<p>So I'm a freshman in the Honors program. I have yet to hear an actual straight answer on the benefits of being an Honors student. Here is really what I've gathered:</p>
<p>1) Priority enrollment - Ability to enroll before other students. However, from what I understand, the caveat is that not more than 50% of the spots in any one given class can be filled from Honors students. </p>
<p>2) More prestige upon graduation - I guess being in the Honors program simply looks better on a job application.</p>
<p>That's really all I've heard and read. Unless there's something huge I'm missing, I really don't see how it's worth it. I'm killing myself in one of my Honors courses (Physics 1AH) when the same non-honors course is much easier. I really don't care too much about priority enrollment, and the prestige of Honors is nullified with a lower grade.</p>
<p>Besides the idea of extra intellectual stimulation - there's the stamp on your diploma... IMO, most important administratively is the P-Enrollment.</p>
<p>Is it really worth slaving away for extra hours/courses when you could've invested that same amount of time in trying to secure an internship or working on your resume instead of writing in "w/ Honors" on your resume? Hmmmmm!!!</p>
<p>There used to be a priority housing benefit, too...is that gone?
Just the scheduling priority alone is worth a lot...talk to your non-honors freshman friends and ask them if they got the classes they wanted.</p>
<p>this may be biased because im not in the honors program, but there is no real added "prestige" if you graduate with college honors. (correct me if im wrong)</p>
<p>now departmental honors may be somethin important (at least in my major) because we have to do an involved independent research project/present thesis.</p>
<p>I have no clue why you would want to enroll in 1AH unless you were head over heals in love with physics AND were a master at it or had advanced knowledge of the materials through several community college courses (which I don't think is the case in your situation). There are plenty of ways of fulfilling the honors requirements, and many of them are much, much easier than taking courses that you hate :rolleyes: - ie contract courses for the easiest route, or if you're daring enough, taking honors for courses you actually like and can do well in. Of course there are still the collegium requirements, but there are plenty of interesting and easy topics if you just actually look around.</p>
<p>I highly doubt you'll come to that same conclusion about priority enrollment after you go a few quarters w/o it because that one incentive trumps out any other possible incentives you can get as an undergraduate in a public university with the volume of students this school has, with the exception of money.</p>
<p>And in order to complete the honors program, you have to maintain a minimum GPA throughout your undergraduate career as well so you can't just take honors courses and not do well and still expect to be in the honors program</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I transferred out of 1AH and went into 1A. Going to stay in the Honors program for now and see just how much of a benefit priority enrollment is.</p>
<p>Jyancy - what are some of the much easier honors classes (you mentioned "contract courses")? Not necessarily individually speaking, but as a whole (i.e. Lit classes, science classes, humanities classes, etc).</p>