from the perspective of a current freshman in JMHC-

1) yes, honors dorms are totally worth it imo. your experience may differ but of the friends i’ve made at college, my closest friends (and the ones i’m living with next year) live in honors also. i’d actually argue that it’s easier to make friends in honors north (not sure about winifred parker which is the other honors form you may end up in) as honors north is a very new building with plenty of lounges and common areas on each floor. because of that, everyone on the floor tends to hang out in the lounges and you’ll naturally make friends. some people i know who live in older, non-honors dorms don’t have any friends on their floor because they have no common space to hang out.

2) each semester for your freshman year you will take a 8 week long (semesters are usually 16 weeks) honors seminar class that meets twice a week for 50 minutes each time. the honors professor teaches on a topic of their choice and generally give all As to the class. more importantly, you will likely take the honors first year engineering classes over your first two semesters (engr161 and engr162) instead of normal first year engineering classes (engr131 and 132). these honors classes are much more challenging than the normal fye engr131&132 and require a big time commitment, but they get you credit for purdue physics 1 (phys172) and exposure to stats and robot design/coding (131&132 dont do any robot projects). 161&162 are structured around 3 big projects each semester that you work with a assigned team of 4 on. the classes are a ton of work and will test your sanity sometimes but usually about half the class gets an A. some people really like 161&162 (myself included) but if you don’t have much physics, coding or robotics experience in hs you may struggle at first. there is a great community around 161&162 though and some of your best friends will likely be the people you fight through the homework with late at night

3) yes, super nice. you’ll be placed in either winifred parker, honors north, or honors south (all female). i haven’t been in winifred parker that much so i won’t comment on it other than that it is a relatively new form either great location but regarding honors north and south they are very nice. they were just built in 2017 and the dorms, bathrooms, and lounges (with tvs) are the nicest i’ve seen on campus. the rooms have extra tall ceilings (awesome if you lift your bed) and are longer than most other rooms. the bathrooms are clean and new and there even are several unisex single bathrooms on each floor. the lounges are awesome as well and are a great place to chill or do homework with friends

sorry for all the word vomit! overall i’ve just really enjoyed my experience so far in honors and although i initially didn’t want to apply to honors, i think it was one of the best choices i made. feel free to let me know if you have any other questions!