<p>Is going into the Honors program worth it?</p>
<p>Do medical schools even care?</p>
<p>Med schools probably won't care too much but that's a different question from whether the Honors program is worth it.</p>
<p>To address the first question, it seems that at least at my school, the honors program only requires taking an honors track in your major and taking several pass/fail seminars. Further, in my opinion, the difficulty of the honors classes seems to be no different than the regular classes. So in my case, I think it's totally worth it (especially because my scholarship depends on it).</p>
<p>Well this honors program pretty much makes you take all classes with honors kids (there's a huge crowd of honors ppl)....which is fine, but I mean the curves will be harsher...and I'd be risking a higher GPA for med school.</p>
<p>At first, I was all excited about it, but now I'm considering not doing it, especially if it doesn't really mean anything to med schools</p>
<p>But sometimes the curves are structured differently to compensate for the more difficult pool.</p>
<p>i.e. there may be twice as many smart kids, but they may give out three times as many A's.</p>
<p>Hmm, your honors program sounds different from my school's. For example, I am pursuing honors in Neurobiology within the Biological Sciences major; this means that there are certain classes that I must take, I must do research, and I must have a thesis and presentation at the end. There aren't special honors classes. I take classes with non-honors people, but I am required to take classes such as Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology (whereas Plant Evolution is not required).</p>
<p>If I understand correctly, the honors program that you are asking about does not involve research or developing a thesis but rather taking difficult classes with very high-achieving students. What do you think are the pros and cons of this? I'm interested in hearing more of your motivations and reservations.</p>
<p>Very strange honors system in that all you courses are honors...I mean can that really be? I'm thinking about the honors program at my school, and there was no way that one could take care of all the gen ed requirements through honors classes.</p>
<p>Further, given that many upper division courses have small enrollments to begin with b/c they typically are for majors only or require significant numbers of pre-reqs, does your college really have honors sections for these classes that will be small anyways?</p>
<p>As for the curves, several of the honors classes I took were actually easier than the regular sections of the same course. Part was due to better professors, part due to smaller classes, part due to the format of the classes that differed from the larger non-honors sections.</p>
<p>Anyways, you should see if you can talk to some current students in the program and see what they think. They might be able to give you a much better assessment of the worth.</p>
<p>I'm not sure about the details of the program, as I just recieved the application for it, but I'm asking around.</p>
<p>Motivations: I want a challenge...I hate mediocrity. I want that smaller environment....better dorms...more access to research, profs, etc....fin aid</p>
<p>Reservations: basically just GPA for med school</p>
<p>You also might want to see if you can still take some honors sections of courses without being in the honors program. I was in the honors program at my school my freshman year, but got kicked out b/c I didn't keep my grades up, but b/c my HS achievements I had been previously invited by many different departments to take honors sections of courses if I wanted to. That way I could pick and choose which courses I wanted to take honors if I knew that the professor was really good, but didn't have to worry about making sure I took enough honors courses or writing a thesis.</p>
<p>And actually, at my school you could graduate with distinction/higher distinction/highest distinction without being in the honors program, but being in the honors program meant that you completed the necessary work to graduate with distinction...you may want to check that as well (should be in the university course bulletin)</p>
<p>In my experience, honors classes are much harder than regular, but the curve is much better. I have to work my butt off in Accelerated Calculus, but there's virtually no way I can fail, whereas in regular calculus, mistakes aren't tolerated as much. They know honors kids are ready to commit suicide if they don't get an A, so the curve is almost always higher.</p>
<p>where do you go Valaen?</p>
<p>The Ohio State University. The honors program is actually pretty rigorous, which surprised me.</p>
<p>So basically, bother with honors at a larger college?</p>
<p>I'm referring to UT-Austin in these posts btw.</p>
<p>Aspen D- If you dont mind me asking, what kind of stats do you have? Im applying to UT also, and have given a little bit of thought to the honors program, but not much. Im not really sure if Im as qualified as most of the people in the honors program. Oh yeah, and which honors program at UT, arent there a couple?</p>