<p>If I choose to do honors (since they gave me a scholarship), does that mean all my classes must be honors? For example, does English have to be honors? I am in IB HL english right now, and the minimum score for credit from A&M is 6 if taken as honors but 4 if taken as normal. 6 is a very very good score on the english exam, so if I don't make 6 do I have to take honors english instead of normal or can I just take the credit for normal english(assuming I make at or above 4 which is almost a certainty)?</p>
<p>AggieEngineer: No, all of your classes will not be honors. If you wish to graduate with honors, you will need to take a specific number to do so. This information is listed on the honors website. You will not lose that English IB credit, you can use it as non-honors; however, if you do get the higher score it “kills two birds with one stone” because it also fulfills one of the honors requirements. I believe most students take one or two honors courses a semester. If you are going to do engineering, it would probably make sense to try and take honors sections of classes that are within your major. All this will be explained by your academic advisor at NSC. In some cases, your advisor may suggest that you not take the IB credit at all. I good example of this would be Calc. Hope this helps. :)</p>
<p>Thank you soo much for the reply pluto! I figured I would take more of the general engineering classes like physics as honors. I will not be taking any of my IB/AP math credits or science credits (except maybe AP Chem depending on my major), however English would just be a drag to have to take again. I am a math/science kind of person so english is just boring to me. It is definitely good to know this, a lot less pressure on me for the test.</p>
<p>AggieEngineer: Glad to be of assistance. You are smart not to take the IB credit for your math and science. As an engineering student, your advisor would probably suggest that. My son is taking advantage of all his AP credits for things like English, american history, econ., govt., etc. but not the physics & math. Those classes are too important to his major. Good luck on all your exams over the next few weeks. :)</p>
<p>Pluto: If I have earned them, why should I not take my math and physics credits?</p>
<p>Much like AggieEngineer, I’m an incoming TAMU freshman with some credit from my local community college.</p>
<p>I think an IB or honors student should be self-motivated enough to refresh on material he/she needs with a library textbook, a study group, or even MIT’s Open Course Ware videos. It simply doesn’t take another 18 weeks of lecture to refresh one’s self on limits, derivatives and integrals. In any case, the textbook for the subsequent class will review any necessary information from prerequisite classes.</p>
<p>The way I see it, most colleges want to get paid for teaching students calc 1, chem 1, and phys 1 to students who already know the material. For more advanced classes, I can see a possible benefit to retaking the course.</p>
<p>In conclusion, I think a student is extending a long engineering degree by retaking material he/she already knows. I would much rather use the time to conduct research as an upperclassman than to relearn math as a freshman.</p>
<p>What’s the point of taking honors classes? Aren’t they harder, and do you really learn that much more? Don’t you only graduate with honors if you take at least one honors class in each subject area? I don’t see how taking extra classes that you don’t need to take is worth it. Most kids in honors take 1-2 honors classes a semester?</p>
<p>mchrisp10: I can certainly see your point. There are many factors to consider such as the grade you received in the course & the grade you received on the AP/IB exam. Also, when S. attended National Scholar Day, it was explained by many engineering students that although they took AP Calculus, etc. they found out that some portions that were needed were not covered in high school. From speaking to various academic advisors, the engineering school is very cautious about having students use their AP/IB credits for sudjects such as math. In addition, if you are scholarship student, you are required to maintain a certain gpa. My son has a full-ride +; however, most of that $ requires him to maintain a 3.5 in engineering (not impossible, but certainly more of a challenge than some majors). Is it worth it for him to sit through a class to pad his gpa and maintain a full-ride scholarship? He thinks so. All of this will be explained to you when you meet with your academic advisor at NSC. It is up to each individual student to decide what is best.</p>
<p>I’m an incoming honors freshman as well, and as I understand it, the system works like this:</p>
<p>1) Most honors scholarships simply require a specific GPA to keep them, not graduation with honors distinctions. (this is the only part I am not sure about, so don’t take me on my word about this) Requirements for keeping scholarships pretty much vary with the specific scholarship.</p>
<p>2) You can graduate with 3 different main kinds of honors distinctions. University honors, Foundation honors, and Research Fellows. </p>
<p>3) Foundation honors is the “breadth” category. In order to get this distinction, you have to take 19 hours of honors courses in your core class areas. [Foundation</a> Honors | | Honors Programs | Texas A&M University](<a href=“http://honors.tamu.edu/curriculum/Distinctions_Foundation.shtml]Foundation”>http://honors.tamu.edu/curriculum/Distinctions_Foundation.shtml)</p>
<p>4) University honors is the “depth” category. This distinction requires 36 hours of honors courses, and you’ll end up taking most of those in your major.
[University</a> Honors | Honors Programs | Texas A&M University](<a href=“http://honors.tamu.edu/curriculum/Distinctions_University.shtml]University”>http://honors.tamu.edu/curriculum/Distinctions_University.shtml)</p>
<p>5) Research Fellows is later in the year, and its essentially a master’s style research thesis project. It will tell employers that as an undergraduate, you’ve done master’s level research. [Honors</a> Undergraduate Research Fellows | Honors Programs | Texas A&M University](<a href=“http://honors.tamu.edu/curriculum/fellows.shtml]Honors”>http://honors.tamu.edu/curriculum/fellows.shtml)</p>
<p>6) There are also numerous college/departmental honors distinctions that you can pursue, depending on your major.</p>
<p>7) As I understand it, honors classes can count for multiple distinctions i.e. honors calculus for example could count as 3 of your 19 Foundation hours AND 3 of your 36 University honors.</p>
<p>Hope this is helpful! :)</p>
<p>^Thanks, that helps. I just don’t know if future employers will care that much about it.</p>
<p>Well from what I’ve heard, a degree never ever guarantees you a job. However, if you and another similar applicant are going for the same position, and you’ve graduated with multiple honors distinctions, whereas they haven’t, you have an edge. Now, job experience will probably trump anything from college, but then again, the entire class of 2014 will be looking for jobs at the same time, so having an edge against other college applicants will help.</p>
<p>Now, thats what the honors recruiter guy told me haha. He IS a recruiter, so there you go. But I think they’re probably pretty useful. Mainly it sets you apart from the bajillion other people with nothing other than a B.S. in engineering (or whatever other degree).</p>
<p>@bringbackpluto : Saw your post about taking AP calc credits for engineering and how it can be a bad idea… I agree. Although my calculus teacher is excellent, I want to learn calculus from TAMU’s people before I get into the harder classes.</p>
<p>^It just seems like it’d never come down to that. Even if two people were really similar on paper, one would have a better interview or internships. I don’t know if I’ll live in Texas after graduating, so I might not even be competing against other A&M grads.</p>
<p>Also a good point. I’ve posed this particular question to the CC body at large, maybe someone who’s already graduated could help answer: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-confidential-cafe/917615-how-useful-honors-distinctions-when-searching-job.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-confidential-cafe/917615-how-useful-honors-distinctions-when-searching-job.html</a></p>
<p>Guys, grad school is where most of this stuff comes in handy. The way TAMU sees it, many honors students will pursue grad school as they are usually seen as the “cream of the crop”. This is where the undergrad research/thesis deal will also be valuable. Grad schools are not particularly looking for Mr./Mrs. 4.0, they are looking for someone who knows how to conduct research effectively and who can contribute to relevant research.</p>
<p>Right right right!! Grad school. I forgot. Wow. Haha… Yeah, thats what they’re mainly for.</p>