Does It Really Matter if I'm in My University's Honors College?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>Hi guys.</p>

<p>I'm currently a freshman at a small university in my hometown. I hope to transfer to the University of Missouri - Columbia either after this year or after I complete my sophomore year. </p>

<p>I am not in my current school's honors college; however, if I transfer to Mizzou after this year, I can be. If I transfer after two years at my current school, I will not be able to take 21 credits of honors courses to graduate with honors from Mizzou.</p>

<p>For my third semester, I was going to take Honors Accounting I, Statistics I, Introduction to the Arts of Islam (my current college doesn't have this), and Elementary Arabic I.</p>

<p>For my fourth semester, I was going to take Honors Accounting II, Geography of the Middle East (my current college doesn't have this), Elementary Arabic II, Honors Money and Banking, and Statistics II.</p>

<p>The main reason why I would like to transfer sooner is because I would like to learn Arabic while in college. Due to scheduling conflicts, I can only take the courses my sophomore year. Also, I have the opportunity to take 9 hours of honors courses. </p>

<p>Tuition at my current school is only $6000 per year. If my mom gets a position teaching at the college, I will only have to pay $2500 a year. The cost of attending Mizzou is about $16,000 a year.</p>

<p>I'm planning to be a finance major. If I don't like working in the financial services industry, I will probably consider corporate law or an MBA. I plan on working for at least 5 years in order to save up money if I choose either path. </p>

<p>My main question is: should I stay at my current college for another year or should I transfer to Mizzou to begin my sophomore year? </p>

<p>I want to work as a financial analyst, so I figured graduating with honors would help me accomplish that.</p>

<p>Does anyone have thoughts?</p>

2

<p>Having the honors designation can certainly help you on a future MBA application.</p>

<p>However, make sure you’ve exhausted the options at your current school. Even if they don’t have an “honors college” they may have academic distinctions you can earn at graduation, or through doing an optional senior project, or by some other means.</p>

3

<p>Anyone else? Bump…</p>

4

<p>No, it doesnt. It may have one/two people out of 100 raise their eyebrow and be slightly more impressed, but it’d be better to have a .1 higher GPA for jobs that care about that type of thing.</p>

<p>Seriously. Don’t put it on your resume for finance jobs.</p>

<p>However, school is much more important. Get to Mizzou immediately, it looks like they have good finance relationships judging by their career fair attendees.</p>

5

<p>^I don’t see how it would <em>hurt</em> to put it on your resume. If it won’t significantly damage one’s GPA, I say go for it.</p>

<p>I like being in the Honors College for two reasons: that it makes me feel smart and that I get to register for classes earlier. The first will not help you find a job beyond being more confident, but the second will give you a greater chance at picking out classes that employers will like.</p>

6

<p>I’m in the honors college at my school, and I love it. I don’t really see it from the “looking better on future applications” standpoint though. I just love being challenged. The projects and problem sets and such that I get assigned as a member of the honors college are significantly more challenging than in the regular college, and I like that. </p>

<p>It might not make a drastic difference on future applications, but surely graduating with honors is going to look better than simply graduating. Is it going to make a difference in the long run? Most likely not, but it can be very personally rewarding.</p>

7

<p>Honors college for me means not getting the lovely GE exemptions engineers get and APs don’t count, so heck no am I giving those up. It means a year and a half more to graduate… Take the faster route :P</p>

8

<p>^Why would anyone enroll in that?</p>

9

<p>“The main reason why I would like to transfer sooner is because I would like to learn Arabic while in college. Due to scheduling conflicts, I can only take the courses my sophomore year.”</p>

<p>Okay, first and foremost, you aren’t going to learn Arabic in a year. Not even close. You’ll get your alphabet and probably some basic grammar and travel vocabulary. Arabic is so different from English in terms of vocabulary, syntax, and grammar that it could take upwards of six years to become even competent, let alone fluent. If this is your primary reason for transferring early, don’t do it.</p>

10

<p>Well honors gives priority, special classes, scholarships, etc and can benefit most other majors because they don’t require as many units… The engineers need almost 100 just for the major and stacking GE on top of that will go over the minimum 120 for graduating…
While other majors can require as few as 40 units from within but need a bunch of other units from minors/double majors (or AP extremists, but at a lesser selective college those are rare).</p>

11

<p>^^The alphabet, “some” basic grammar, and travel vocabulary is really poor for a year-long Arabic class. The ones here have you speaking and writing in full sentences, most of which are unrelated to travel, greetings, and such, in the first semester. Also, while it does take several years to become proficient at a language, one can drastically speed it up by studying on one’s own and going abroad.</p>