<p>I’ve found some schools like UT Austin, Texas A&M… have Honors programs.</p>
<li>Does it appear on the diploma? </li>
<li>Does medical school favor people who took the Honors classes requirements? </li>
<li>Is it advised as a premed to participate in the Honors program?</li>
</ol>
<p>Any comments will be helpful, Thanks!</p>
<p>Honors programs are one of those things that don't necessarily help, but they also don't hurt. And they may help...alot.</p>
<p>What I mean is, just having "honors program" on your application pretty much means nothing. And some "honors programs" are just that - nothing. You get to take Honors classes which may or may not be more difficult, may or may not mean you learned the material better, may or may not do anything for you.</p>
<p>However, some honors programs may open up opportunities for research, may give you better advising and may get you into honors classes that are smaller and taught by better professors, so you may get more out of them. It's these sorts of experiences that may make an honors program beneficial.</p>
<p>The honors program at my undergrad had elements of both. For example, for many popular lower division classes (100 and 200 level), there were honors sections of the classes. They were usually smaller, and taught by faculty who were, to put it plainly, better teachers. A lot of times the classes ended up being much, much easier too. So there were benefits of taking those classes. The honors program also required a thesis for graduation and would pair students with faculty mentors for this project, which opened up a lot of research potential as well. </p>
<p>However, in classes that were quite as popular, or upper level courses, there were no honors sections available. In order to fulfill graduation requirements from the Honors program (which required a certain number of honors hours at the 300 and 400 level), students in the honors program had to "contract" honors credit with the professor on an individual basis. The "contract" essentially meant the student had to do some extra project. For some profs this was a short paper, for others it was a complex experimental protocol with presentation to the class about the results, and for others the profs signed off on pretty much anything. Most of my friends in the honors program usually said they gained absolutely nothing by having to complete this extra work.</p>
<p>Finally, there were classes where the honors designation made not a single bit of difference in how the class was handled or conducted. I had an Honors Composition II class in which this was the case. </p>
<p>For the record, I was kicked out of the honors program at my school after my freshman year b/c my cum GPA was no longer high enough, but because of my ACT scores and AP credit, I had standing offers in a multitude of departments saying I could take honors sections if I so chose. I just lost the book scholarship (which was great my freshman year b/c you got your books for free but could sell them back and pocket the cash, but then because of budget cuts they changed it so that you couldn't do that any more), and didn't have to deal with so much bureaucracy.</p>
<p>BOTTOM LINE: you need to look into what the honors programs at the schools you are interested in actually entail. Ask a lot of questions.</p>
<p>Awesome post, Bigredmed!!</p>