Honors Chem Program?

[user88862]

I’m an incoming freshman planning on pursuing pre-med. My school has an honors chemistry program, and I am wondering if I should participate. It’s accelerated with smaller class sizes and presents an opportunity for research during my sophomore year. I don’t get any special housing or earlier class registration out of it, but I’m not sure if I should do it and risk getting a lower GPA versus taking regular chemistry and potentially getting a higher GPA. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[TheDataKing]

It honestly won't make a difference. Take whichever one you think you'll do better in

 

[eigen]

The opportunity for smaller class sizes will help you build relationships early for letters of rec later on, and if the chances of getting into a research lab are higher this way (sounds like it is?) and you're interested in doing research, that's also a plus. Especially since this is a relatively early research opportunity. It would let you see how much you like it such that you could either build on it in subsequent years, or have done it and move on to more clinical opportunities in those later years.

You don't want to be careless about your GPA, but I'd caution you against getting into a mindset this early of protecting your GPA at the cost of otherwise beneficial and challenging experiences that will allow you to grow. I rarely see it turn out well down the road.

 

[jhmmd]

I took a math class like this (honors, small groups, not a lot of other perks). We had 2x as much homework as the other students, but that (and a good professor) is what made the difference. We did 2x the number of practice problems. Therefore, we were better prepared and got better grades than the other students. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy--the honors students did better than the students in the regular program.

But do as you wish.

 

[swatttt007]

Numerous times, I've taken classes that are more difficult/challenging than what was required. I've found I do better in these classes than my "easy" classes because I take them more seriously and devote the proper amount of time to them that they deserve. They also tend to have professors that are really engaging and interested in what they're talking about, which is a plus.

Also, taking accelerated stuff is amazing for later on when you've got time to kill because you've got a lot major requirements out of the way so you just get to take random stuff you find interesting.