<p>Tweety8, the strong presumption that you are making is that you really will get lower grades in that honors program. Keep in mind that there is a world of difference between how difficult the material is in a class and how difficult the grading is in that class. While I obviously don't know anything about your honors program (after all, how could I, you haven't even told us which one it is), I would say that the subject of grading is one that you need to investigate to see whether it really is more difficult to get higher grades in these more intense classes. Often times, it is actually EASIER to get higher grades in more intense classes, because the curve tends to be set higher.</p>
<p>Let me give you an example. Berkeley used to run (and I think still does run) a number of honors versions of many of its intro math/science classes. For example, Honors Physics, Honors Multivariable Calculus, etc. While these classes were undoubtedly taught at a higher theoretical level than the corresponding normal class, it was also true that the curve was set substantially higher, such that many people felt that it was actually EASIER to get a decent grade in an honors class than in the normal class. Basically, the lowest grade given out in an honors class was almost never lower than a C, whereas the normal courses did not hesitate for one moment to give large swaths of students D's and F's. Basically, as long as you kept up with the work and showed that you had some clue about what was going on, you were going to pass the honors class. This was far from certain in the normal class. </p>
<p>As another example, at MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley many graduate students tend to shy away from taking undergraduate-level courses, even though those courses can be used to fulfill some of their course requirements. Instead, graduate students will usually tend to stick with graduate-level courses. Why? It's not just because the graduate-level courses are more advanced and hence will teach them more of what they need for their research. It's also because they know that the graduate-level courses actually tend to be graded EASIER than the undergraduate-level courses are. Graduate-school grading tends to be highly inflated. In fact, one of the 'tricks' that many undergrads learn to boost their GPA is for them to petition to take graduate-level courses in lieu of their undergraduate coursework. </p>
<p>I would also point out that you said that you would be forced to take a bunch of liberal arts classes instead of your science/math courses if you were to enter the honors program and you were concerned that that would mess up your grades. However, I would point out that in general, liberal arts classes tend to be graded substantially easier than math/science courses are. From what I've seen, as long as you do the work in a liberal arts class, you will get a passing grade. However, from what I've seen, in many schools, you can do all the work in a math/science class and still get an F. </p>
<p>So, again, I don't presume to know what is happening at your school. I would just point out that just because a class is highly intense doesn't mean that it's going to be harder for you to get a good grade in that class. In many cases, it may actually be EASIER for you to get a good grade in that class. It really all depends on how the class distributes grades.</p>