<p>Right now I am a freshmen at University of Oregon and its honors college. Right now I'm taking a very full schedule as well as working part time (online, so not too bad). However, my honors college history class assigns a lot of reading and we have some sort of essay due every week. This is much harder than any classes I took in high school, and it is definitely a lot more time consuming than the classes within the general university. Right now it is taking up more time than all my other classes combined and so I am really doubting if it is worth it. Do you think being a member of the honors college will help much getting into medical school? </p>
<p>I'm thinking that though it may be slightly beneficial, I would be better off dropping honors college and spending the additional 5+ hours a week studying in my science classes and boosting my EC's.</p>
<p>Why do you need to take Honors History? Graduating with honors means to complete certain number of credit hours in Honors classes. In addition, History is very very difficult, D. took the highest available at HS and getting college credit for it. I understand you perfectly when you say it is hard and time consuming. It was her hardest class senior year in HS. D is also in Honors. She is junior and has been taking some Honors and some regular classes. She just needs to complete certain requirements for Honors and maintain certain GPA. She does not have to take Honors version of every class in her schedule. I bet you, it is the same at your place. Honors classes are usually smaller and not always more difficult.</p>
<p>At my school, graduating with Honors entails doing an honors thesis, in addition to taking many honors classes and upper level honors courses.</p>
<p>I did honors up until my Senior year in college, where I decided I didn’t want to put forth the time to do the honors thesis. Plus, I stayed for the most part in the honors program due to priority scheduling.</p>
<p>In the end, though, graduating with honors might help you get into medical school if you are on the edge or might put you on a waitlist at a top school instead of rejection, but your GPA and MCAT scores will hold more weight than graduating with honors.</p>
<p>Hahaha, I like how your complaining over having lots of weekly reading and weekly essays…Thats pretty much all of the classes at my college(even in the most basic intro classes)…its college dude, suck it up and stay in the honors college…</p>
<p>It is big diff., if you spend time on something that is needed like science or even English, and something that you hate like History (at least in D’s case, she was glad to get a credit for Hist. that she took in HS). It is pretty much torture.</p>
<p>miamiDAP, each university/college sets its own rules regarding the course requirements for its honors college, so what holds at one school is not the same as at another school. At UO, which oregon attends, the requirements for Clark Honors College are quite rigorous and include certain classes in several different subjects – including two specific honors history classes that he/she has to take:</p>
<p>oregon, I recommend that you try and stick it out at least until the end of this year, if you can. Getting into CHC is indeed quite an honor and graduating with that designation will be very helpful to your career. I would hate to see you just give up so easily. Adjusting to college academics is sometimes difficult and it will almost certainly get much easier for you after the first semester or two. (Remember that med school will be no picnic either!) UO obviously feels that you have the ability and motivation to do well (or they would not have offered you admission into CHC), so give it your best shot. If in the spring, you still feel that your grades are suffering because of the honors program, then go ahead and drop out.</p>
<p>Wrong friend. Your GPA does not mean much in itself. Most of the applicants have a 4.0 (and good MCATs). You are deluding yourself and would not be in the front of the line at our place. As for college, the big part of the equation is how you challenge yourself. A person with honor classes and a high GPA will get in while a person with the highest GPA and underwater basket weaving courses will be laughed at.</p>
<p>Of course the person, who maintains a high GPA (i.e 3.6+) and still graduates with honors is going to look better than the person who graduates with a 3.8+ in underwater basket weaving (Then again, name a actual degree program that’s equivalent in your books to underwater basket-weaving.) However, are you honestly trying to say that a person who takes a honors biology program and finishes with a 3.0-3.3 is significantly better than a person who finishes the non-honor biology program with a 3.8+? Further, even if the person did get a degree in underwater basket-weaving they still will have had to take the same pre-requisites and will have likely done better.</p>
<p>My point was, not that a person with a 3.8-4.0 is significantly better than a 3.4+ person, but that graduating with honors is not worth having your GPA tank to the lower end of a 3.0.</p>
<p>My honors classes are more enjoyable learning experiences and thus aren’t difficult, despite being “harder”, so I think it’s worth it. Small class sizes, better class environment, etc. > more difficult material.</p>
<p>Agree that if you can keep your gpa high while in honors, that’s a plus, but if the honors is affecting your other classes…I don’t think it’s worth it at all. It’s all a balance of risks and benefits.</p>
<p>I think people are not addressing the question. I believe the question was whether participating in the “Honors College” was important. Not whether getting high grades in challenging courses would matter. I don’t know about this particular program, but many have restrictive requirements for which courses one must take, and it sounds like the question is whether having “honors college” on the transcript would matter. Without knowing more about this specific program, it is hard to say, but in general I would tend to doubt it would make any difference.</p>
<p>Good grades in a tough schedule would matter. Being enrolled in a designated “honors college”, which is different than “graduating with honors”, probably would not.</p>
<p>I seriously doubt that getting poorer grades, especially in science courses, because of time wasted on some history course would work in your favor.</p>
<p>If you can avoid the part time work, at least for this semester, it may be worth considering. Once the semester is over, evaluate your options. Perhaps you should stay in the honors college, keep working, and give up ?sleep, ?entertainment. Perhaps stay in honors college, drop the job, and give up the money (if you can afford it). Perhaps drop the honors college, still take a rigorous course load, but perhaps ones more to your liking, with or without the job.</p>
<p>The honors college should have advisors who know the record of students getting into medical school. I doubt you are the first person to confront this issue at your college. Get some local advice about the trade-offs.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies. At this point I’m thinking I will meet with the honors college adviser, tell them I don’t think it’s worth the time, and see what they say. This probably does happen to them a lot, so I’m expecting them to give a decent argument for continuing, which may or may not change my mind.</p>
<p>Stay in the honors college!!
i am just finishing up and it was well worth it. one of the most valuable assets to the program is that network you will build for refrences from professors that know you and your work. The hist/lit series is a lot of reading but you can honesty get by without doing some of it. Just dont stress about reading every word. focus on the meaning of the material of what you do read and talk about that in class. The col. classes are great. Cogan is amazing…i would say get in her classes if you can. (also Rosenberg)… The honors college looks very strong i you are looking at grad schools too. And if you get overwhelmed go to a teacher, they are always there for students unlike some UO teachers in other classes. I went to Prazniak and that helped me a lot.</p>