Friend’s son got into an honors program at a large public university. He is considering not being in the program because he feels like it could potentially be a lot of extra work for not much benefit. (Apparently honors kids have to write a thesis which he isn’t wild about.) It does make me wonder - what are the real benefits of being in an honors program? I can’t imagine it makes any difference on the resume. Thanks!
Early scheduling, smaller classes, peers who are on his level.
I would suggest that he sign up for the honors program but feel free to drop out of it after a semester or two if he doesn’t like it.
Rationale: One of the benefits of honors programs that start at the beginning of college is that they give you opportunities to make friends with other people who qualified for the honors program–people who are likely to share your interests and lifestyle. Once you’ve made those friends, you may not need or want the honors program anymore. And that’s OK.
I realize that this is likely to be a minority viewpoint.
Depending on the state school, many freshmen are just there to party and don’t care about academics. Being in the honors program and honors housing will enable him to avoid these kids. (unless he doesn’t want to avoid them.)
@TomSrOfBoston said it better than I did.
But he doesn’t have to stay in the honors program for all 4 years to reap the benefits. If there are other things he wants to do instead of writing a thesis, he can ditch the honors program before the thesis part begins.
S1 was invited to join the honors program at his big state u. He turned it down…wasn’t interested in all the extracurricular stuff. Wanted to hang out with the regular crowd and also had a part-time job. Always been a work hard/play hard kind of guy.
I’m in an honors program at a large public university. Opinions vary among different people, obviously. The honors designation gives some insulation from the lazy atmosphere of the general student body, but a lot of students drop from the program because they decide the extra work isn’t worth it.
Whether or not it IS worth it also depends on the kid. For me, a liberal arts major who wants to attend a good graduate school, there is a huge benefit in the rigor of the classes and the network of professors (far higher proportion of Ivy grads and accomplished academics). But for the engineering major who just wants a Bachelor’s, yeah, perhaps it is materially worthless.
Honors colleges really differ by campus. The most common benefits I’ve heard is preferred housing and registration as well as access to things such as smaller classes, speakers, etc.
I was part of my University’s honors program and in addition to priority registration, honors students couldn’t be bumped to make room for upperclassmen. I also got to put “BA, with honors, Economics” on my resume instead of just “BA in Economics.” Sounds silly, I know, but most of the employers I interviewed with commented on the honors program and wanted to know what additional work I had done to earn the distinction. My University’s honors program wasn’t anywhere near as comprehensive as some of the programs we read about here at CC, but I think the priority registration and placement of “honors” on your resume made the program worthwhile.
In my opinion, smart kids who are going to attend public universities for whatever reasons should definitely be in honors programs. You will be around kids more like yourself and all the benefits, mentioned by others, are huge. Plus some public universities are really putting a lot of effort into making their honors programs super nice (fancy dorms, best cafeterias, etc.) to draw in smart kids. My son has two really good offers from two public universities (Arizona State University and U of Alabama), and both fall into this category. We would not even be considering public schools without the option of honors.
@chris17mom, honors programs can vary a lot by school. How useful they are could very well vary by goals as well, as alluded to earlier.
Note that quality of the students & faculty and rigor of the classes could vary a lot by department as well.
Majoring at a school that is top 10 in that department but non-honors could make more sense than honors in the same field at a school that is not top 10 in that department, depending on the field and goals.
I opted out of the HC at my large public uni but lived with the HC students because I didn’t opt out until school started.
They partied just as much as anyone else if not more because things were easier and faster for them.
Plus you can often still take the honors classes if that’s important to you.
Personally at my university I thought it was completely overblown and would’ve straddled me with more requirements.
Eta by the way I can still with honors on my cv because I graduated with honors due to my gpa
At Ole Miss there are lots of honors-only classes with a total of 14 to 18 students, while regular sections might have 50 students. They’ve had some really great guest professors. So I think it’s worth it.
Plus, honors college students register before everyone else, giving them their choice of classes.
I think being in an Honours program has definite benefits, and adds value to the educational experience. Some of the Honours courses I took were great - and the staff-student ratio was much smaller. Plus, doing a dissertation is potentially quite a useful means of showing you are ready for graduate school, if you wish to go that route.
@chris17mom I would hardly suggest telling a smart student that he shouldn’t go to a school like UC Berkeley, UCLA, or Georgia Tech because the honors program is quite limited compared to the likes of the University of Oklahoma or Alabama. Besides, eventually a student will be taking his or her courses with the general student body. Frankly, I’d much rather take an upper division history course with an average Berkeley student than an ASU student.
@Mindfully Theses aren’t limited to the honors crowd. If I were at all interested, I could write a senior thesis at my school despite not being in the honors program.
For many students, getting accepted into an honors program at a state school automatically means a better financial aid package. These could include additional merit-based aid, a waiver of a work-study requirement, or preferred work-study options including research positions. A neighbor’s son is in an honors program at a state school, and he was pleased to find his work-study was replaced by a research grant working with a pre-eminent professor in his field of study - in his words, this beats bussing tables in the cafe or checking IDs and handing out towels in the gym.
Find out about thesis requirements before you blow that off. In D’s HC your thesis can be about anything, even totally unrelated to major. It can be a novel, artistic performance, creating an outreach group, original research or literature research. And students can apply for funding to offset costs. One student did a project on grassy balds (areas on top of mountains) in the Appalachians and created a booklet with maps and GPS. Didn’t have a thing to do with his major.
For some other students, their individual major requires a senior capstone project anyway. Some allowed the honors thesis to cover this requirement as well if it meet certain criteria. There’s a chance that OP’s student could be required to do something similar for major (or as honors specific to that major outside for HC).
I think HC are especially helpful in first few years in getting full professors instead of grad students and smaller classes. In one subject at D’s school, the freshman overview is only offered on-line with once a week massive section. Honors College equivalent is traditional small class with professor.
@PurpleTitan and @whenhen You make a really good points! I guess I was generalizing too much. If my son was able to go to UC Berkley or Georgia Tech, honors would not be that important. In fact, he was accepted to G Tech and we didn’t bother to apply to the honors program there because 1) it’s already a great school and 2) we are fairly certain we can’t afford it anyways. I was honestly just thinking about schools like ASU where I would not dream of sending him without the honors program, which is really very nice. But there are definitely benefits to being in honors, so I guess you just have to weigh benefits and demands of the program at each school.
Good luck to the poster! 
Steer “Friend’s son” away from the program. If writing a thesis senior year in college may sour the deal, it sounds like he’s looking for a more relaxed college experience. Exactly what he’ll get at most mainstream publics.
A student who enters the Honors program is not required to stay in it. Many students, in fact, are in it for the first two years’ benefits (better housing, priority registration, field trips, small interactive classes) then drop out, with no problem. It’s better to take the option and drop it if it doesn’t work, than having to go through the process of reapplying if one realizes one would have liked the benefits…