Honors Program???

[asound]

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Is it a good idea to do the honors program when entering college? Or should I not do it?? Experiences or comments regarding it would help. 🙂

 

[Catalystik]

My comments may not be true of every honors program, but the advantages may include smaller class sizes, higher ranked faculty, and class registration priority. When applying to med schools, AMCAS puts a nice little "H" after the grade of each honors class to help them stand out.

 

[syoung]

I took Honors at UC Irvine, and it was pretty sweet, priority registration being one of the best perks. It allowed me into any and all classes I wanted 2 weeks before the rest of my class. Helps guarantee your graduation in 4 years, especially given the UG situation in California, where many cannot take their pre-reqs and are forced to graduate in 5 years, longer if you switched majors.

 

[Neurosis]

I asked an admission counselor for a medical school about this, and she flat out told me that it was pointless. They don't distinguish between Honors and non-Honors courses. Do yourself a favor and just stick to the regular, Besides that, honors courses in colleges don't even give you a GPA boost...it really comes down to how much you like the subject and how much time/effort you're willing to put into a class that in the grand scheme of things is completely irrelevant.

 

[Flim Flam Man]

Is it a good idea to do the honors program when entering college? Or should I not do it?? Experiences or comments regarding it would help. 🙂

might as well give it shot, I'm sure you could always drop it and no one would know

 

[SnowyRox]

My comments may not be true of every honors program, but the advantages may include smaller class sizes, higher ranked faculty, and class registration priority. When applying to med schools, AMCAS puts a nice little "H" after the grade of each honors class to help them stand out.

At Penn State the registration priority goes something like this...
Varsity Football players
6 year BA/MD
Other varsity players & honors program
Everyone else sorted by class year

A HUGE HUGE advantage at a big state school. Of course you could always make varsity football instead .

Upper level electives were small honors classes open to everyone but generally filled with honors students.

Tough to graduate in 4 years as pre-med without honors.

 

[asound]

But what is the point of the honors program?? What does one do with the program??

 

[Flim Flam Man]

But what is the point of the honors program?? What does one do with the program??

its just harder classes, so it looks better on your application, or sometimes they just have to do an extra project

 

[HipChick]

For our honors program it was the option to take harder classes, priority registration, we also had to complete a senior thesis. they also helped up with other items, applications, GRE/MCAT, etc. I say go for it.

 

[semicharmed]

I really liked my UGs honors program because of the support network. On paper, the "advantages" were minimal (mainly just priority registration for honors courses that the other students could take after we registered). Honors classes are awesome-especially at a big school, it's nice to feel that you're in a smaller community.

In terms of med school, I don't think it makes a HUGE difference on your application (this would be WAY behind GPA, MCAT, extracurrics, letters, etc), although as some of the recent threads have shown, admis committees do look at course difficulty, and having taken a bunch of honors courses and done well (IMO typically the honors courses are more easy, "conceptual-learning style" haha) will look great.

It can't hurt, except for the requirement of having to take a certain number of classes and maintain a GPA to stay in...but why would you not want to do it?

 

[MadRadLad]

By the way, sometimes the Honors classes aren't even that hard. In fact, if you have the option to take a class in a small honors section of ~25-30 students rather than a 300+ person lecture, you will learn a lot more, and the professors are often a lot more chill and willing to just keep it interactive and the class ends up being pretty easy.

 

[NightGod]

If your GPA remains the same across the board, Honors classes give the distinct advantage of priority registration and smaller class size (sometimes, a lot of the big lecture classes at my school only separate the honors by giving them a different block of seats set aside for people with the H designation). If you get worse grades in an honors class than you would in the 'regular' one, then being in the program will hurt you. Unless you are a very borderline applicant (and how many honors students are likely to fit into that category?) then honors classes will make little difference during your application cycle.

 

[Cinclus]

The priority registration and the awesome, exclusive classes to which I had access made my undergrad honors program worth it. Only one of the honors programs classes I took was remotely difficult; it was probably one of the most enlightening classes I took, though.

 

[Rumalum]

like others said - priority registration and smaller class sizes

Also, at my school, the honors college had to take far fewer total classes than the normal liberal arts regimen. Everyone here knows what colossal wastes of time some of those classes can be, so cutting out some of the bull**** really helped me focus on other things

 

[schwabejr]

Check out what the honors program at your school offers. I joined the honors program at my ugrad late because I didnt have a good class rank coming out of high school and it was 100% worth it.

To begin with, priority registration is key and will make it so much easier to take all of your upper level sciences (assuming you're majoring in one of the hard sciences) when you want to rather than in your last two semesters when you finally have the hours to get into them.

Many honors programs will help put you in contact with PI's that want to take on honors undergraduates in their labs. The lab I worked in for 3.5 years in undergrad pulls exclusively from the honors program.

Alot of places have required honors seminars that can be really interesting. I got the chance to take classes like "The Nature of Happiness", "Human Consciousness", and "The Biology of Disadvantage" all taught by prof's who actually WANT to teach the subject matter. That can make a huge difference in what you can take away from the class.

Small class sizes is also a HUGE advantage because it gives you a chance to do two things 1) Really engage with the material of the class. Youll likely get to go far beyond the standard lecture, take notes, test repeat formula that most of your classes are following which is a great opportunity to REALLY learn something with the resource of a PhD literally at your fingertips. 2) Getting to work 1 on 1 with some of the best faculty at your school is a great chance to land a stellar LOR. e.g. - The professor who taught my Human Consciousness class was a retired child neurologist from Duke who is THE name in Epilepsy research. I had two interviewers at different schools bring his letter up.

Finally, and this is a huge plus if your honors program provides it: many programs provide you with an advisor. Thats huge if you wouldve been stuck with a general advisor before you declare your major because those generally suck/dont have a grasp of what courses you need to start in to be prepared to work in a lab or take the MCAT. Bad advice early on can really set you back. Honors advisors also have a lower student load than general advisors. Many schools also make sure youre being advised by someone in the field you want to go into. My advisor had worked for both Duke Med and USC Med and brought a TON of insight into our sessions.

TL;DR Check out the program at your school, the perks can go SO FAR beyond another line on your resume. Most honors programs arent about "more work" like they were in high school, theyre all about "better work".

Good luck.

 

[schwabejr]

I asked an admission counselor for a medical school about this, and she flat out told me that it was pointless. They don't distinguish between Honors and non-Honors courses. Do yourself a favor and just stick to the regular, Besides that, honors courses in colleges don't even give you a GPA boost...it really comes down to how much you like the subject and how much time/effort you're willing to put into a class that in the grand scheme of things is completely irrelevant.

Honors courses are marked on AMCAS, which means the person who reviews your app can see them. While individual schools may or may not take that into consideration, there are dozens of people who read your app, it may be part of the package that earns you that interview.

Being in Honors is more about being a quality student, engaging with the material and your professors. Theres no GPA boost needed, this isnt high school, but when you actually dig into the material, good grades and better learning tend to follow.

Besides, Ive heard from countless (probably closer to 12) medical students and faculty that M1 and M2 are like trying to drink from a fire hose. You might as well take the chance to flex your intellectual muscles now before the mountains of memorization start.

 

[BigBlueBear]

The Honors program at my university is pretty well known as a joke. You have to pay an extra 1000 a year to be in it, and it's no different than a normal degree. You're pretty much just paying 4000 bucks to get the "Honors" title.

I fell for it in high school when all the counselors told me "oh yeah all the cool kids go into the honors program..."

Regretting it now. I wish I had kept the 4000 bucks -.-

 

[Remark]

Honors in my college has a few extra requirements (foreign language through intermediate level, 4 honors designated classes, and a colloquium requirement), and no extra fees. It allows you to get into some honors seminars (which I personally had no interest in), and allows you to choose honors housing.
The two things I got out of the program were 1-my PI told me that's why he interviewed me, 2-coming in they set me up with a professor mentor.
Though the benefits of honors weren't too high, but I'd personally advise it because it didn't take extra effort.

 

[penguinism]

I loved my honors program. Priority registration was awesome, and I was able to schedule almost every course with my preferred time. It was also great because my introductory biology course lab and recitation were taught by the actual professor for the honors section (whereas a TA taught all of the other non-honors sections). There were great colloquium courses to choose from, such as the history of baseball or rock & roll, and they were actually graded relatively easily (most were non-science).

 

[anegron519]

.

 

[typicalindian]

So being in the honors program isn't helpful for med school admissions?

 

[semicharmed]

I found out about the Honors Society at my CC a little too late. They require at least 8 honors courses to be taken in order to graduate with honors. If I only took 6 and graduated, but not from the honors society, the classes I took were still honors classes. Does the AMCAS application still accept those or must I graduate with the honors society in order to click the "Honors" button on the application???

If you took an honors class than, yes, you would designate it as honors on the AMCAS transcript. There is no place to put that you were in the honors program on the application unless you designate it as an "award," which is a waste of the slot. AMCAS will see it on your official transcript and may make a note of it somewhere, maybe, but probably not.

High marks in honors classes look better than high marks in the equivalent non-honors class. I really wouldn't stress too much about this, though.

 

[NewYorker9]

So being in the honors program isn't helpful for med school admissions?

From reading some of the posts on here it doesn't look like it is directly, but if you're going into medicine then chances are you probably are intrinsically interested in the material and want to pursue learning to enhance your knowledge, not just to make it into med school. There are the perks like early registration and potential scholarship money depending on the school, but it doesn't seem like being an honors student will move you up in the admissions pile due to that status. Involvement at the university and one-on-one interaction with faculty may help boost your application, though this is an indirect and not guaranteed result.

 

[schwabejr]

From reading some of the posts on here it doesn't look like it is directly, but if you're going into medicine then chances are you probably are intrinsically interested in the material and want to pursue learning to enhance your knowledge, not just to make it into med school. There are the perks like early registration and potential scholarship money depending on the school, but it doesn't seem like being an honors student will move you up in the admissions pile due to that status. Involvement at the university and one-on-one interaction with faculty may help boost your application, though this is an indirect and not guaranteed result.

This is right on the mark. Like most things, you'll get alot out of the program if you're putting alot into the program - e.g. - engaging your professors, utilizing program resources, using it to break into research etc.

Be sure to check out the program at YOUR school before deciding though. And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE talk to an upperclassmen who is IN the program about the benefits. Folks who didn't do honors tend to spout on and on about how the extra work is pointless, you won't learn anything from them.

 

[Tummytroubles]

I did honors and it really was no different from the regular program. No difference at all. I think it was a gimmick to attract students with higher stats. It worked, made me feel better about going there instead of a top ranked school.

 

[drshoes]

Doing the honors program can really help in terms of interacting with professors at your school, especially if you want to do research or need letters of recommendation. I've found that professors are much more likely to pay attention to honors students and give them chances to work in labs than they would for other students. Depending on the program, it might not be too much additional work either.