Challenge, Support, and Educational Pathways: College Students’ Perceptions of Opportunities and Resources in Honors Education

Research on educational pathways explores how college students’ decisions and help-seeking behaviors are influenced by the organization of resources at a given institution to shape student success. Whereas self-serve or “cafeteria style” distribution of resources can undermine success, new evidence suggests that common models for honors education can address this problem by structuring challenges and opportunities alongside ample support resources. While this possibility is encouraging, there is little empirical work on how students perceive and navigate resources provided by honors education. We ask, “How do students enrolled in an honors college describe the unique challenges and support resources available to them?” An analysis of 22 semistructured, in-depth interviews with honors college students at a large research university reveals that many students perceived honors education as offering an effective balance of challenge and support by facilitating community building and offering challenging coursework without unnecessary academic stress. Yet we also find the flexible nature of certain honors education structures can be challenging for some students, even as this flexibility is perceived as support by others. These findings have implications for policy and practice, offering insight into how university resources can be organized to promote student success within and beyond honors education.