Hello! I am an incoming freshman who has been accepted into both the Honors Program and BIC. I will be Pre-Med as well. While I love history, literature, and the humanities in general, I am afraid that BIC will wreck my GPA, and the last thing I want for medical school is a bad GPA due to an optional program. I will definitely do the Honors Program. Is BIC worth it, or should I just take the normal liberal arts core courses? I really want to like it, I just fear for my GPA. I should note that I am not afraid of a challenge and have done well in the past in AP and honors courses (although I know that college rigor is different), but I just don’t want to get into an impossible situation.
One other random question: how many classes usually grade by the +/- system rather than letter grade? Are honors classes more or less likely to have the +/- system or is it random?
Thank you!
My daughter is currently pre med at Baylor and she elected not to do honors or BIC. She talked to one of the professors who writes rec letters for the med school advising committee and his recommendation was this (paraphrased): if you love the Honors or BIC curriculum and have a passion for it - by all means do it because it won’t feel like so much extra work if you have a passion for it. If you are doing it to dress up your med school application - don’t do it. It’s definitely not needed and may compromise your GPA. My daughter’s passion is science so she passed on both. From her first semester, every professor used the -/+ system. I can promise you the sciences all have them.
Thank you for that insight! Any other thoughts on BIC who have done or are in BIC?
my sophomore student is a current USCOL who has BIC as one of her concentrations. Since a USCOL doesn’t have to take any of the “basics” it’s not typical to do this but she wanted to incorporate a liberal arts education with her science concentration. It has more than a fair share of writing but she absolutely loves it and the profs - even by Baylor standards - are very engaged in the program. It’s not for everyone but if you like a classical-like, integrated approach to education, especially if you are not USCOL and have to take the basics anyway, it can be a good option. happy to elaborate if you have specific questions.
Thank you @dpBU23 for the response! In addition to science I do like literature, history, ethics, etc.—basically the liberal arts ?.