Do med schools really look at honors courses?

[Umyo]

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Is there any point at all going the extra mile and taking a much harder honors chemistry course in college versus a non-honors regular chemistry course?

How I see it: honors - much harder to earn a better grade
regular: much easier to get a 4.0

So, do med schools really care if you have these harder honors courses or not?

 

[GallbLad]

If you're just playing the "game" then take the regular course. If you know you need a harder course to challenge yourself/ better yourself then take the honors course.

 

[amazing tekkers]

What if you graduate with Latin honors?

 

[TamaleShroveDoc]

It matters very, very little. I'd be inclined to take the regulars course and get an 'A'

 

[fahimaz7]

Why is there an "honors" level class at your college?

 

[JohnQuincyAdams]

Why is there an "honors" level class at your college?

It is a very common thing...

OP, I'm guessing you are entering college and talking about gen chem? I remember when I was entering college; I was really debating whether to take honors chemistry or not. I did it, and I had to work very hard to get an A. Now, looking back, I feel that it is such a tiny part of your application that it really wouldn't have mattered if I would have done honors or not. Over my undergrad career, I did take about 8-10 honors courses, so that probably helped overall, but one course will not make a difference.

Getting an A is by far more important than doing honors.

 

[deleted303591]

It is a distraction.

Plus, the Ivy League colleges do not have honors courses for a reason. If you made it in to an Ivy League, you are at the top of your game.

 

[plumhill]

Why is there an "honors" level class at your college?

It's very common at state schools.

 

[BABSstudent]

Is there any point at all going the extra mile and taking a much harder honors chemistry course in college versus a non-honors regular chemistry course?

How I see it: honors - much harder to earn a better grade
regular: much easier to get a 4.0

So, do med schools really care if you have these harder honors courses or not?

My school specifically says that they do not look at honors courses. I will try to find the quote and post it here.

Found it! It is number 16.
http://www.uwmedicine.org/education/md-program/admissions/pages/frequentlyaskedquestions.aspx

Is there any advantage to taking honors courses or being in the honors program?

You may learn a subject in greater depth. It doesn't affect how we look at your academic record

 

[Umyo]

My school specifically says that they do not look at honors courses. I will try to find the quote and post it here.

Found it! It is number 16.
http://www.uwmedicine.org/education/md-program/admissions/pages/frequentlyaskedquestions.aspx

Ahh, so no point really if I take honors courses or not

 

[Goro]

We don't. So take it only if you're honestly interested in the subject.

Is there any point at all going the extra mile and taking a much harder honors chemistry course in college versus a non-honors regular chemistry course?

How I see it: honors - much harder to earn a better grade
regular: much easier to get a 4.0

So, do med schools really care if you have these harder honors courses or not?

 

[Umyo]

We don't. So take it only if you're honestly interested in the subject.

Well. I'll have to re think my position on honors courses for next year.

Already have my classes set for this year.

 

[MadRadLad]

Probably depends on the school.

I know Central Michigan's school specifically say they will weight Honors courses.

 

[BABSstudent]

Ahh, so no point really if I take honors courses or not

If you want to learn the material at a greater depth or have smaller class sizes, it might be advantageous to take the honor courses. Otherwise, the regular classes will be fine.

 

[Southplains]

I don't think taking the honors section will hold any weight in school admissions. Earning a B in honors is worse than an A in "regulars". That being said, at the college level I really don't think the difference between the two is in difficulty level and you shouldn't perceive the regulars section as being easier to make an A.

I was not in the honors college at my undergrad but did take the honors section for a few of the courses because I knew the professor and had heard really great things. The honors section is typically much smaller (~35 vs ~135 people) and the professor is usually very strong. It's just a more intimate experience and the professor usually cares a lot more about the student's learning experience. In one of them, the professor actually had all the students over for dinner at the end of the semester. I actually had a really great time in all of the honors courses I took and made an easy A. Compare that to the normal drudgery of college courses that are poorly administered, and I'd much rather be in honors.

Also, there were more group projects in honors sections.

 

[Lil Mick]

We had an honors college in the humanities at my school. Not sure if it directly helped with my application, except for helping me with the MCAT (many more books to read and papers to write in those classes). However, it did automatically give me a degree in philosophy, which is kind of unusual for med students...

 

[DoktorO]

Honors courses at my school were easier than normal courses for one reason, the professors care more and actually teach you the subject instead of showing ppt slides for 50 minutes everyday. If you value increased involvement in your courses honors courses can actually end up being actually easier than general courses and from my experience I have always gotten an A or A- at worst in honors courses.

Also, by taking honors courses you get to know professors better, which helps with finding research opportunities and getting good Letters of Rec. If you take general courses for three years you will NOT be getting good recs from professors unless you went above and beyond in contacting them and communicating with them.

 

[RedICEE]

I've taken a few honors classes, and while I don't think they were necessarily harder than their "regular" counterparts, they were a different type of learning environment. As someone mentioned above, the professor is more interactive as the classes are smaller and you are expected to participate with your classmates more on projects. There definitely seemed to be more assignments to do too. Personally I'm independent in my learning style, so I can't say that I preferred those experiences over my traditional "regular" ones, but I can see why people gravitate towards them.

 

[boboyahoo]

honors science courses at my uni have high percentages of A's (like 50%, regular is 10% or less). Intellectually, I strongly believe that general and honors courses students are typically the same (work ethic may differ slightly due to the ratio of student to prof in regular). Professor teaches more but it is also true that the same prof that teaches honors also teaches general. A prof I had was pretty boring and looked frustrated if asked questions by a 'regular' class student. However, this attitude was not present in the 'honors' lvl. He held personal review sessions and was much nicer in the 'honors' section, but a complete opposite for the 'regular' course. Also, the 'honors' students get better picks for professors who really care and have the mission to yield good grades.

 

[BlueLabel]

honors science courses at my uni have high percentages of A's (like 50%, regular is 10% or less). Intellectually, I strongly believe that general and honors courses students are typically the same (work ethic may differ slightly due to the ratio of student to prof in regular). Professor teaches more but it is also true that the same prof that teaches honors also teaches general. A prof I had was pretty boring and looked frustrated if asked questions by a 'regular' class student. However, this attitude was not present in the 'honors' lvl. He held personal review sessions and was much nicer in the 'honors' section, but a complete opposite for the 'regular' course. Also, the 'honors' students get better picks for professors who really care and have the mission to yield good grades.

A caveat to this point: this was true at my university also (but I'd say it was closer to 33% vs 15%; still a significant difference). However, what this comparison fails to consider is the quality of students in each of these classes. At my school, only students with a 3.5 or higher (i.e. kids who usually make As) are eligible for the honors program. This means that a classroom full of kids who at the very least make As 50% of the time in standard classes, are only making As a third of the time. In other words, honors is harder than regulars.

 

[Umyo]

honors science courses at my uni have high percentages of A's (like 50%, regular is 10% or less). Intellectually, I strongly believe that general and honors courses students are typically the same (work ethic may differ slightly due to the ratio of student to prof in regular). Professor teaches more but it is also true that the same prof that teaches honors also teaches general. A prof I had was pretty boring and looked frustrated if asked questions by a 'regular' class student. However, this attitude was not present in the 'honors' lvl. He held personal review sessions and was much nicer in the 'honors' section, but a complete opposite for the 'regular' course. Also, the 'honors' students get better picks for professors who really care and have the mission to yield good grades.

Someone I talked to recently also said pretty much the same thing.

Thanks for the insight everyone has given so far!

 

[cerno]

It may not help your application but there may be other tangible benefits, which would depend on your school. I take honors classes solely to fulfill the honors program requirement in order to get these benefits (priority scheduling, smaller class sizes, scholarships, etc). In the end, it depends on whether you want to/think it's worth it.

 

[ManjuEm]

At my school you need to have a 3.5+ to be accepted into the Honors Program and you need to be in the program in order to take the honors courses. From my experience, Honors Gen Chem was MUCH harder than non-honors. My friend barely scraped a C in Honors Gen Chem, but passed non-honors Gen Chem with an A.

My rule of thumb with honors course is, if you are not interested in the subject, don't take honors. Honors teachers go more in depth into the topics than are necessary. They also expect you to go above and beyond with the material. It's not enough to just know the material, you also need to be able to use that and apply it to new situations (kind of like the MCAT?). I've found that in non-honors classes, I can get by with straight memorization, while with honors classes, I've had to learn the material inside and out.

I have found, though, that Honors English classes are A TON more fun than the non-honors ones. The classes are capped at 15-20 (I actually had a lower level honors english class with only 7 students, including myself) and are discussion based. We had no written homework and no quizzes or tests bar the midterm. Instead of a final, we just needed to do a creative project that connected the material we covered post-midterm.

Personally, I love my honors program and try to take as many classes in honors as possible (with the exception of Orgo). But it's up to you; would you rather get that 4.0, or would you be okay with a 3.4 though with a better grasp on the material?

 

[kyamh]

Well, to argue the other side...

My school doesn't have honors per se, but it does have options like taking physics that is calculus (more physics majors) based or taking the same intro courses that are algebra based (filled with pre-meds). My school also drafts a committee letter to compile letters of recommendation. This is exactly the kind of stuff they talk about - what you had the option to do in the school system and what you ended up doing. It reflects positively in my letter that I took a tougher course I was qualified for. If you qualify for honors and a committee writes your letter, they may make a comment about how you did not take advantage of that opportunity.

 

[dechristine]

If your GPA greatly overshadows your major (something often stressed on these boards), then I don't see why honors courses would be given greater weight than regular courses. That being said, honors courses at my university are nice because the classes are much smaller (less than 50 students for an intro to psych class vs. 200) so it's easier for your questions to be answered and for you to form a better relationship with your professor. Honors classes aren't supposed to be harder than regular classes (again, at my university), but that depends on the professor and its not always a bad thing. For example, my Calc 3 class was a nightmare because my professor taught us more in depth concepts instead of just how to calculate triple integrals, but since he didn't write the final, our class average on the final was a 95.