Honors College is a program within universities, designed for high-achieving undergraduate students. Additionally, the programs offer a more enriched and challenging academic experience. Admissions requirements for an honors college program vary from institution- however, each institution has distinct prerequisites for their students at each grade level (Freshman to Senior).

For most military veterans, the intention of going to college is to get a bachelor's degree and return to the workforce immediately. Some do not attend school purely for the sake of knowledge. Across campuses there are advertisements for awesome opportunities marketed to students in honors college. But the question remains, do student veterans believe that they are a fit for honors college programs? Might their imposter feelings get in the way of embracing the opportunities afforded by honors colleges?

From personal experience, this perspective changed for me when I met a veteran scholar on campus who was in an honors college. Before I could ask him about the process to apply to the program, he enthusiastically asked me to walk with him to the honors college recruiter for an informational session. The meeting dispelled my perspectives about the program and the students. After the meeting, it was discovered that I met most of the requirements, except for the GPA. Accordingly, this fueled a desire to pursue an honors college education. I vigorously worked hard to achieve the GPA requirement, which took three semesters to accomplish-resulting in a successful admission into honors college. If it were not for the student veteran representation in the program, and direct call to visit the honors college, I may never have had that opportunity. How many other student veterans are on campus that don't feel honors college is for them? How can we emphasize that honors college can be a fit for them and encourage them to apply?

Honors college admission officers and veteran affairs directors, should work collaboratively to empower and encourage incoming student veteran undergraduates to apply for their program.

Moreover, honors college programs should utilize their current veteran scholars to serve as ambassadors for recruiting initiatives like: semesterly panel discussions and tabling events collaborated with Student Veterans of America (SVA).

Benefits of Honors College for Student Veterans

While attending honors college, students have the opportunity to meet a diverse group of scholars and students. What differentiates honors college students from non-honors students is their "curiosity" about learning itself, additionally, it represents higher education at its highest quality. The unlimited opportunities to engage in intellectual discourse with honors faculty, staff, and students challenges intellectual boundaries. The class sizes in honors college are small, which affords the opportunity to interact with professors in more interpersonal ways. Some honors courses are scheduled for an academic year instead of one semester and are interdisciplinary in scope. Honors seminars may host foreign dignitaries, university presidents, CEOs of fortunate 500 corporations, elected officials, and more.

Furthermore, students may be assigned an academic advisor in their honors college. As a scanner student (Bloom et al, 2011), this worked perfectly for me, if I was not able to get an appointment with my undergraduate academic advisor, my honors college academic advisor helped tremendously. Some honors college programs even have a separate graduation ceremony where various honors are awarded.