The University of Utah Honors College promises to offer students cutting-edge courses with rigorous, in-depth curricula. Melissa Schmuck is a third-year student in the Honors College, and a former peer mentor for the program.
“I was always the kind of student in high school who was very high achieving.” She explained. “I really wanted to go to a prestigious university, but I did not have the funds to. So that was not going to be in the cards.”
As a peer mentor at the Honors College, she was taught, “While you are in the Honors College, the whole point is that you want to be digging deeper. You want to be thinking about the ‘why’ of things instead of just learning things.” She went on to say, “I think that’s really important, especially in today’s climate.”
Schmuck agrees that the Honors College has been successful in delivering on some of its promises. She expressed gratitude for a few of her favorite professors in the program.
“First, I had Paula Mendoza. She taught an intellectual traditions class I was in. She’s a wonderful writer. She’s just an incredible mind.” She also praised Professor Philip Bimstein. “I had him for Radical Quiet. He also teaches Artfully Extended Mind. He’s such an energetic professor. He’s very zany though, but in a good way,” she reflected.
“I think the Honors College is a good opportunity for students to get a more prestigious college experience while staying within the state of Utah. But it’s also oftentimes a confusing mess. The Honors College has a lot of opportunities, but they’re not communicated very well. The program continues to expand, but the classes do not expand. There’s a very limited range of classes to complete your honors degree, which is really annoying.”
Recently, Schmuck was unable to add a required Honors College science credit to her schedule due to the limited selection of classes. The program removed this science requirement from their criteria. She was frustrated to see them go in this direction.
“There’s just a lot of hoops that deans have to get through. I spoke to [former] Dean Sylvia Torti, many, many times. There were just so many hoops she had to constantly go through. You have to fight tooth and nail to get the things that you get in the honors college.”
“I have confidence that their hearts are in the right places,” Schmuck went on to say. “I’m excited to see what Dean Pasupathy does. She recently stepped into the role and I hope that the university starts to work better with the Honors College and makes it easier for students as a whole.”
