<p>My daughter is a transfer from Blinn Team for this fall, will be a sophomore in Liberal Arts. She qualifies for Honors, though is not enrolled in any Honor classes at this point. She has an appointment to meet with Honors dept in another week for advisement. There aren't many spots left in Honors classes at this point in the summer. Just wondering if some of you have opinions on pros and cons of taking Honors vs. regular courses. Are they harder, better profs, more time consuming? Supposedly they cover the same curriculum. Is that accurate? We are trying to decide if it's worth totally rearranging her schedule, possibly losing some of the good classes she has now, just to get into one of the few with openings.</p>
<p>Honors status will let you register for classes earlier than regular students; this is very important in the long run. I think you only have to take 1 honors class every semester (and other gpa requirements) to maintain honors status. From what I’ve heard from honors students, honors classes teach the same stuff as regular classes, but the profs give more homework. However, there are some honors classes that are pretty easy and a lot of people take them just to maintain their honors status.</p>
<p>I’m a freshman and in honors, but am not taking an honors class first semester. If I don’t take one second semester, am I kicked out of honors?</p>
<p>You can’t really get kicked out of honors. You can take register for honors classes if you have a 3.5, otherwise you can’t. That’s the only limitation on honors stuff. For early registration you have to be taking an honors class in order to register early for the next semester, unless you already have 9 hours of honors credit. (I used early registration this semester but didn’t sign up for an honors class, kinda wondering if they’re going to get mad at me.) </p>
<p>Anyway the difference between honors and regulars varies a lot depending on what class you are talking about. I took CHEM 101, 111 (the lab), and 102 honors last year. The lectures were a lot more intense than regular CHEM 101/102 (I took honors because I made a 5 on the AP test but still wanted to review gen. chem). The honors lab was a lot of work compared to the regular lab. On the other hand I also took honors PSYC 107 last semester and found it to be quite easy. Our professor was pretty laid back, and the majority of the class made A’s (I think about 14/20) with the other 6 people making B’s. So it just kind of depends. I also know honors MATH 151/152 are much more difficult than the regular counterparts. Pick a prof is a good place to read about how honors profs vary in difficulty etc. (My PSYC class covered normal psychology stuff but I feel like my CHEM classes, especially 101, went into some really unnecessary stuff that would not necessarily be beneficial to say, a premed student.) It varies a lot.</p>
<p>Pick a Prof is now My Edu. A lot has changed, but the purpose is still the same.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info. And yes, we used pick a prof (my edu) last year, and it was pretty accurate for most profs, both at Blinn and TAMU.<br>
What she seems to be running up against right now is that every Honors class she is looking at is full. I would bet that not many people drop those classes once registered either, do they? Can anyone recommend Honors classes you have taken and liked that would meet English major/History minor requirements that she can look into? Already has all math and science behind her, and wouldn’t take those in Honors anyway.</p>
<p>So once you have 9 honors credit hours, you can always sign up early? 5s on AP tests count as honors credits right?</p>
<p>The requirement for receiving honors credit as AP tests is to score 1 higher than required for class credit. The minimum scores can vary with every class. You need to check the tamu web site.</p>
<p>Anyone heard anything about honors Physics 218 (Mechanics)?</p>
<p>The ChemE’s advisor strongly advised against Honors Physics for them…she said it was super-hard and time-consuming. But if you’re a Physics major it’s probably fine.</p>
<p>The only thing worse than Phys 218 is Phys 218 honors. Unless you are a physics major in love with the introductory subject matter, there are better ways to spend your time, energy, and stress. S witnessed all of TAMU’s brightest students devote a disproportionate amount of time and stress to the class. They wound up with good grades, but at great cost.</p>
<p>All I have heard is that the exams are difficult and that there is a lot of homework given. Oh well. I guess all I can say now is bring it on!</p>
<p>The work that you will be doing in Honors Phys 218 is not going to be any more difficult than in any other Phys 218. From experience, the only thing different about an honors class is that in general the students are more dedicated (all have a 3.5 GPA), and thus the competition is tougher. The fact that you are competing with only A&M’s best students makes it tougher to get an A. There is a huge misconception that the workload for the honors classes is tougher. That’s usually not true. When I was in honors ENGR 112, we took the exact same exam as the regular classes. The only difference was that the average on the test in our class was an 87, while the regular classes had an average of a 75. Thus our curve was a lot smaller than theirs and it was harder to get an A.</p>
<p>AllThisIsNewToMe: ANY Phys 218 or Phys 208 class is going to be super hard and time consuming :/</p>
<p>Take 208 at Blinn during the summer and save yourself a LOT of heartache!</p>