Honors Cirriculum

[Jon Davis]

Hi. Im a freshman at my university and I was wondering whether it will work against me if I'm not in the Honors Cirriculum?(this includes i think 12 credits in honors classes plus honors thesis [and i think research..not sure]). Im not in the honors program at my school but I started having second thoughts about not signing up for the honors cirriculum. Do adcoms really care if you took the honors cirriculum? (Pardon my crappy typing and stuff...just got done studying for finals--brain is dead.)

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[Hopkins2010]

I'm graduating in the honors program at my school, which is no small task with all the requirements you have to meet.

I would say dont do it only for med school, because I doubt there is any significant weight given to it.

In my case, we had to do 2 years of research (1 of those years had to be written up in a senior honors thesis) and that extra research experience helped me get into MD/PhD programs to some extent.

If I had to go thru college again, I WOULD do it, but ONLY because I like research. Otherwise, it would not be worth my while. You may get some small benefit in the eyes of the med school adcoms, but any gain you get out of it would pale in comparison to the time you put into the program.

So, unless you like research I wouldnt do it.

 

[moo]

Do it for the challenge and the adventure. Don't do it to impress other people.

 

[MUN2005]

I agree with moo. Do it to get experience that you may not have a shot at with anything else. However, my chem prof told me that somebody graduating with an honours degree usually will have better chances of getting into a grad school, although this will not always be the case when other factors considered. But if you want to try research, do it.

 

[Jon Davis]

Thanks for responding. I've decided that research isnt my cup of tea. Although, it my totally change down the road. Who knows? Although a part of me doesnt like to be indecisive about it. Thanks for responding. Especially hearing from moo. (I never got around for thanking you for the advice you gave me about Canadians going to American med schools.)

 

[Jon Davis]

I wonder if I repeated myself too many times.

 

[KyGrlDr2B]

To graduate with honors at my school, you have to take a ton of classes that are a waste of time and loads of extra work. I am a scholarship student so I have to take 9 hrs of honors classes. None have been geared toward science, which is fine. However, only one of them actually could count toward my graduation requirements. There was no way I was gonna fill up my schedule with 20 honors hours just to have it stamped on my diploma and end up busting my ass to graduate in 4 yrs.

Of course, yours may be diff, but mine just wasn't worth it.

 

[altaskier]

I'd say all the really matters academically at the end is your GPA. Who gives a crap if you were in honors or not. I agree with everyone else, if you do it, do it for yourself and not to impress anyone. But be aware, if you do take honor courses, you really could jack your GPA up, sending down the tubes. NOW, that is not worth it. I wasn't in honors, although I did graduate with honors. I always took courses that I liked on the side, no matter what subject they were in.

 

[rajneel1]

honors doesn't matter to a medical school. when you do your application, you type in what classes you took so chem 2A is the same as chem 2AH. they won't know the difference. at my school, the "honors challenge" thing was pretty ridiculous. all you had to do was sign up for it. a lot of people get into med school without taking an honors anything because it is just added stress and work. it is GPA and MCATs that matter. i guess why someone might want to do honors is to get to know faculty, inside info into research/grants, etc.