<p>So I was just accepted to Boston College’s College of Arts and Sciences, and my admission letter said that I was also accepted to the Honors program within CAS. While I’ve checked out what BC’s website says and asked around, I’m still not entirely sure what the deal is with this program. BC is already a very rigorous and challenging school, right? Why do they have an Honors program within that? What are the benefits or special distinctions of this program? Will it tank my GPA if the classes are harder or is there extra credit? Also, if the classes are designed to be more challenging, then what exactly is their criteria? I’ve seen a lot of kids who are clearly very bright and able to handle difficult work (high GPA’s in AP/IB and great scores) NOT get accepted to honors, then there’s me: smart, but certainly no academic standout (30 ACT, 2070 SAT, 3.93/4.4 full IB candidate). I thought most schools just invited their top test-scorers to their honors college. I guess if CAS honors is more writing based then my essays could have done it for me, but honestly, I don’t understand much about this program, even after reading BC’s website. Any light shed would be great! </p>
<p>First, congratulations!</p>
<p>In the Honors Program, your core classes are in special honors sections. The classes are typically a bit more demanding but your track record certainly suggests you’re up to it. It’s also nice to have a cohort that you take classes with early on, as it helps you make a lot of friends. Beyond the core, you take classes with everyone else. It’s very unlikely that your GPA would tank being in the program. Admissions invites people into the program in part because of test scores, but also because of your high school grades, AP and Honors classes taken in high school and how strong your essay is. It really is your whole portfolio, not just how your fared on the SAT. This is also a big deal with recruiters and would likely help you down the road with graduate school. Good luck!</p>
Hi! I’m a current freshman in the Honors Program. Here’s how it works:
-No matter what major you are, you’ll be taking only 4 classes, since your Honors class is technically a 6-credit class (all the rest will probably be 3). Honors classes meet for about 4 hours a week (either M/W/F for 1 hour and 15 minutes each class or T/TH for 1 hour and 50 minutes each class).
-It’s a discussion based class (for most professors). There will probably be max. 15 kids in your class.
-It focuses on the classics. It depends on your professor, but you’ll probably cover Homer, other Greek plays (tragedies and comedies), the Bible (Old and New testaments, but with a very secular view), Dante, etc. (In later years, you cover more modern stuff).
-Through the first two years, your classes will fulfill the following core requirements: literature & writing, philosophy, theology, and social science. This means that you’ll have extra space in your schedule for other classes other than ones to complete your core.
As gobosox said, the Honors Program definitely helps you make a lot of friends! My best friends at BC are also in the Honors Program. I actually met them through Honors housing (which I also suggest! I love it!) but it’s really nice to get to talk to other people that are reading the same things as you!
It can be a lot of work, depending on your professor. For every professor, it’s a lot of reading. You go through the books very quickly. The amount of essays depends, though. My professor assigns four 5-7 page papers a semester. Another assigns six 2000-word papers a semester, another assigns one 4-6 page paper per semester, plus weekly one-page reflection papers.
Honors professors have the reputation of being very lenient with their grades. Meaning, you really have to do terribly to get below a B or B+, and most kids don’t get less than an A-. This is because your grade counts twice towards your GPA (since it’s a double credit), and your professors don’t want you to do poorly because they want to keep you in the honors program!
I hope this answers your questions! Congrats on getting accepted to BC and the CAS Honors Program!
@tiva_mcabby5 Hi! Thank you for your detailed response, a friend got into CASHP EA and is very excited but has some questions.
I’ll let her take it from here! :
I have heard from tours and such at BC that a strength of the College is the Core, which allows students to really explore a super wide range of subjects. With the HP fulfilling so many Core Requirements, how do you feel your freedom to explore is impacted?
Can you explain a little bit more about what a “tower” is and how it is different from a regular hall?
Thank you!
@Govgirl
Hi there! First of all, congrats to you friend!
Now, onto the questions:
Since I’m only a freshman, I’ve only taken four classes so far, so I haven’t had much freedom to explore YET. That being said, I’m sure that as a junior or senior (or even as a sophomore), I will have more room to take cool electives, like photography for example (which, for some reason, does not count towards your art core). I’ve talked to a lot of seniors (in the HP and not), and people take different paths when it comes to fulfilling their core. Some try and get it out of the way as soon as possible, and some wait until the last minute. Either way, there will be a lot less to have to complete if it’s already fulfilled through your honors classes. (I hope this makes sense! If it doesn’t, message me and I’ll explain further).
Now, onto Medeiros (the freshman Honors dorm). Part of this is copied from my answer to another thread.
There are a ton of benefits to Honors housing. First of all, you have guaranteed housing on Upper campus your freshman year, and Medeiros is a great place to live. It’s not set up like a normal hallway-style residence hall; it’s more like towers.
Medeiros is split into three separate towers (A, B, and C), and this year, A and B are girls and C is boys. It’s also not all Honors kids. for 2014-15, A is all honors girls, B is mostly not-honors girls, and C is mostly honors boys. There is no “ooh he/she isn’t honors, so we can’t hang out with them” attitude at all. That being said, being in the Honors Program, it’s really beneficial to live surrounded by some of your classmates, or other kids who know what the Honors Program is like.
When I say “tower”, here’s what I mean. I’ll just describe one of them to be simple. So, instead of long hallways, each tower is split in half. The halves are identical and they are connected by two bathrooms with doors on either side. On each half, there are eight doubles. It’s set up as follows (this is where it might get confusing): You walk up 6 or so stairs from the lounge, and there’s a landing with two doubles. Also connected to that landing is another set of 6 stairs, which leads to another land with two doubles. Then more stairs and two doubles, and finally one last set of stairs with two doubles. From each landing, you can look diagonally up and/or down to see the other landings. The space in the middle is open. It’s fun to look out over your balcony and talk to your hall mates slightly above or below you. The other half of the tower is exactly the same. So, basically, instead of living next door to most of your neighbors, you’re above, below, or diagonal to them.
All three towers (A, B, and C) are attached, but the only way to get between them is by going outside. All towers are basically the same, although B and C have some natural quads and triples sprinkled in there.
I hope this makes sense! If you decide to commit to BC, your username and password will let you see floor plans for all of the residence halls, so maybe that will make more sense. If you go to an admitted eagle day, there is usually an honors program luncheon of sorts - ask someone if you can see Medeiros if they’re a freshman!
Thank you so much @tiva_mcabby5 !!! You are a fantastic resource!! 