Are honors programs worth it in college?

[Blossom27]

Hi! I'm a rising freshman in a 7 year BS/MD program with TCNJ and NJMS. I was automatically invited into their honors program, and I accepted originally but am now unsure. Everyone I talked to in the program said it's totally useless (assuming you don't apply out and just attend NJMS). All the friends (mostly those in my program) I have at TCNJ are not doing honors. There doesn't seem to be a benefit other than the bragging rights, a different dorm (which I'm not sure is a benefit since I would be separated from everyone I know and in a less social dorm) and a medal at graduation. I guess I'm mostly worried that not being in honors would affect me negatively if I decided to apply out of the program. What do you guys think?
Btw, the honors program consists of taking 5 honors classes. They're all electives, so taking them may reduce my ability to take classes I enjoy. Is it worth it?

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[Professional Student]

This sounds very similar to the honors program at my institution, and probably many other institutions. I did not enter our honors program for many of the same reasons that you just mentioned, and also because I saw it as not applicable to my major or career path. However, years down the road, I wish I had entered the honors program because I realize now it offered the chance to study and gain exposure to other areas of study outside of my standard degree requirements. Honors programs also typically offer more opportunities to present any research, and most require a thesis in order to graduate with honors. Yours may provide other advantages such as scholarships and priority enrollment times, as well as trips to different conferences around the country.

Basically, if you don't think the program is worth is the extra work and time commitment then this decision will not negatively impact your future application. However, if you commit to the program, it can really only benefit your application. How much it can benefit you would largely up to what you make of the opportunities and what you get out of them. Again, the small benefit may not be worth the time commitment if you can find more productive things to do with that time to build resume (research, volunteering). Alternatively, you could just enter the program because you think it might be fun.

I wish now that I had entered the honors program. Therefore, I recommend at least starting the program to see how you like it. If you don't like it, you can always drop out of the program and just forget it happened.

 

[Dox4lyfe]

Wow congrats on getting into this super competitive program (I was rejected post interview when I applied in the past lol)!!! You honestly do not need the honors program. As a student in the BS/MD program, you'll already be offered unique opportunities that other students don't get (including interesting research opportunities). Just keep doing everything you did to get into this program and you'll be golden!

 

[efle]

Even if you apply out its your GPA and MCAT that matter, not whether you had honors classes. Most app readers probably have no idea which undergrads do vs don't have honor colleges anyways.

 

[Blossom27]

I totally thought I had replied to this earlier, so I'm sorry! I wanted to thank you all for your advice. I decided to stay in honors for now and drop out if it becomes an impediment later (I have to take a freshman seminar no matter what, and so for my first semester, it would just be an honors seminar. I figured it wouldn't make much of a difference right away).

 

[Lucca]

Honors programs are never worth it for their own sake. What matters is whether or not youre interested in the resources and community the program provides you. Those are usually pretty good and helpful, not to mention the fact that honors students also tend to receive a lot of the awards and scholarships at their institutions.

At my institution it was definitely worth it

 

[MonkeyArrow]

Honors programs are never worth it for their own sake. What matters is whether or not your interested in the resources and community the program provides you. Those are usually pretty good and helpful, not to mention the fact that honors students also tend to receive a lot of the awards and scholarships at their institutions.

At my institution it was definitely worth it

Very true. Also, at my institution, being in the honors program allows you to register for honors courses, which are more discussion based and smaller, and claim to have better professors assigned to those classes (ex: this semester, psych has a couple of 300 people sections, I'm taking honors psych in a class of 19).

 

[begoood95]

My honors program was similar to those above and included:

• priority enrollment
• smaller class sizes
• optional honors "add-ons" that usually supplemented the normal course with relevant/interesting information and topics
• a nice little hood during graduation (we all know this is the real reason we jumped on board)
• guaranteed interview at our affiliated medical school (alas, it's DO so I didn't apply)
• other, interesting courses not offered to non-honors students.

To me, it was well worth it, and like @Lucca said, usually the honors college is not something "worth it" in and of itself. Rather, it's something you should look into personally and determine whether or not you personally will get something out of it.