<p>My son will be an incoming freshman in 2015. He has the Presidential Scholarship & is in Honors College. His last 2 years of high school are full-time dual enrollment. He will finish high school with an Associate in Science Engineering/CS/Physics.</p>
<p>His community college is quite strong; however we would rather have him re-take the math & science classes at a 4 year uni than move immediately into a higher level. We are thinking he should re-take Calculus and Engineering Physics in the Honors sections. </p>
<p>I know that Honors classes aren’t suppose to be more difficult to earn a good grade….but is that actually true?</p>
<p>If a student can earn an A in the regular section, will he just as easily be able to earn an A in honors? </p>
<p>Are most of the students in those honors sections repeating from AP credits or dual enrollment classes?</p>
<p>Does anyone have any experience with this at UA?</p>
<p>My main concern is that the Honors sections will be harder to get a good grade, and GPA will take a hit.</p>
<p>Hello ThreeKidsMom, Welcome and Roll Tide! My son is a freshman in Honors, Engineering,his major right now is EE. He will be adding Physics as a minor.He too is a Presidential Scholar. He is also in the Stem Path to MBA. He came in with around 45 Credits from AP. He could have gone straight into CAl 3. however he is taking Honors cal I first. He is doing fantastic in that class. I am very glad he did that. He easily could have skipped a head in Cal and also in Physics however he is really having to work in some of his other classes, EVE-121 and also Engr 103 have taken a lot of his time and effort, it is not so much the subject matter as it is learning how to navigate at the college level.He tried to take as many classes as he could in honors to get the smaller class size. However some would not fit in his schedule where he needed them. I think 12 out of his 16.5 is in honors. I am glad he took what some would say were easy classes for him, It has given him time to find his footing. </p>
<p>If he is required to take Chemistry, I would recommend using AP or whatever other College Credit to skip Gen Chem. The class is based more on difficulty than relevancy. </p>
<p>I have two sons at UA. My first, a CS and Math major, did use his AP Credit for Calc. and started at the Calc 3 level. My second is an EE major and had only AP Calc AB from high school. He heard Calc 2 was the toughest of the calc classes, so he decided to take the regular version rather than the honors version and so far is doing well (A+ in at mid term.) Your son is probably ready to move on but if in doubt, check to see what Calc book UA is using and have your son take a look at it to see if he feels like he has a handle on the material.</p>
<p>Because your son is going in engineering, having a good grasp on Physics is important. My older son (at a different university) retook Physics 1 and 2 even though he got a 5 on his AP tests and had a community college professor teach it at his high school. This son felt that he had everything covered and wished he would have skipped this, but it did help his GPA. My youngest engineering son at UA decided to retake it and is glad he did mostly because he didn’t have the lab experience that he is getting at UA. He feels he is now ready for Physics 2 next semester.</p>
<p>Skipping classes is totally up to your son. Keep in mind why you want to skip. If its because the classes will be so easy for him, then definitely do it. If its because he is trying to complete his undergraduate degree earlier so he could use his fourth year for grad school, definitely do it if he feels prepared. Remember he has four years of paid tuition either way.</p>
<p>OP, I didn’t answer your question about whether if you can get an A in a regular class, you will get an A in an honors class. Basically, I don’t know. Honors classes might be substantially harder than the regular class, or actually easier, it all depends on the teacher and his/her style and how it meshes with your student. My sons have a combination of both. If he is in the honors college, you need so many honors classes (I don’t know how many but its online) so its easier to take them in the lower level classes where they are offered. However, you don’t have to take all of those classes honors. Like my son in Calc 2, sometimes its better to go with the regular class when in doubt. This son took Engr 103 as an honors class as he has had 9 or 10 classes in high school that covered the information so he thought he would have no problem getting an A. Right now mid-term he has a B…not because he doesn’t know the information, but because he is having a harder time navigating it at college level (knowing what the professor wants as it seems to change.) Welcome to your son, and roll tide.</p>
<p>I would encourage your ds to reach out to the different dept undergrad advisors and talk to them about his academic background and seek their input. Our ds met with Dr. LeClair in the physics dept and he was given excellent guidance. </p>
<p>FWIW, our ds jumped right into taking sequential upper level coursework without any difficulty. BUT, our ds is an incredibly strong student and his academic background is rock solid. I would not want to suggest that all students would be able to follow a similar path. That is why I think that the dept advisors would be the best source of guidance b/c they could talk to your ds about what his classes covered and compare them to UA’s.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies! We live 2,000+ miles away from Alabama, and the only time my son can visit is during his community college spring break. Luckily it’s a different week than UA’s. My husband is an engineer, so he’ll take him and hopefully be able to talk to the right people in the engineering department.</p>
<p>I’m just trying to get a good a handle on things earlier than that, since we’re also looking at a couple other schools (Huntsville, and LATech for Cyber Engineering). </p>
<p>I like reading everyone’s experiences and suggestions. It’s very helpful.</p>
<p>I would recommend calling the dept and scheduling appts for during their planned visit. We visited multiple campuses and met with the deans of the physics dept at each school. It was an incredibly enlightening experience and definitely impacted our ds’s choices. </p>
<p>He totally eliminated one university after the dean could not share where one undergrad went to grad school. (This was a small dept with only ~40 undergrads total (10/yr).) At this same school, we met with the undergrad physics advisor who started ranting at our ds about how he needed to stop rushing through material and actually learn it instead. He ranted that his classrooms were full of AP scholars who didn’t know how to think and weren’t prepared for the classes they were taking. While that might be true, it was completely irrelevant to ds’s situation about which the advisor never even asked detailed questions. </p>
<p>The meeting with Dr. LeClair,otoh, was professional, encouraging, and highly informative. He spent well over an hour with ds discussing his options since ds was entering with so many advanced level courses. </p>
<p>UA was definitely not where I anticipated my ds attending college, but he absolutely loves it. He couldn’t be happier and has zero regrets.</p>
<p>ThreeKidsMom - My DS is in his 2nd year at UA as an AeroEngineering major. He came in with 29 credits (AP and DE). He did not have any AP science courses; he did have both AP AB and AP BC. </p>
<p>He skipped over Calc I and II after hearing so many strong students struggle with Calc II. He had no issue jumping into Calc II.</p>
<p>He took regular Chem course first semester. He did fine, but since Chem was only needed for him to jump thru the ABET hurdle, if he had the opportunity to skip due to coming with credits, he would have taken it.</p>
<p>He took Honors Physics I. Loved the smaller class size. He took it based upon the Professor teaching it (LeClair - he is awesome). For this course, he believes Honors was easier due to the Instructor.</p>
<p>He is taking Physics II, regular version this semester.</p>
<p>He also took the Engineering Foundation ENGR 103 Honors with Monk his first semester. He STRUGGLED with it because she is very tough. Had a suitemate in another honors version that was taught with more leniency.</p>
<p>Rate My Professor has been DS best resource. With the exception of ENGR 103, he has chosen Honors vs Non-Honors by Professor and not subject. Though I give little merit to the “score” on RMP, the comments were very helpful. DS does better testing then on homework. He uses RMP and any on-line syllabus to see if HW is heavily weighted.</p>
<p>You will get very varying opinions on taking credit and skipping, honors vs. non-honors. </p>
<p>DS looked at the other things he could do with his time if he skipped courses. Skipping Calc I and II worked well. He had time to do STEM MBA and Emerging Scholars.</p>
<p>If I were advising your son, I would encourage applying for CBHP. I would also not fret so much about skipping courses. Sounds like he has a great foundation. Focus more on the course schedule that would be a healthy balance for HIM. </p>
<p>My DD is a first year student this year. She has over 45 hours in AP credit. She is majoring in engineering. She could have skipped to Calc 3 but decided to take honors Calc 2 to start with so she would have a good college foundation in Calculus. She currently has an A in the class so it can be done. It is time consuming so you need to apply yourself. She has some friends who backed up to Calc 1 and others who went to Calc 3. She did decide to take regular Chem 101 since she was taking 18.5 hours and had several others honors classes as well as honors Eng103 and CBH. </p>
<p>My S is a current junior at UA. He skipped over Calc I and II and went into III. He also skipped both Physics. Never looked back. He was well prepared for both and has had no problems with the coursework in eng’g as a result of skipping. As someone above said, depends on the student. </p>
<p>My advice is to take the Honors sections of departmental courses if you qualify for them. The classes are smaller, taught by engaging professors. Unlike HS where taking an Honors over an non-Honors class is actually looked at by colleges as something (i.e., counts for weighted grade or shows student chose the hardest route), no one is looking at whether you took Honors/non-Honors in college (unless you are a pre-med or nursing student, where GPA is everything). Taking the Honors sections of these classes will satisfy the Honors College requirements, which for some students (who put off taking honors courses!) is slightly difficult to do in later years, unless they take some of their departmental courses as ‘honors-by-contract.’ </p>
<p>OP’s son seems very capable, and since he has already taken these courses, taking them again in an Honors section (over the regular section), would be very appropriate. Keep in mind that he will no longer be able to take the incoming credit, however, which may alter his registration status (# of credit hours) in subsequent semesters.</p>
<p>DS is a freshman ECE major doing the STEM MBA program. After reading multiple threads on here and talking with his HS AP Calc teacher, he decided to jump straight into Calc III. Skipping was discouraged during Bama Bound advising, but we talked with several Avantis who gave good advice on workload and professors. It was a great decision for him. We were able to get him into a section with a great teacher (Trace) and he made a 100 on his first exam ( his next one was lower but still good). He feels challenged but not overwhelmed. He is also taking the Honors Physics section with LeClair and doing very well. </p>
<p>My advice would be to find the best professor in each course and take him/her. If it’s an honors section great, if not don’t worry about it. DS chose a light load for fall so he could have more time for adjusting to college life and the social scene. He is only taking 14.5 hours this semester (one of which was OA in the summer and one is a 6 week intro to ECE class). This has made his transition SO much easier. His spring schedule will be a little more time intensive, but now he has a better idea of how to manage a college workload. My heart breaks for these kids who jumped right into multiple higher level classes, loaded up their fall schedule with a gazillion hours and are now struggling. </p>
<p>Each student is different. Find the balance between work and play and the GPA will be fine. </p>
<p>I am a current freshman ChemE and I found that jumping straight into Calc III was the right choice for me. I have always done well in math and scored a 4 on my AP BC exam. I have an A+ in Calc 3 and find it easier than Calc 2. If your son is good at math, then don’t have him retake 1 & 2 or he will be beyond bored and completely wasting his time. However, with chemistry, I found college chem to be much more difficult than AP chemistry. I didnt take the test for AP chem but I wish I would have because 101 can be a lot harder than it should be relative to the professor.</p>
<p>On this thread and others, several people have commented about chemistry at UA being more difficult than it should be. My son had chemistry at the community college last year, which transferred to UA .7 credits shy of what’s needed. Since our cc has a solid chemistry department, I made room in his schedule to take the next section this year. Now that requirement will be fully met. Thanks to everyone who mentioned this.</p>
<p>The Honors Physics professor sounds great, so we’ll likely have him re-take physics with him. For math, I think we’ll heavily utilize rate my professor and base the decision on who is teaching. At least I don’t have to think about the humanities/social studies classes. Those he definitely will not retake and is glad to have them out of the way.</p>
<p>It’s great to have so many options at UA, but tough deciding which path to take. Skip ahead, Honors sections, Double major, Stem to MBA, Scholars Program, apply for CBHP?..Yikes!</p>
<p>@threekidsmom I am doing a regular ChemE major with a minor in physics (as of now, might minor in math as well as it is fairly easy to do) and I am in emerging scholars which is a great program to get freshmen started in research. I will be in a biopharmaceutical research lab starting this january for 6-10hrs a week.</p>
<p>@ThreeKidsMom I had similar questions about the path my child should take. I told my son, not to skip ahead and take Calc I because it would help him ease into the rigor of college, help lessen anxiety about grades and insure that he had a strong foundation for his engineering major. I’m glad that other students have made it work with taking more advanced math their first year but if it didn’t work for them, it’s a terrible way to start college. Currently my child has an A+ in Calc which gives him breathing room. Like Chris, he is also taking Chem 101 and he says its tough. He believes he will get anything from a “B” to an “A-”, the A+ in Calc eliminates his anxiety about what he gets in Chem.</p>
<p>As an Honors student in CBH he needs to earn a certain level of grades to continue in his programs so the path he has taken allows all of that without the stress. For instance he took Mechanical Engineering intro course, the grade in the class was primarily from group work. If the group doesn’t do well, the grade in that course will not be great even if he performs outstanding. Imagine the stress if your son’s group does not do well and your son’s grades reflects the group effort and not just your son’s effort. </p>
<p>As for taking Honors sections, that will be a matter of course scheduling, sometimes it fits in and sometimes it doesn’t. If you child can fit it in, then he should.</p>
<p>My child is also in Stem to MBA, and he is neutral about the program, but since he is doing well and it doesn’t require much additional time, he is sticking with it. That might change in the future if he decides to go University Scholars and get a Masters in ME rather than an MBA, but can’t have those options unless he is in the Stem to MBA program as a freshman. As a 17 year old, it is tough enough being away from home, let alone have a firm grasp of what one wants to do at such a young age, so having options is a great thing.</p>
<p>So I would encourage you and your child to keep as many options open as I have for my son.</p>
<p>@voiceofreason66 Glad to know I’m not the only one with chem trouble! Should be able to pull out an A- hopefully. The professors seem to make it unnecessarily hard. Oh well…A+ in Calc 3 should help.</p>
<p>@ChrisMayhugh My son states he has an 88 as of last week, but he says that he doesn’t know if the course will be curved or not and that a majority of the grade will come from the final exam so like you having a 98+ in Calc relieves his anxiety about what his final Chem grade is.</p>
<p>BTW my son says that he marvels at the students who are getting 4.0+ because according to him, those students have to study a lot and he wants to have time away from studying for other things. He will make Dean’s List but probably not President’s based upon his Chem grade.</p>