<p>I looked in the brochures and stuff when I went to admit day and it sounds great and all. they make it sound prestigious.</p>
<p>What are the real benefits and cons of doing honors?</p>
<p>There are lots of other topics about this, do a search for them- the short answer is that College Honors isn’t all that prestigous (anyone who meets the minimum requirements gets in), and they’re taking away the priority enrollment for honors students next year, which was the only really “perk” of being in the program. It means extra classes, and while you do get to have “honors” on your transcript, there’s also departmental honors within your major (which usually means writing a thesis) or Latin Honors (GPA based, i.e. summa cum laude), and of the three departmental honors is probably the one that’ll look the best, especially if you want to go to grad school. Only do College Honors if you like to really think outside the box and take classes that are kinda “quirky” or really in-depth on one particular subject. I guess another good thing about Honors is that the classes are really small, mostly seminars with around 20-30 people (though there are a few larger ones), so it’s a good way to get to know some profs.</p>
<p>There aren’t very many practical benefits really anymore (i.e. no priority enrollment, but that’s a good thing overall).</p>
<p>from: [About</a> UCLA Honors Programs](<a href=“http://www.ugeducation.ucla.edu/honors/services.html]About”>http://www.ugeducation.ucla.edu/honors/services.html)
"College Honors students are nurtured with services and benefits designed to support them, including:</p>
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<p>So the only reason I’d join is just to have that accolade on the diploma. Which is a good enough reason in and of itself. But of course potential scholarships and research opportunities are big bonuses too.</p>
<p>Well it doesn’t include research opportunities…</p>
<p>Well I was referring to “eligibility for summer research funding” when I said “research opportunities.” Sure anyone can do research but honors could potentially broaden your opportunities. Potentially.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m misinterpreting what you’re saying… but it doesn’t broaden anything. From what I understand, the research funding is more like a scholarship thing. You’ll have to find a research position / sponsor first, without the help of Honors.</p>
<p>I’m simply referring to what the college honors program says on it’s website about the benefits of college honors which I reproduced above with a link to the page.
And maybe my choice of words is poor, for this I apologize but this is petty and mostly insignificant anyway.</p>
<p>I retract my statement that “research opportunities are big bonuses” above.</p>
<p>So shubham, ignore that, and consider the rest.</p>
<p>My experience with Honors has been amazing. Priority Enrollment will be missed, but the more intangible benefits have been great. The Collegium classes are smaller so you get a much better learning experience( as in, twenty students and one professor who knows everyone’s names and has conversations/debates with them). Also, Honors Contracts and Research allow you to forge good relationships with Professors. I did an Honors Contract for a Professor and she was so impressed with my work that she wrote me a letter of rec and is putting me in touch with her old college friends who work in the field I’m interested in. So, if you want to have closer relationships to professors, I’d recommend it.</p>
<p>just do it shubham. the pressure from indian parents can be great. i would know.</p>
<p>I get the feeling that the Honors program is just unnecessarily difficult. The only perk I saw was the priority enrollment thing, but UCLA got rid of that. Whenever I talk to current students, they’re always like, “Oh yeah, the Honors experience is really great…um…Yeah, I lied, it’s not really worth it.”</p>
<p>I did the honors program, and I probably would have done it without the priority enrollment. It gave me a chance to do some pretty neat seminars that I couldn’t have done otherwise, and got me into a class on the search for life that was quite amazing (tour at JPL, etc.) </p>
<p>I did get a tick bite on a hike for a class though, so that sort of sucked. A lot.</p>
<p>Yeah, I wasn’t able to do honors (engineering student), but the classes are all pretty sweet.</p>