Question about placing Honors Program on VMCAS Application

[ec0021]

Hello. In my freshman year of undergrad, I applied to the Honors program at my school and was accepted. I stayed in the program for 2 years and then left (by not completing the requirements of enrolling in 2 honors courses per year because the honors courses were not related to my major and took energy away from completing my major). One of the honors courses I enrolled in was unrelated to my major (a Roman classics course) and turned out to be extremely difficult and time consuming and I received my worst grade ever (a C+) in the course, which brought my whole GPA down. After that, I decided I couldn't risk enrolling in silly time-consuming honors courses. Should I list being a member of the Honors Program for 2 years on my VMCAS application or does it look bad to list it since I left the program? Should I explain why I left it?

Also, I have a peer-reviewed publication on ecology/salamander research. Can I put that in Achievements as an Honor or Award? If not, where can I list it?

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[twelvetigers]

Hello. In my freshman year of undergrad, I applied to the Honors program at my school and was accepted. I stayed in the program for 2 years and then left (by not completing the requirements of enrolling in 2 honors courses per year because the honors courses were not related to my major and took energy away from completing my major). One of the honors courses I enrolled in was unrelated to my major (a Roman classics course) and turned out to be extremely difficult and time consuming and I received my worst grade ever (a C+) in the course, which brought my whole GPA down. After that, I decided I couldn't risk enrolling in silly time-consuming honors courses. Should I list being a member of the Honors Program for 2 years on my VMCAS application or does it look bad to list it since I left the program? Should I explain why I left it?

Also, I have a peer-reviewed publication on ecology/salamander research. Can I put that in Achievements as an Honor or Award? If not, where can I list it?

I was in a similarly structured honors program for a bit. It was a huge time sink and it was very hard to find courses that were honors AND applied to my degree plan, so I would have to 'contract' the course - that meant the professor would choose some extra thing to do to earn the honors points. Sometimes, it was just writing a 10 page report on something, but other times it was a LOT of extra work. I decided it wasn't worth the time with all the other stuff to worry about with required courses.

I didn't mention it. It didn't seem very important. They can see that some courses were honors depending on how they have you put it in VMCAS. I don't think it's a huge red flag, and I'm sure it happens often enough.

I think publications go under achievements.