<p>Hello. I got accepted to Umass Amherst in the College of Natural Sciences and so I started reading more into the school. I noticed that they have the Honors College which seems to get few benefits.
I was wondering if anyone could provide more details and inform me how much being in the Honors College affects a student. Plus how much of a disadvantage would I be as part of College of Natural Sciences when compared to a student in Honors College?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>They are building a brand new Honors Residential building, with lots of perks, that will be in operation for the start of the 2013-14 year. That’s a great perk right there. You can also read more about the Commonwealth Honors College here:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.honors.umass.edu/[/url]”>https://www.honors.umass.edu/</a></p>
<p>You would have been invited to join the Commonwealth Honors College with your acceptance, I believe. If not, you can apply as a sophomore if your grades are good.</p>
<p>@MADad does joining the Honors College impact your chosen major in any way?</p>
<p>No it can only help.</p>
<p>Honors college is great as all students in it become family regardless of your major. Also, you can join the honors raps and be in your own housing. More benefits than negatives. The new res. building is state of the art. Honors acceptance is by invitation only for freshman. MAdad is correct in that you can apply the following year granted you have the grades.</p>
<p>Just to be clear - the honors college is in addition to being in the College that grants your degree. Not all classes are offered via the honors college - mostly its intro classes. You will still take your upper level classes in the College of Natural Sciences.</p>
<p>With Honors you do get more advising and access to research opportunities and access to the Honors housing. Both the honors college and the honors housing cost extra. If you were not invited into Honors as an entering freshman you can apply in if your GPA is high enough after the first semester.</p>
<p>You need to take a total of 8 honors classes over the four years, and do some sort of capstone project to graduate with honors. As you get into advanced courses, it’s a little tougher to find honors courses. We were told that many talk the prof into giving you honors credit for doing some extra work. Especially tough in science and engineering. Then again, S was able to take 4 honors courses freshman year in as an undeclared engineer.</p>
<p>You can actually apply for honors after your first semester as long as you maintain a 3.5. The honors college is just being in a secondary college. You will still be a part of the college you were accepted to. You go to that college for questions about your major and the honors college for honors class questions</p>
<p>Actually all you need is a 3.4 I just applied as a freshmen this past cycle. As long as you have the grades you get in, you need to write a small 1 page explanation as to why uou want to engage in honors work but its not difficult</p>
<p>Being in the honors college will definitely help if you’re interested in doing research as an undergraduate. You also have more access to top faculty. Also, the new honors residential building will offer many benefits.</p>
<p>Would you recommend honors college for an engineering student? I know my course load will already be really heavy. Will it increase it by a substantial amount and is this increase in course load worth it?</p>
<p>Just want to note that you can graduate from UMass with academic honors (cum laude and such) without being part of the honors college.</p>
<p>As someone else pointed out, definitely worth it if you want to conduct research with excellent faculty members. Honors classes are mainly for intro classes but there are honors colloquiums and such for higher levels. They also have a very good scholarship program that you can apply for each year.</p>