What are specific differences between regular chemistry and honors chemistry (at the college level)

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JoyKim456

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Some colleges that have the "honors" version of (specifically chemistry) science subjects, what's the difference between those and the regular version? They are NOT programs, but rather specific classes.

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In the grand scheme of life, absolutely nothing. But the college will tell you that you learn more or whatever in the honors version. At my school the professor for the honors course was deemed "better" though. I would check into that.
 
Is it more challenging? My college has higher restrictions and requires a 4 or 5 on the AP Chem exam to take the honors version. The say the main difference is "topics are covered more in depth"
 
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Yea a little more depth is about it. About half my graduating class in my major went with honors and the other half went with non-honors. By the time we got to senior level biochemistry courses (where gen chem becomes important again) there was absolutely no difference in grades for those who took the honors vs non-honors. The core concepts will be exactly the same in both courses.

If you did well in high school and would like to learn things a little deeper and challenge yourself, then go for it, it absolutely wont hurt. If you think it will make you extra special for med school or will give you a leg up through the rest of college, it probably wont. It is a marginal difference between the two, otherwise the college would make all science majors take the honors version. If the professor for it is great or easy (check ratemyprofessor.com or talk to some upper classmen) then I would go with the honors. If it is going to destroy your gpa because the professor is nuts (because its honors) then it is absolutely not worth it, the regular course would do just fine.
 
You would be much better off actually talking to people at your school, as each school is different. Honors Chem and Ochem at my undergrad was exponentially harder than non-honors.
 
It's likely that the honors chem at your institution (as it was at mine) will place much more emphasis on the derivations of equations than the regular counterpart.

I personally thought this was completely useless, so imo regular chem would be a much better course in terms of practicality.
 
Highly varies according to institution that no good answer can be given on an anonymous forum.

The honors gen chem at my school was basically a trap for unknowing freshmen straight out of high school who think anything with "honors" was good. Very first quarter of this "honors gen chem" was straight up Pchem. I doubt anyone in that class had the proper math background to understand what was going on. The attrition rate was extraordinarily high.
 
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