<p>I was asked if I wanted to join the honors program in college.</p>
<p>Will this program affect my job in the future if I just get a BS in my degree?</p>
<p>It depends on what the program is.</p>
<p>It probably won’t effect your job prospects directly, but it may help you indirectly. For instance, if the honors programs give you internship or research opportunities (or make it easier to obtain them, perhaps with a mentorship program or by giving you networking opportunities) that are relevant to your field or future career, then that would likely help you in your future career by giving you experience and helping you develop skills. If the honors program is just smaller class sizes or a different curriculum, it likely won’t have any direct effect on your job prospects, but it may benefit you in general (perhaps, by helping you build relationships with your professors or peers, by allowing you to take more challenging courses that broaden your thinking or better prepare you for upper-division courses, etc).</p>
<p>What if the degree is something like accounting, finance, or geoscience?</p>
<p>This is completely dependent on the school. Some schools attach scholarship money to the honors program. For some it is merely an extra course to take and can limit your choice of electives. It may be more influential for graduate schools who are interested in seeing that you took the most difficult courses that you could. Of Course, some employers may look for that too.</p>
<p>Yes, benefits depend on school. One of my daughter’s safety schools offer an attractive honors program in that they get priority registration and a dorm specifically for honors students.</p>
<p>Benefits are listed on your school’s website.
But they may include:
- Priority registration -> great cost-saving system since it makes sure you can get into all the classes you need
- Honors Dorm -> often one of the nicest for freshmen/most recently renovated/suite-style, sometimes with special activities
- Free activities/cultural program/trips
- Classes filled with motivated students -> less temptation to slack off, resulting in higher grades
- Discussion-based classes: more interactive and often more interesting, fewer odds of TAs and better odds of having an actual professor
- Scholarship : sometimes it’s a “special” scholarship just for Honors Students, sometimes it’s not stated outright but you benefit from preferential packaging (more grants, fewer loans)</p>
<p>Scholarship, research requirement, internship, etc are the usual things linked to the honor programs.</p>
<p>Honors seems like a good choice then!</p>
<p>Thank you everyone!</p>
<p>Keep in mind that honors classes typically cover the first two years which means that eventually you’ll take classes with “regular” students. While this might not be a problem for those who are in a major like pure math or geophysics which uses heavy weeding during the first two years, it might be an issue for someone interested in majors which attract a lot of academically marginal students.</p>
<p>Honors programs vary greatly from one school to another. Just be sure you completely understand the requirements your school imposes on honors students.</p>