I am a Washington State resident planning on applying for honors, but I wanted some clarification on what the differences are between departmental and interdisciplinary honors.
I will be walking in with 90 credits, and all the prerequisites for the CSE major. I am also planning on attending a graduate school in the future to pursue a Phd in mathematics/computer theory.
To anyone who was in a similar boat as me or knows what they are talking about: What would be the smartest choice of action in my position, and why?
Your best bet may be to call or email the Honors Program directly to discuss your specific situation:
http://depts.washington.edu/uwhonors/apply/freshman/faq/ (see Question/Answer #24)
Good luck!
Departmental honors makes most sense since your longer term goal is to continue on for PhD.
I agree that departmental honors is more important for grad school.
For interdisciplinary, you have to decide: how long do you want to take to finish undergrad (or how young is too young to go off to grad school), because adding in the interdisciplinary honors classes might increase your time to a degree. However, there are some ways to substitute an approved regular class for an honors one. You would need to talk to the honors advisor about your particular situation. Just be aware that finishing your major plus interdisciplinary honors in two years would be a challenge.
Thanks, if I end up at UW I am also thinking about double majoring in ACMS: Discrete Math/Algorithms / CSE so I will definitely be wary of time constraints and work-load. @AroundHere