<p>First, a little background: I'm between University of Delaware and University of South Carolina... have nearly full rides at both. </p>
<p>I'm planning to study Civil Engineering and am actually quite nervous about the work load. When touring with UDel, I was told that in many courses(mainstream courses) the honors students stay after for additional work to earn their honors distinction. A comment was also made that honors students are frequently put into 'regular' courses and just segregated into their own discussion groups. I was shocked by this as I believed that honors meant smaller classes and less large lecture type classes... seemed appealing. I emailed the admissions office and they tried to clarify what I had heard but confirmed what I was told. </p>
<p>I guess I'm starting to think that I don't really want to be in the honors program. With engineering, I will already have a heavy course load(to some of you brilliant CCers it might not be but for me it is!) and to add the Honors colloquium, 30 credits of honors level, and honors thesis I think it might be overkill. Why not put my effort into other higher level courses for a masters? These schools have an option for an MBA in addition to engineering in five years but to do this AND honors would be impossible. I'm just not sure... </p>
<p>My guidence counselor also made a point about GPA in that if I plan to go on to grad/law school my GPA matters ALOT and that NOT being in honors while in engineering isn't a big shocker. Thoughts?</p>
<p>Has anyone said no to being in honors and do you regret it?</p>
<p>the one thing I can tell you is don't bother with the MBA option except for very narrow circumstances. Businesses don't view the 5-year MBA programs as valuable. Do a little research on the country's top MBA schools and you'll see they all expect 3-6 years of work experience so that the stuff they teach you makes sense based on what you've seen in the working world as opposed to being just classroom expository. And employers hiring MBA's have the same expectation.</p>
<p>Where it does make sense is if you aren't planning on using the MBA as a general entree' to a career but just as a minor "plus". For example, a lawyer who also has an MBA might be more highly regarded as a lawyer in finance, but your major selling point is your legal skills and the MBA is just an add-on. Or if you want to go into engineering management the MBA may help you get on a faster track. In industry it is common for engineers to go to night-school for an MBA in order to get into management faster; but this would be a dumb way, for example, for a working engineer to try to change jobs and work on Wall Street or in consulting. People making that switch quit working and go full-time to a top-10 program.</p>
<p>I was really just using the MBA thing as an example of other (note: better) things I could do with the extra time. If it could be done in 4.5(with summers/winter semester) or 5 years it might be okay to do before law school... that's quite far away still. </p>
<p>I am meeting with an honors counselor at one of my choice colleges to talk to her about honors/ non honors... </p>
<p>Can you drop out of honors if it's too difficult? They probably give you priority registration for being in honors, & that is a great perk. OTOH a kid I know at UDel was in engineering honors & changed majors because the honors science classes were so hard. You are smart to think about it as an option & not a given just because you were admitted. We have alot of friends in the business world who are engineering managers. The topic of an MBA has been discussed at length & they all feel that an MBA is a valuable asset especially after you've been in the work world for a couple of years. Even if you don't do the 5 year program it's smart to take business classes as your electives, or maybe add a minor in business.</p>
<p>You have a good point not to be in honors. It sounds like honors is really hard at UD. </p>
<p>I have an older friend at USC who told me about campus life and the honors program when I was interested in it. She said that Carolina students complain that honors is easier than regular, because professors give them special attention and better ways to get passing grades.</p>
<p>I think UDel has a slight edge over South Carolina. I talked at length with a few engineering professors and honors reps and it seems like it is almost abnormal for engineering students to STAY in honors. Many start off in it but drop it because it becomes such an unimportant part of their education.... so many other opportunities in minoring, double majoring, internships, advanced degrees, etc which are more appealing than normal old honors distinction. Professors made a case about how engineering is enough of a distinction and honors distinction is more for BA type majors who need a boost. </p>
<p>...I'm thinking I may stick with honors and see how it works out. Worst comes to worst I can drop it after the first semester. At least then I won't regret not trying. No faculty member really answered my quesiton of intro classes in honors(whether they're 25 students in the class or 25 student discussion groups AFTER a 300 person lecture) and I was quite disgusted by this. It's a VERY simple question(I was asking specifically about Chem, Calc III, and English) and people were squirming about providing an answer. </p>
<p>Thanks for the ideas and other thoughts would be appreciated!</p>
<p>anovice, I think I've mentioned that my daughter is a junior in the Honors program at UD, and I'm sure she'd be happy to answer any questions you might have about the program. Contact me privately, and we'll exchange contact info. She should certainly be able to give you a student's-eye-view of Honors, with all its good and bad aspects.</p>