, they are simply an alteration to the traditional experience.
 
My kid got into it at USAFA this year. It is more discussion based from what we have heard from him.
 
Minuteman03 said:
Hey! I am in the Honors Program here. I will warn you, it might not be what is promised -- I am unaware of "early admission" into the program. As of this semester, everyone who wanted to be in the Program had to submit an application.
Click to expand...

Agree with @Minuteman03. My cadet was invited to apply to the Honors program based on his performance during C4C year.
 
Minuteman03 said:
Hey! I am in the Honors Program here. I will warn you, it might not be what is promised -- I am unaware of "early admission" into the program. As of this semester, everyone who wanted to be in the Program had to submit an application.

The breakdown of MHP: replace ten core classes with ten honors core classes. You learn slightly different materials, with a slightly different teaching methods. Really the Honors Program here is still in its foundational stages, but it is growing quickly.

My last word: Dont base your decision on any college because a certain Honors Program, these programs regardless of the institution you attend will not change the school enough to make them any better or worse, they are simply an alteration to the traditional experience.
Click to expand...
Hi. My son just got an early admission to the honors program yesterday. Do the Honors program courses add more work load (brochure says it doesn't unlike other civilian schools) or are the course accelerated? I think the the program at SA is already rigorous as it is...
Do you feel like your honors courses are harder than regular core classes? Thank you for your advice.
 
I personally enjoyed many of my MHP classes. Yes, the greater number of essays was pretty painful for me as an engineering major, but many of the instructors are very experienced, and the cadets in the classroom more interested in understanding and appreciating the material of the course. Additionally, MHP is a smaller cohort of cadets, so you end up having many classes with the same people.
 
I asked my DD, besides the Scholars section, what is the benefit to the Program. She said it's a lot more than that, and shortsighted to only consider Scholars for the classes. There are opportunities that are geared towards Scholars, and many of the national scholarship/graduate school sessions are paired with the Scholars. Right now she's starting the next year's cycle - so has attended multiple sessions for national scholarships and is fired up to apply and the graduate school sessions start soon. She said the 2 people in charge are buddies and so they are always both presenting together. The invites to attend went to about 50 people with 3.8-3.9 or above, and then another 30 identified as on-the-cusp. She got one of ten slots of the Dean's Summer Research Program and will spend her entire summer interning in Washington, DC. Next week she has 3 interviews with companies and a trade group. She applied for, and received a $2,000 Martinson Grant to attend a 4 day conference in her targeted field in Chicago. She applied for, and was one of 15 finalists for the Stamps, but didn't get it (about 6, I think). DD says: Even if you don't capitalize on it, Scholars will look good on your resume. Everyone's doing great things so any little bump helps, and having that Scholars designation is a feather in your cap. PS - this is all word-of-mouth from DD, so the #'s may not be accurate.
 
There has been a fair amount of misinformation related to this program in recent months. About 50-60 cadets have graduated each of the past few years with a Scholars designation. Many of them did not graduate as a "Distinguished Graduate" (the top 100 or so by OPA ranking). Here is a link to the Class of 2022 Graduation Program. https://www.usafa.edu/app/uploads/2022-Graduation-Full-Program-Final-OPT.pdf. You can see which cadets were in the Scholars program.

The recent incarnation (Martinson) appears to have rolled out with far fewer participants. According to a recent report to the Board of Visitors, only 23 cadets are involved in the program with intentions to expand participation with the Class of 2027. https://www.usafa.org/News/BOV2022

In a class with roughly 1,000 cadets, 23 represent about 2.25% of the class. In any normally distributed population, the top 2.25% represents the second standard deviation from the mean, which suggests the cut-off would have been around 3.77 for GPA if GPA was the determining factor (it was not) and grade distribution has been in line with historical standards.

It is my impression that the Class of 2026 was not recruited into the Martinson Honors Program but was invited to apply and 23 were selected. I also believe that the 23 who were accepted, were accepted before Fall Semester grades were released, so I suppose high school GPA, SAT/ACT scores, and possibly mid-term grades were taken into account when determining which Doolies would be chosen (it could not have been GPA). My DD said she believes additional 26ers will be accepted into the program in the future (but that is a rumor at this point).
 
DomerDad said:
There has been a fair amount of misinformation related to this program in recent months. About 50-60 cadets have graduated each of the past few years with a Scholars designation. Many of them did not graduate as a "Distinguished Graduate" (the top 100 or so by OPA ranking). Here is a link to the Class of 2022 Graduation Program. https://www.usafa.edu/app/uploads/2022-Graduation-Full-Program-Final-OPT.pdf. You can see which cadets were in the Scholars program.

The recent incarnation (Martinson) appears to have rolled out with far fewer participants. According to a recent report to the Board of Visitors, only 23 cadets are involved in the program with intentions to expand participation with the Class of 2027. https://www.usafa.org/News/BOV2022

In a class with roughly 1,000 cadets, 23 represent about 2.25% of the class. In any normally distributed population, the top 2.25% represents the second standard deviation from the mean, which suggests the cut-off would have been around 3.77 for GPA if GPA was the determining factor (it was not) and grade distribution has been in line with historical standards.

It is my impression that the Class of 2026 was not recruited into the Martinson Honors Program but was invited to apply and 23 were selected. I also believe that the 23 who were accepted, were accepted before Fall Semester grades were released, so I suppose high school GPA, SAT/ACT scores, and possibly mid-term grades were taken into account when determining which Doolies would be chosen (it could not have been GPA). My DD said she believes additional 26ers will be accepted into the program in the future (but that is a rumor at this point).
Click to expand...
My 2026'er was accepted into the program before Fall semester ended and his prog grades were probably a big part of his acceptance. His high school stats were good but I doubt they were in the top 5% of the class. He is also under the impression that more of his class would be accepted at the end of 2nd semester. He really wants to go to grad school and hopes the Martinson program will add to his chances of that.

So far, he is really enjoying his 2 scholars classes (ECE and Beh Sci) and is looking forward to more of them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top