Does taking honors courses help with medical school admissions?

[Macromind101]

I am currently in the honors college at my university. The requirement to graduate with honors is to take 30 units, which I am close to fulfilling (25 units after my freshman year). So yeah, I only need 5 more honors units. I was wondering if I should take more honors classes than necessary with medical school admissions in mind. Do medical school admissions look favorably upon applicants who took honors courses? And how about the grades? Is it like undergraduate admissions where a B in an honors course would look the same (if not better) than an A in a regular course due to the applicant accepting the challenge of an honors course?

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[miamiheatfan]

Honestly in my opinion it doesn't matter.

 

[Rainbow Zebra]

GPA is GPA, I don't think it helps/hurts, unless you have a committee letter that discloses you took the harder class. But taking a B instead of a A/A- will probably hurt you.

I didn't do honors, but did graduate "with honors". Don't anticipate this will help, as just about everyone who is a competitive applicant did honors, or will be on "dean's list", graduate honors/cum laude. Seems to be the baseline, nothing that will make you stand out. Probably won't even waste one of the 15 activities to report this.

 

[mimelim]

Graduating with honors or taking a harder course load will make you look good when compared with other applicants with similar GPAs. But, it will not make up for lower grades. Academic excellence is expected. Pick the hardest curriculum you can expect to do well in.

 

[TxC]

At my school, it is sometimes said that honors classes are easier than regular ones because students in the honors program need to keep a certain GPA.

I'm in the honors program, and the classes are not hard, they just require a lot of work and sometimes critical thinking.

The one benefit of being an honors student, for me, is the chance to write an honors thesis.

 

[bee17]

There will be many applicants with honors classes. However, at least at my institution, honors classes are smaller, and professors tend to be more involved with their students. Taking (and doing well in) an honors course might lead to a good LOR or open other doors.

 

[caffeinemia]

Interesting premise this honors course... we just had to be in a GPA cut off and got latin honors. But I guess everything was honors at [Name drop Ivy League here].

 

[quietninja72]

Like has been said above, I felt like my honors classes were actually easier than my regular classes. All the honors designation really ended up meaning in the end was smaller classes with more attention from the professor, which lead to a more personalized class experience in pre reqs than the normal big lecture hall weed out pre reqs. I wouldn't think it would mean anything to admissions since the actual material you learn is the exact same.

Also @caffeinemia, the whole honors program thing in college is just super weird, because it's generally only for pre reqs that you do honors classes. After that, it would be too difficult to provide honors versions of major specific classes, so it really doesn't account for anything. Also, being in the honors program definitely does not guarantee success or honors at graduation. I ended up finishing with highest honors, but I had friends who did the honors program and didn't make any of the honors GPA cut offs.

 

[caffeinemia]

Like has been said above, I felt like my honors classes were actually easier than my regular classes. All the honors designation really ended up meaning in the end was smaller classes with more attention from the professor, which lead to a more personalized class experience in pre reqs than the normal big lecture hall weed out pre reqs. I wouldn't think it would mean anything to admissions since the actual material you learn is the exact same.

Also @caffeinemia, the whole honors program thing in college is just super weird, because it's generally only for pre reqs that you do honors classes. After that, it would be too difficult to provide honors versions of major specific classes, so it really doesn't account for anything. Also, being in the honors program definitely does not guarantee success or honors at graduation. I ended up finishing with highest honors, but I had friends who did the honors program and didn't make any of the honors GPA cut offs.

yar.. college is course stuff is so complicated.

 

[Dentase]

Whats the difference between taking honor classes and graduating with honors. Im only a sophmore so I dont know. I would like to graduate with honors seems honorable. But what is the difference

 

[hoihaie]

some honors classes are more interesting (and easier) because they're more about critical thinking than memorizing stuff.

 

[mcatjelly]

some honors classes are more interesting (and easier) because they're more about critical thinking than memorizing stuff.

Yeah, my Honors program had more "innovative" courses we used in place of our gen-eds, and each professor could teach whatever the hell they wanted as long as it satisfied the learning requirements of each course. I ended up taking Honors courses on Chinese art history, the history of food production, and technology in theater. Like you said, the courses were easy but I ended up learning more critical thinking skills in these than I did in many of my major classes. I was also required to take a Research Methods course my first semester which was challenging but one of the most useful classes I took.

 

[mcatjelly]

Yeah, my Honors program had more "innovative" courses we used in place of gen-eds, and each professor could teach whatever the hell they wanted as long as it satisfied the learning requirements of each course. I ended up taking Honors courses on Chinese art history, the history of food production, and technology in theater. Like you said, the courses were easy but I ended up learning more critical thinking skills in these than I did in many of my major classes. I was also required to take a Research Methods course my first semester which was challenging but one of the most useful classes I took.

 

[caffeinemia]

I've taken some honors classes, and it hasn't been brought up in any of my interviews, so it seems like med schools may not care. That said, my honors courses have been extremely valuable to me in that they tend to be taught by the best professors, you're with students who really care, class sizes are smaller, and they tend to involve more critical thinking than busy work/memorization. It's also been useful to be a member of the honors program at my school to access additional advising, early scheduling, self-designed and -completed research opportunities, and group events (free orchestra tickets, museum trips, etc.).

Definitely a huge advantage if you're a school with a bajillion premeds ... like the UCs.

 

[Lucca]

Whats the difference between taking honor classes and graduating with honors. Im only a sophmore so I dont know. I would like to graduate with honors seems honorable. But what is the difference

Taking an honors class is exactly what it sounds like, that is, the class is listed as "ClassNumber - Honors" or something like that.

Graduating with honors is a totally different ordeal that will depend on your college and maybe even your major. Here one can graduate magna, Ampla, magna et Ampla and summa cum Laude depending on how they stand with respect to the rest of their class. These usually begin at like 3.75+ for most colleges. Another thing you can do is complete an honors degree. At my school all that means is that you completed an independent thesis in your major - sometimes this means you also took some specific coursework, but not always.

 

[DocToBe2018]

I went to a big state university which had an elitist honors program where enrollment was by invitation only. Belonging to the honors program allowed me to take many interesting courses which otherwise I wouldn't have taken as an engineering major. But as far as the medical school application was concerned, the only true merit I saw was adding an H to the course on AMCAS.

 

[wanderer]

Think from the perspective of an admissions member. You think they have the time to comb through your app to see if you got a couple of honors here or there?

 

[LizzyM]

Think from the perspective of an admissions member. You think they have the time to comb through your app to see if you got a couple of honors here or there?

It takes about 5 seconds. It might give you a little bump... maybe like adding a 0.02 to your GPA. I think that the bigger advantage is smaller classes and more opportunities to get significant face time with faculty and then getting more informative LORs.