<p>Hello!</p>
<p>Currently I’m a senior in high school and just finished applying to Baylor. My intended route is pre-med. I just have a few questions about the different honor programs and how they each differ. Saying that I’m planning to go premed, which ones/combos are advisable? How difficult are they to get into? And should I apply now even if I don’t know my decision for general admission yet?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Check out Baylor’s website for Pre-Med Honors College options. Pay special attention to the links on the right side of the page.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.baylor.edu/honorscollege/index.php?id=90400”>http://www.baylor.edu/honorscollege/index.php?id=90400</a></p>
<p>You can apply now even though you have not been admitted to the college.</p>
<p>See below for a response from a previous question on difficulty of getting into the various programs. I’d suggest contacting the admissions department to get specific answers on timing, etc. My daughter has always found them to be responsive.</p>
<p>To answer your selectivity question, I believe it ranks generally as below…</p>
<p>University Scholars Major - very selective (only about 50 admitted each year).
Honors Program - selective with average ACT of 30.
BIC - semi-selective (about 200 admitted each year)
Great Texts - not more selective than the University as a whole</p>
<p>Note that the ACT number for the Honors Program is the average, so half of the people were higher and half were lower.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your response! I will take a look at the website and start applying as soon as I can!
I’m still a bit confused the difference between them.</p>
<p>Here’s what I got from the website:</p>
<p>Uni Scholars - Literature?
Honors Program - Honor classes
Great Texts - Some more literature?
BIC- a variety of topics that one can explore other than preferred major…i.e history?</p>
<p>Thanks once again!</p>
<p>Below is my understanding as a parent of a child going through the admissions process, so don’t take this as gospel. If you are able, you should visit the campus and meet with advisors on your specific academic goals. If you are able to go during Baylor Premiere or Invitation to Excellence, they will have sessions you can go to that outline the options in the Honors College.</p>
<p>University Scholars and Great Texts are majors. BIC and Honors Program can be combined with any/most majors.</p>
<p>University Scholars is a design your own major program. You are exempt from all/most general education courses and work with advisor to design a major that works for you. There is an independent reading list that you choose books from and towards the end of your time at Baylor you are given an oral exam on several of the books to show your grasp of the material.</p>
<p>Great Texts is a major focused on reading through the great works of human history.</p>
<p>BIC is a unique way to complete general education course requirements. Instead of taking a history GE, an english GE, a religion GE, etc. the concepts are combined into a class structure that combines aspects of each discipline into a single class generally focused on a specific era in human history.</p>
<p>Honors Program is a program that allows students to take an honors level version of a couple of courses in your freshman and sophomore years, with a course being dedicated in your junior and senior years to working on a thesis due in your senior year.</p>
<p>Yes, VACODad got it right. My d is a sophomore, and from her experience…</p>
<p>University Scholars (U-Schol) has a HUGE amount or reading of classics and primary texts. I wouldn’t advise this major unless you love to read. You do get to design your own program of study. So, as a pre-med you will have to take a lot of science, but maybe you don’t want to major in a science. You would take the pre-med courses, and then maybe choose some medical humanities, language, or other combination of courses that might be helpful when you are a medical professional. Your studies have to be approved and are under supervision of faculty.</p>
<p>Great Texts is also a lot of reading. You will probably even be reading the list over the summer.</p>
<p>BIC classes take the place of all your general ed. One class might integrate philosophy, religion, and English into one class. The class has one large group lecture once a week, and a small group with a dedicated instructor 2 times a week. You will look at primary texts and do reading, but nothing like U-Schol. My daughter loves the instructors and information she is learning in these classes.</p>
<p>Honors- You can take the honors version of the class or you can “contract” to do another class as honors and the professor will assign you some extra work, maybe reading another book and doing a paper or something like that. And you will do a thesis. My d was honors, and the best thing was that you got to sign up for all your classes earlier than most others but I think they are doing away with that. She will be dropping honors and doing her own research project which won’t need to follow the thesis requirements.</p>
<p>Baylor has “major academic planners” for all majors, just google Baylor Map _________(major) and you can see the suggested course load you would take</p>
<p>Here are the MAPs for all majors
<a href=“College of Arts & Sciences Advisement | Baylor University”>College of Arts & Sciences Advisement | Baylor University;
<p>MAP for BIC
<a href=“Baylor Interdisciplinary Core | Baylor University”>Baylor Interdisciplinary Core | Baylor University;
<p>MAP for great text, pre med, and honors
<a href=“http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/187648”>http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/187648</a></p>
<p>Hope this helps, it can be confusing!</p>
<p>I got accepted!!! Thank you for all of the input! </p>
<p>I will try to decide which ones to apply to! I don’t think I’m going to apply to Great Texts or USchol because I find the classics particularly boring. The BIC programs seems to be appealing as it is a new way to take the Gen Eds. And @pacnwmom Would you recommend applying to Honors? Are there any other benefits than just saying that you are in Honors classes?</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>I believe when you are in Honors, you get to select your classes before the general population in your grade, similar to athletes. Also, you do a thesis at the end of your time at Baylor, which can be a useful writing example if you intend to apply to graduate schools.</p>
<p>Getting to register for classes before others is helpful but Baylor has been curtailing this and I don’t remember what is happening with Honors, so check with them before choosing Honors just for this. Honors students do complete a Thesis which can be helpful later, as VACODad stated. The Honors classes can present more challenging work than the regular Baylor classes but be careful in your freshman year as it is easy to think that since you were a top student in high school college will be easy…it isn’t necessarily, and you need good grades for med school. In BIC you do also read some classics, I guess that is part of a good college education anywhere 
My daughter isn’t particularly into the classics but what she loves about BIC is the professors and the small discussion groups.</p>
<p>To be honest I’m not a huge fan of the classics too haha. They seem worth reading for the history but that’s about it…anyways I’ve definitely try to research more into the HP. Right now I’m waiting until Feb to hear back from one of my other colleges to see if I got into the guaranteed medical program. (Kind of like Baylor^2 Medical Track or whatever) but for now I think I’ll be going to Baylor for sure. I just have general questions about student life and housing now. </p>
Hi,
Do you know how many students will be accepted for Honors college every year and also how much will be the class size usually for Premed track.
Also even will there be separate classes for general ed courses also for Honors colleges like Bio/chem etc.
Any insight info is helpful.
Thanks.
Hey Stanford97.
I’m not too sure of the Honors College size to be honest. I would guess maybe around maybe 500-700 student in teh Honors Programs. As for the Pre-Med track, I’ve been accepted and have been talking with a lot of my fellow classmates. About 60% are pre med or nursing. As for classes I assume they wouldn’t have different classes, I wouldn’t take my word though. If you’re a student just get your AP credits and you have the ability to skip some of your gen eds. Hope any of this helps.
Ray
Hi Ray,
Thanks a lot for your response.So are you in Biology (Major)/PreMed.
Also how are you connecting with fellow classmates.
I came to know yesterday that they select around 250 students per yr for Honors program.
Do you know the courses structure/path.
I read some docs in honors college website but its kind of confusing,
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.
Hi Stanford,
I’m currently a (Biomedical) Engineering major, They don’t specifically have biomed but they have a track towards it! And yes I’m pre med.
All the people so far are very nice and outgoing. Honestly it’s going to be hard for me to choose a roommate! So far I haven’t much experience with the Honors Program. Sorry!
Ray