<p>I'm currently a freshman but I didn't know that honors in college existed until I was accepted. It doesn't seem as emphasized as being an honors student in high school. Maybe it's just me or my school? </p>
<p>I have a few questions:
(1) Does honors a big difference in your degree?
(2) Does being in honors at a lower tier school make it equivalent to being non-honors student in a higher tiered school?
(3) I'm going to take a stab in the dark - but do honors students just get offered more accelerated classes? Different classes? Harder/Challenging classes?</p>
<p>Thanks. :)</p>
<p>P.S. excuse the possible misplacement of this topic... I had no idea what this would go under.</p>
<p>Those answers all depend on the college you’re at. At Rhodes the only difference you see is a red tassel on the graduate’s cap and a notation on the transcript. And honors for us means completing an honors tutorial in lieu of a senior seminar.</p>
<p>If you’re at a big public and you’re talking about being a student in an honors college versus arts & sciences, engineering, what have you, then it’s a little different. Again, honors colleges differ from university to university. Most universities try to make honors a different experience, so it’s not that it’s equivalent to being a student at a higher tiered school, it’s like being a student at that university but with the benefits of a small liberal arts college. </p>
<p>Students in honors colleges typically have access to smaller classes, possibly with smarter classmates. Sometimes there is a residential component, i.e. an honors dorm. The classes are not necessarily accelerated except to the point where the professor doesn’t have to hold everyone back because the pace is going too slow for most of the students. So it may be more challenging because it’s much more engaging versus it being more challenging because the professor grades harder or something arbitrary like that. In other words, “good” challenging.</p>
<p>Honors colleges can be a great choice for those attending a larger school. Honors colleges offer valuable perks and let you meet some of the top students at your college. However they are often oversold with glossy pamphlets implying a small LAC has been set up inside the larger university giving an elite private education at the public school price. On this forum you’ll read posters who also say/imply that.</p>
<p>Depending on the program offerings may range from separate honors classes to taking just one honors seminar per semester. And some of the “honors” offerings may just be a special discussion section of the regular class (at many U’s you meet 2-3x a week in a large class with the prof, then everyone meets weekly in a smaller discussion section with a TA). You really need to dig in to find what a particular school offers.</p>
<p>Keep in mind honors programs typically offer the small classes and hand-picked profs only the 1st two years of college. They can do this because doesn’t take that many classes to come up with a set that will meet the lower-division requirements for most majors. It is rare to find more than a token amount of upper-division classes since the honors program simply doesn’t have enough faculty members to create entire major(s). So the last two years most/all classes are taken with the rest of the students in the regular U’s classes. The teaching of the profs will be geared towards the normal U level, the discussions and student involvement in class will be dominated by the regular students, and so on. Class sizes may balloon, too, if you’re in a popular major.</p>
<p>Peer effects are big, too; when almost everyone around you at school is a strong student you have lots of good student to emulate in class or outside it such as doing research or internships. If the top kids are a few hundred strong dispersed among tens of thousands at the U then strong examples may be harder to see. When it comes to finding a job, employers are less likely to send recruiters to a campus with a limited number of honors seniors when they can get a campus-full at more highly regarded schools.</p>
<p>Honors colleges do offer some valuable perks, in addition to the classes. Typical ones include registering for classes before everyone else so you get the classes you want (a perk worth its weight in gold!), special counselors, guaranteed housing, special library privileges. They will mark your diploma recognition. But I would be dubious about attending a college for its honors program in place of a more highly regarded U if finances are not an issue.</p>