Having honors

[PM504]

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Would graduating with honors in Theology or Public Health help your application to Med School?

 

[Amba]

Minimally at best

 

[Espadaleader]

Listen, you need biochemistry, cell/molecular bio, and stats and a 3.7+. That at least guarantees interviews.

Engineering/computer ppl get special consideration because of their skillset.

 

[Lambda Phage]

Listen, you need biochemistry, cell/molecular bio, and stats and a 3.7+. That at least guarantees interviews.

Engineering/computer ppl get special consideration because of their skillset.

Sarcasm is hard to detect over the internet...

 

[274631]

Would graduating with honors in Theology or Public Health help your application to Med School?

If it means you have to do a thesis/research it could help a bit. Otherwise I don't know how much of an impact it would really have.

 

[gyngyn]

Not likely.

 

[Lya]

Forget about all the honors, in my opinion.

Spend that extra time available on things that you believe truly matter.

 

[talinnlove]

Would graduating with honors in Theology or Public Health help your application to Med School?

Depends on the school. I went to a gigantic state university for undergrad; doing the honors curriculum let me take smaller classes and get to know profs better, which can help when you need to find faculty to write you LORs that actually speak about your skills and personality. Honors research is also available at some schools, which might give you more in-depth experience and better interactions with a PI.

As far as how your academic record is reviewed, UWSOM answers that in their FAQ, for their school at least:

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.

 

[jm192]

I don't know that it matters much if at all.

A lot of honors/if not all are tied to grades. Your GPA speaks to that. If you need a 3.6 to graduate cum laude, then there's no point in putting the Cum Laude with your 3.6

Edit: If we're discussing the whole honors college/senior thesis thing--it's still really not worth a lot. Maybe if you have a 3.5 and you're sitting there with another 3.5. But, they're still going to take a 4.0 over your 3.5 with honors thesis.

Honors entails what, certain extra classes and a thesis that usually involves some sort of research? Everyone's already got heavy class loads, upper level electives, and research.

You could say that honors shows you spend time on things outside of class, but that's what EC's do for everyone else.

 

[tallsaint]

When people dismiss graduation with honors as having no significance, this doesn't extend to those that require the completion of a thesis, right? Obviously spending two semesters writing a thesis is different than simply having a certain GPA, but I've seen people dismiss an honors thesis by saying that it "can't hurt, but probably won't help" (or something similar).

Is it just because many students have completed a senior thesis?

 

[bigdogrob4284]

Minimally at best

This.

 

[gyngyn]

When people dismiss graduation with honors as having no significance, this doesn't extend to those that require the completion of a thesis, right? Obviously spending two semesters writing a thesis is different than simply having a certain GPA, but I've seen people dismiss an honors thesis by saying that it "can't hurt, but probably won't help" (or something similar).

Is it just because many students have completed a senior thesis?

"Honors" with or without a thesis does not amount to a comparable data point for reviewers.

Striving for excellence can sometimes be inferred by the overall quality of an application, however. It is possible that this distinction may have some meaning (if there is a medical school affiliated with the undergrad that bestowed this honor they may give extra credit).