<p>I am in my university's honors college. Graduating from the honors college requires me to take several classes that delay my taking major courses and use up my elective spots. I would rather take extra math or physics classes (I am an EE major). Are these honors colleges respectable or would employers and grad schools not even pay attention to it? I hate everything about the honors college except they let me sign up for classes before everyone else (a big deal when there are 60k students here)? I was considering staying "in" the honors college and then not completing the requirements so that I could reap the benefits without having to waste my time and effort on grade deflated classes that don't relate to my major. Would it be better for me to stay in the honors college if I go to a mid-ranked state school? My ultimate goal is a top tier graduate school (I want to work in IR&D).</p>
<p>It really depends on the honors college; there’s no universal answer. Some are really good and elevate the student’s study by a lot; some are just mediocre and/or function in name only.</p>
<p>I don’t think employers will care. Graduate schools might, a little, but you can certainly get into a top graduate program without being in the honors college.</p>
<p>FWIW, my liberal arts college had an honors program with what I considered stupid requirements. It was already a great LAC, and the honors program was pretty useless and just required a distribution of odd electives that weren’t offered that often and made it burdensome. I stayed in it for name purposes but I didn’t complete the requirements - I did what it made sense for me to do. I still got into top tier graduate programs and currently attend a top 5 PhD program in my field.</p>
<p>Extra math and physics classes are certain to more desirable for an EE major than some silly electives.</p>
<p>Thank you juillet. I will most likely do an alternative track that requires me to publish a thesis to get my honors distinction (I had not heard of it before today). Then I will be working on another research project and get the honors degree.</p>
<p>To echo juillet, the big problem with honors colleges (like Latin honors and other such things) is that they vary so much between schools that unless you are personally familiar with the program in question there is just no way to know what it means, and for that reason it seems like most figures of authority ignore the actual honors and look at your real accomplishments… most to all of which can be accomplished without the actual honors!! </p>
<p>I heartily recommend the thesis option you are investigating. It is a concrete item you can point to, and will really help you learn a particular subject, good preparation for either grad school or the professional world.</p>
<p>Since you have posted elsewhere about wanting to move to physics from EE, I can tell you that physics programs care first about grades in physics related courses, your GRE scores in quantitative and physics, your letters of reference and research experience. If your honors program gives you a better opportunity to develop these last two than it is a plus. Otherwise it probably will not affect admission.</p>