Honors Program?

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FutureBlondeMD

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I currently have a 3.5, if all goes as planned it should go up to a 3.7 after this semester. I was thinking about entering my schools honors program. Would medical schools prefer me being in an honors program, or is it irrelevant either way?
 
They won't care if you're not in your school's honors program, but it isn't exactly irrelevant. It has some worth.. not that it will make or break your application.

Honors programs have some other benefits besides resume padding, like early registration. It can be worth it just for those types of things.

It's up to you.
 
My school sent me all this crap about joining the Honors program, but I never did. IMO it's too much extra work for not enough gain.
 
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Depends on the medschool, some actually really do value honors programs.

For example, I know of at least one school that uses some sort of "competitiveness multiplier" to help compare GPAs from different undergrads. Graduating from a school's honors program gives you a higher multiplier (or adds points to base GPA) than if you dont do honors.
 
niblet said:
They won't care if you're not in your school's honors program, but it isn't exactly irrelevant. It has some worth.. not that it will make or break your application.

Honors programs have some other benefits besides resume padding, like early registration. It can be worth it just for those types of things.

It's up to you.
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Statements like this are part of my problem with SDN, people make bold statements that are in fact entirely false. I know for sure of a couple schools that weight your GPA if you were in an honors program.
 
surftheiop said:
Statements like this are part of my problem with SDN, people make bold statements that are in fact entirely false. I know for sure of a couple schools that weight your GPA if you were in an honors program.
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All I'm saying is that they won't hold it against you if you're not not in your school's honors program. Weighted GPAs are completely besides the point.
 
niblet said:
All I'm saying is that they won't hold it against you if you're not not in your school's honors program. Weighted GPAs are completely besides the point.
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How's it besides the point? If a medschool adds points to your GPA if you graduated from the honors program then your going to be at a disadvantage if you don't graduate from the honors program. So its feasible that even if you make a 4.0, the people graduating from the honors program will get more points than you from the med school.

(This is especially relevant for some state schools where like 50 people are applying from the state undergrad to the state medschool)

Obviously this doesn't apply everywhere, but there definitely are states where it matters.
 
surftheiop said:
How's it besides the point? If a medschool adds points to your GPA if you graduated from the honors program then your going to be at a disadvantage if you don't graduate from the honors program. So its feasible that even if you make a 4.0, the people graduating from the honors program will get more points than you from the med school.

(This is especially relevant for some state schools where like 50 people are applying from the state undergrad to the state medschool)

Obviously this doesn't apply everywhere, but there definitely are states where it matters.
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Is that multiplier not put in place to account for the added difficulty of honors coursework? To me, it sounds like it's for balance purposes, and not some GPA boost you receive for being special. They don't weight your GPA for clinical experience, but it obviously has its place.

My whole point was that you aren't going to be looked down on because you didn't take part in your school's honors program. I said it can help, but knowing one school that weights GPAs based on whether or not you were in one doesn't mean your application will have a red flag because you weren't. That was what I was trying to get at.
 
I'm in my school's Honors College, which is perhaps slightly different from an honors program, however I'm not entirely sure. Anyways, there are some worthwhile benefits of doing something like an honors program:


  1. Early sign up for classes: honors students at my school are allowed to sign up at the same time as seniors on campus. This was pretty valuable my freshman year where I got first pickings.
  2. For my medical school application: I'm a Biology major and I understand this hardly makes me unique (for the record I actually enjoy Biology as a subject), so I wanted to add something different.
  3. It adds to my workload: this could be viewed negatively but if I can't manage my time well what right do I have in possibly going to medical school? Not that people who aren't in an honors program can't manage their time. Please don't misinterpret me. 🙁
  4. My Honors classes are significantly smaller than my non-honors classes: As in my regular classes can easily go over 60+ people, however all of my honors classes have been under 20 people. I learn a lot better without a whole bunch of people around me, but hey, that's just me.
  5. Scholarships: My school offers separate scholarships for honors students, so that's wonderful.

Point of my post is that I feel it makes *me* a better candidate for medical school, and is therefore very important to me.
 
FutureBlondeMD said:
I currently have a 3.5, if all goes as planned it should go up to a 3.7 after this semester. I was thinking about entering my schools honors program. Would medical schools prefer me being in an honors program, or is it irrelevant either way?
Click to expand...

I'd recommend trying to figure out if it will make a difference to YOU five years down the line. If you think you'll look back and regret that you didn't graduate with latin honors, go for it, since it's something you can only do once. If not, I'd say save the time and do something like volunteer, or mentor a kid, or whatever you feel like.
 
carpediam said:
I'm in my school's Honors College, which is perhaps slightly different from an honors program, however I'm not entirely sure. Anyways, there are some worthwhile benefits of doing something like an honors program:


  1. Early sign up for classes: honors students at my school are allowed to sign up at the same time as seniors on campus. This was pretty valuable my freshman year where I got first pickings.
  2. For my medical school application: I'm a Biology major and I understand this hardly makes me unique (for the record I actually enjoy Biology as a subject), so I wanted to add something different.
  3. It adds to my workload: this could be viewed negatively but if I can't manage my time well what right do I have in possibly going to medical school? Not that people who aren't in an honors program can't manage their time. Please don't misinterpret me. 🙁
  4. My Honors classes are significantly smaller than my non-honors classes: As in my regular classes can easily go over 60+ people, however all of my honors classes have been under 20 people. I learn a lot better without a whole bunch of people around me, but hey, that's just me.
  5. Scholarships: My school offers separate scholarships for honors students, so that's wonderful.

Point of my post is that I feel it makes *me* a better candidate for medical school, and is therefore very important to me.
Click to expand...

These are all great points. In addition, at some schools the honors classes actually have a lighter load than non-honors classes.
 
Astarael said:
I'd recommend trying to figure out if it will make a difference to YOU five years down the line. If you think you'll look back and regret that you didn't graduate with latin honors, go for it, since it's something you can only do once. If not, I'd say save the time and do something like volunteer, or mentor a kid, or whatever you feel like.
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I thought Latin honors are conventionally awarded based on GPA (usually 3.5, 3.7, and 3.9 are the cutoffs, but not always). Do some schools really do it based on whether or not someone was in an honors program?
 
SOcash said:
I thought Latin honors are conventionally awarded based on GPA (usually 3.5, 3.7, and 3.9 are the cutoffs, but not always). Do some schools really do it based on whether or not someone was in an honors program?
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Yes. At my school you have to be in the honors program to earn a latin distinction. This includes a thesis requirement.
 
SOcash said:
I thought Latin honors are conventionally awarded based on GPA (usually 3.5, 3.7, and 3.9 are the cutoffs, but not always). Do some schools really do it based on whether or not someone was in an honors program?
Click to expand...

Yep, my school required you to be in the honors college to latin honors... my school's requirements are also a little different.. 3.5, 3.67, 3.75.. but anyways yes you do need to in the honors college to get these...
It might be different in different schools thou.
 
i'm going to go ahead and say no it won't benefit you in a significant way in terms of medical school applications. There are, however, more tangible benefits as already mentioned above about class sizes and scholarships that should make you consider those programs. However, if there's no other reason for you to do it except for "wanting to look better to med schools" well maybe you should reconsider.

Someone mentioned above that they "add" more to your GPA just because you're in an honors program and I don't necessarily think it's true.
1. only SOME schools do it, so seems useless if you're applying broadly to rework your entire undergrad just for 1-2 schools
2. a lot of undergrads have honors programs of one type or another and each varies in rigor, quality etc. Med school adcoms aren't gonna add GPA boosts to account for each of those programs on top of the non-honors applicants.
3. it's almost like saying "hey if you go to X school, which is known to be tough, they add X points to your GPA". Sounds like a myth perpetuated by a premed doing bad in school trying to make their selves feel better.
4. there are plenty of people in med school who did not do an honors program and they seem to have gotten in fine. I think this relates more to them actually having done something interesting that makes them jump out above the rest.

So if anything, I would advice you to stop worrying about this and focus your efforts in making yourself unique outside of the classroom. I know you have to be good in school to get a foot in the door but you have to be interesting/unique to get in the door.
 
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