<p>Okay, so I just got my letter inviting me to the Honors College and the Alumni Distinguished Scholarship, which is nice. And as much as I'd love to join such a respected academic group, I'm wary in that I don't really know what to expect from the difficulty of the coursework in college, let alone any type of honors program. If I go to MSU, I'd also go to James Madison, which I've heard is tough, especially for Freshman. So do you guys think it would be a good idea to accept the bid, or wait until I'm a bit more weathered as a student? In essence, to the pros (benefits, small classes, advanced work) outweigh the cons (time, difficulty, etc.)?</p>
<p>Take it. Most honors classes are not “harder” than the rest. There isn’t much of a time commitment that I can think of until you have to do the senior thesis or whatever it is. You get scholarship money which is ALWAYS a plus. Also, you can only get into the honors college at the beginning of your enrollment and after one semester, and then after one semester it’s by invitation only and fairly difficult to get- so I don’t know why you would wait and perhaps miss your shot of getting in.</p>
<p>Awesome. I’ll definitely do it if I end up at MSU :)</p>
<p>Yeah definitely accept the honor college invitation. You have nothing to lose…you just have to take 8 classes that are honors-based over the course of 4 years (1 per semester, on average) and have a 3.2 GPA or better to maintain membership. And by being in the honors college you get 1st priority scheduling after your 1st year, ability to change around your general ed. requirements (you don’t have to take ISS ISP ISB IAH classes like everyone else…you can pick and choose a lot more options to fulfill requirements), ability to take grad students/get around most course restrictions, and more opportunities to do research (and get even more scholarship opportunities through the honors college). And there is no senior honors thesis required (it can be taken as part of one of your 8 classes, but it’s completely up to you). If you decide after you get to school (and know your courseload/what to expect) that the honors college is not for you, you can drop it then but for now at least accept it! It really makes no sense to me why you’d decline acceptance to the honors college (i’ve heard around 50% of students who get accepted to the honors college decline their acceptance for some reason…but i think that is because they really don’t know what to expect and haven’t talked to anyone within the honors college about what it really entails…i know a couple of people who ended up doing that, and regretted their decision afterwards).</p>