I’m just asking because I wonder if it actually means anything to be honest. With being in the honors college at our school, we get priority registration, smaller classes, and some specific honors classes at our school. With being in the honors college, I’d have to take way more credits than not being in the honours college and I need to get a B in all these classes that are honors or else it won’t count. I have to manage the specific honors program requirements along with my required nursing classes and go back to school to take honors classes when I have clinicals. If I’m not in the honors college, then I can take a smaller lesser credit load and possibly don’t need to come back to school to take classes. I wonder does being in the honors college even help with getting into grad school, job opportunities, and just overall creating a better resume? I’d rather graduate in 4 years without honors than to take more honors courses with extra costs to take a longer time to graduate with honours for these requirements at our school.
I think it depends on the school’s honors program. My daughter’s program doesn’t require more classes, just different coursework. They also have employers for internships and research opportunities specifically for honors students. It also guarantees her undergraduate research which was important to her and honors specific study abroad.
If at your school honors means you can’t graduate in 4 years, I would say not worth it. Do you have an honors advisor and nursing advisor you can speak to about your concerns?
@momofsenior1 I meant to say that it’s different coursework. I already have 11 AP credits from high school but there are specific honors college requirements that I still have to take the required courses for the honors college here. We can graduate in 4 years at our school but I may have to do summer school to get the requirements in so it’s a lot to take in. I can talk to an honors and nursing advisor here at the school. I’m afraid that I won’t get a B in these honors classes at our school which could make me take longer to graduate our school.
How big is your school because priority registration to graduate on time is a big deal. Honors classes are smaller. D was able to complete premed, honors and engineering requirements in 4 years without AP classes. (IB diploma graduate) At the same time she was taking about 15 to 16 credits each semester but didn’t take any classes over the summer. Usually when you are in honors a lot of the core classes are waived and you just take a few honors classes. Aside from that she worked part time and also had to meet classmates for group projects.
The benefits and requirements of honors programs are highly variable across different schools.
Simply being selected for the honors college does not guarantee graduating with honors. As others have send, the advantages vary, but mean little if you will not graduate in 4 years, IMO.
As strange as it sounds, some students look forward to the challenges and opportunities provided by an honors college to advanced their own learning and careers. It’s not about looking impressive, it’s about being impressive.
That said, since you’re already in a preprofessional degree program and being in honors would require you to take way more classes than you need and expend additional resources to stay beyond 4 years, I think you would really need a compelling reason to be in honors. It sounds like you can do just fine without it and can certainly still graduate with honors. I think that your reasoning for not doing it is very sound.
In your case, it doesn’t seem worth it. I would not take more than 4 years to graduate just because of honors courses.
For my daughter’ s school the honors program
- extra merit scholarship
- guaranteed freshman 4 person suite (two 2 bedroom with living room and bathroom)
- special programs some are fun some are more academic - some are mandatory
- special section for first year dialogue type class
- honors advising in addition to academic major advising
- priority registration,
- possibility of extra class allowed each semester up to 22 credits
For Academics
8 classes - some are general ed taken by all students just an honors version such as college writing
each college has at least one honors option
options to make 1-2 specific classes in your major into an honors class through a contract
2 are possibly additional requirements but would replace electives
a certain gpa is needed to stay in the program
I advised my daughter to start in it but if she feels that it is interfering in the future she doesn’t need to stay with it. There are really just two classes that she will need to take since the others replace non honors versions of classes she needs anyway.
Have you met with your honors adviser to see if your transfer credits impact anything?
@raclut Our school has about 17,000 students and some classes do fill up pretty fast. I’m in it for the priority, extra honors college study area, and other benefits too.
@ClassicRockerDad I’m still in it at the moment. I’m just gonna stick up to it unless I really feel as I need to drop the honors college to complete my degree in 4 years. If it’s definitely gonna take more than 4 years to complete my degree with the honors requirement, then i’d rather drop it.
@icecream25 My daughter’s school had 36,000 students so priority registration was important especially the first two years. In her junior and senior year those classes were mostly for her major so they were smaller anyway and easier to get into. Priority registration was just a peace of mind of not worrying about getting the prerequisite classes needed. She was able to get the personal attention of having personal academic advisor aside from the one for her major. This made her feel like she was getting a private school experience in a public school setting. The honor’s classes had 25 students compared to a lecture hall class.
Each school is different. For example she got preference for research opportunities and took part in a leadership development program which was part of the honors program. Honor’s program participants were in the top 10% of the incoming class. There were several community services projects that she worked on. She graduated with honor’s designation as well as received recognition due to her gpa. I know in another school honor’s program students got their own private room with bath to live in. Many schools have dorms designated for honor’s program students. She was also eligible to complete an accelerated bachelor’s/master’s in 5 years if she chose to. (vs 6 years)
As long as you do well in the classes for your major and you are okay with not participating in honor’s then you should be fine. If you graduate with at least a 3.5 gpa you will graduate cum laude. (which is an honor’s designation due to gpa)
@raclut I have to say that the percent of students graduating from our school in four years is only 16%. I guess having priority registration at our school is a big deal since most of our courses fill up fast, especially the sections with good professors and better times. Some of my friends weren’t even able to sign up for some of the required classes just because they were full when they tried to sign up. Some people probably had to graduate in more than 4 years because they didn’t sign up for classes earlier when they were already open. We have like 16 students in honors writing class here. We don’t have special dorms for honors students at our school but we do have a quiet study area here designated for honors college students. We also have accelerated masters degree program to complete in 5 years but at our school for some majors, they don’t have it for my major. We need a 3.3 GPA to stay in the honors college here.
@icecream25 16% graduating in 4 years is really low. With joining honors you are saying you will have to spend and extra semester right? What guarantee is there that you can graduate in 4 years without being in honors? The way you are saying students aren’t getting their prerequisites that is forcing them to spend extra money for summer classes or an extra semester. It appears either way you will be spending more than 4 years to graduate. I would not be happy with that. I find it hard to believe that honors requirements are more than what non honors students are required to take but then each school is different. What has your luck been with getting the classes you need to move forward in your major curriculum?
It really depends on school.In my school, you can be an honors college which gives you a privilege of earlier course registration. Also, there are mandatory honors classes, but they are not hard at all.
One school we looked at did not guarantee housing past freshman year but students in the honors program were guaranteed housing sophomore year and first on the list after that for any available housing for junior year. I forgot to mention that my daughter’s school has a honors lounge with free printing. She can get free printing elsewhere but I guess the location is convenient and there is never a wait.
@raclut No, I am not saying that I will have to spend an extra semester. I mean I would have to spend more time in school to finish the honors requirements if I do not get the grades I need in honors classes or just did not fulfil all the honors requirements at my school if that will happen to me. I’m not saying that this will happen. Our guarantee to graduate is to finish all of our pre-requisite courses and major courses with 123 credits as a guarantee to graduate our school in four years. Honors courses parts don’t really matter unless you fill up all the normal requirements. My luck with getting classes I need to move forward in the major curriculum is signing for classes early with the best times and professors as possible with priority registration.
Your other posts indicate that you are at UMass Boston as a nursing major.
Curriculum is here: https://www.umb.edu/editor_uploads/files/cnhs_files/CNHS_Trad_Curriculum_060110.pdf . It shows very little elective space. Would the honors program require extra courses (as opposed to substitution of some courses with honors versions)? Did you bring in any AP or other credit that fulfills any requirements, allowing you to replace them with electives?
It looks like by fourth semester, you will be in mostly nursing courses, so you would not have to compete in registration with students of other majors as much. But before then, getting registration priority may be helpful if the school has not been using admissions to the school or majors to avoid overflowing its capacity in important courses.
For a nursing major, it seems like your priority is mainly to do well in your major courses and pass through all of the other gateways (including the NCLEX exam) on the way to entering the profession.
I don’t know if this is the case in your school but in daughter’s college she was assigned an honor’s adviser that helped her plan out her four years so she knew exactly what she planned to register for each semester and how she would meet the honors, premed, and engineering requirements to graduate on time. The honor’s adviser is the person who would best be able to guide you on how to plan out your remaining years and if a summer class would be needed to graduate within that timeframe. I guess there was never a fear of not getting the classes she wanted because of priority registration and this is a school of 36,000. Honors, athletes, and military students registered first. After that then registration then opened up to seniors, then juniors, later sophomores, and then last freshman. It was important for her to graduate in four years because she had a four year tuition scholarship. Any extra semesters would have come out of our pocket.
As each year passed getting into classes got easier because she started taking upper level courses for her major which was restricted to those students only.
Her school also had an honor’s study lounge which was open 24 hours during finals. They also had access to free printer there. Rather than being identified as a student id # her teachers knew her by name since she got so much personalized attention. In her case she is so glad she took part in honor’s because she got so much out of it and it made the whole academic experience more personable.
@ucbalumnus No, it does not require extra courses as opposed to substitution to some courses of honors versions. Yes, I did bring in AP credits that can fill up for some requirements at my school. My end goal is to be able to graduate in exactly 4 years without needing to do summer school or an extra semester with a nursing degree.