<p>I was going to apply to honors, but when I saw that you were required to stay in a certain dorm your freshman year I didn't want to do it anymore. None of the dorms I picked out were one of the honors dorms. Is there any gain in doing honors? Does your diploma look different from everyone elses? In HS there is huge benefit to taking AP courses. Is this similar to honors courses in College? If honors just means smaller classes and independent research projects then im thinking of laying off. thoughts?</p>
<p>Really? I didn’t think doing honors requred to stay in a certain dorm. Are you sure about that? I’m not so sure…
One big benifit is being able to register for classes before everyone else.</p>
<p>We visited last week and yes the honors process has changed. Students have to apply for it now and it won’t be automatically offered based on scores. The requirement is that students live in the honors dorm unless they are in the core. They were not clear at this point if a student could live in the engineering dorm instead of the honors dorm. It seems like things are in the process of being figured out for freshmen entering Fall 2012.</p>
<p>When we visited with the head of the honors department in the early spring, she told us that the whole program was just about to be re-vamped. I don’t remember hearing that students would be required to live in the honors dorms, but that’s certainly believable. We did hear that the auto-admit system based on scores, etc, was going to change. And that students would no longer be permitted to “linger” in the program, using the benefit of early registration without participation. They wanted to require so many honor credits, or something like that. My son and I liked all the new ideas. It seemed like they would give the honors program more credibility and value. We’ll see. They were in the process of solidifying all the new policies at the time, and they were trying to decide how to implement them – grandfather some things in, not grandfather other things in. It’s going to be interesting.</p>
<p>Isu1993, what’s wrong with the honors dorms, in your opinion? What is it about them that would make you give up the honors program in order to avoid them?</p>
<p>Things may have changed, but honors courses do not help your GPA any more than regular courses. Certain departments, e.g. engineering, have their own honors distinction. I believe that honors will be designated on your diploma.</p>
<p>Yes, there will be lots of changes in the honors dept. I believe someone well-liked just retired.</p>
<p>I really wanted to have a single suite balcony style room (meaning I have my own bedroom and share a connecting bathroom with one other person). All of the honors dorms are modular which means you have to share your bedroom with two people vs. 1 and 4 people share your bathroom vs. 2. I really like people but i really liked the idea of having my own personal place to crash without constantly having to deal with others. I just got an email about honors which is where i found out about the dorms. Ill copy the geist of it here. </p>
<p>Thank you for your interest in the Texas A&M University Honors Program. </p>
<p>In order to participate in the University Honors Program, you must complete an application and be accepted into the program.</p>
<p>Important Reminders:</p>
<p>The deadline to apply to the University Honors Program is 11:59 PM, December 15.</p>
<p>There is no fee to apply to Honors.</p>
<p>Students who are admitted to the University Honors Program are required to reside in the Honors Housing Community in their first year at Texas A&M University. Exceptions may be granted in rare circumstances. Please contact Honors and Undergraduate Research for further information.</p>
<p>^You’re kind of right about the honors dorms. In McFadden, one of the freshman honors dorms, you share your bedroom with one person, and that bedroom has one bathroom that is shared with the same one person. It’s not a bad set-up.</p>
<p>My son only looked at honors dorms and Mosher, so I don’t know about the others. But if it’s like it is at every other campus I’m familiar with, you’re not likely to get a single room as a freshman without some sort of ADA allowance anyway. I’m not saying it’s impossible – and I really don’t know about A&M specifically, but I do know that a lot of people would prefer to have their own rooms; and high demand for something often equates to a relative “freshman shut-out.”</p>
<p>Still, I’m like you and follow the principle that it can’t hurt to ask! Good luck! :)</p>
<p>Did you get a letter yet lsu?</p>
<p>@Simplelife, There may be freshman rules about dorm priority, I dont really know. But it sounds like a first come first serve deal at A&M. When I went on a tour they said to apply early, because as soon as you are accepted you can make dorm choices. I was hoping that I would be able to nab one of these rooms since im auto admit and will be admitted way before everyone else</p>
<p>@yojay - I am on step three. As I said, Im an auto admit so I should be getting a letter any day now.</p>
<p>^But don’t the assignments all begin at once, in the spring? I’m pretty sure they happen after all the upperclassmen get their dorm assignments, and then after certain classifications of incoming freshmen (NMF, honors, etc) get theirs, and then they begin using the first-come, first-served policy for the remaining rooms. Right? I mean, you won’t get a dorm assignment until early next summer, no matter when you sign up, I believe.</p>
<p>I really don’t know the specifics so I won’t provide any more responses regarding dorms. back to the honors program in general, is it really worth while to put forth extra work to complete the program or will i be just as well off getting a non honors degree?</p>
<p>^Ah. I see. Your original post made it sound like the dorms were you primary concern. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I am a Sophomore and this will be my first semester doing Honors. I personally think it will be worth the “extra work” for a multitude of reasons. </p>
<p>First of all, the classes are MUCH smaller. I abhorred the fact that in a regular course, I had to struggle to hear the professor in class because there were 250+ students in the room. In an honors course, classroom sizes range around 20-25 people. </p>
<p>Second, you get to personally know your professor and vice versa. This helps in the long run when you really need to ask for a recommendation or what not. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to get to know your professor as a person in general.</p>
<p>Third, if you complete enough honors credit, you can graduate with University Honors, Foundation Honors, or even both. It’s nice to graduate and have them call your name saying so and so graduated Magna Cum Laude with University and Foundation Honors. Plus you get a pretty stole on your graduation gown 
Which you probably still get if you graduate as a regular Magna Cum Laude without honors…but I’m not really sure.</p>
<p>Fourth, it’s for your own sake. If you plan on going to graduate school, I feel like going the extra mile with honors will help prepare for the future graduate work you will have to endure.</p>
<p>Fifth, from what I have heard, the “extra work” really isn’t that big of a deal. For example, I will be taking HIST 105 Honors and Math 166 Honors. After a bit of research, HIST 105 honors only differs from the regular honors in testing (all free response as opposed to half free response and half multiple choice). For Math 166 Honors, the difference is there’s a required math lab to take and perhaps a little bit more material to learn. </p>
<p>Lastly, priority registration is a wonderful incentive! It’s such a pain to have to constantly refresh Howdy in hopes of someone dropping a course you want to be in. </p>
<p>You should do it! (: Plus, when you apply to scholarships, you can always say you’re in honors, and at A&M, that automatically means you have at least a 3.5 GPR (which is NOT bad at all).</p>
<p>Hope this helped!</p>
<p>Im sorry simplelife, I knew what I wanted to say in my head and forgot that piece of information. I guess I kind of did change the question. Sorry!</p>
<p>@sandrabui, so you can decide to start honors your sophomore year and not your freshman year and still complete the program?</p>
<p>Yup! I’m not sure about new Honors rules for Fall 2012, but I know that if you have at least a 3.5 GPR at A&M, you can automatically sign up for an honors class. The honors curriculum can definitely be completed starting Sophomore year. I wouldn’t advise starting Junior year though (you probably wouldn’t be able to meet all the requirements if you start too late). The curriculum can be viewed here: [University</a> Honors Plans](<a href=“http://honors.tamu.edu/Honors/Graduation%20University%20Plans.html]University”>http://honors.tamu.edu/Honors/Graduation%20University%20Plans.html)</p>
<p>Then that seals the deal. I’ll just do regular my freshman year so I can get my feet on the ground and test the waters then ill jump into honors my sophomore year. Thanks for all the input!</p>
<p>I tried looking this up on the web site but I couldn’t find it. If a student is admitted to honors as a freshman do they have to maintain a 3.5 GPA at TAMU? From what I hear that is difficult to do in engineering even without honors classes. Also if a student is admitted into university honors their freshman year from what I am understanding the student isn’t required to take any honors classes freshman year but they will still get priority registration. Am I getting this right? From what I understood students can “get their feet on the ground” as Isu suggests and then move on to the honors classes during sophmore year. Please tell me if I’ve got these things right. Thanks.</p>
<p>Spectrum2,</p>
<p>To take honors classes you have to have a 3.5 GPA. I’m in mechanical engineering, and that hasn’t been hard for me to maintain, but I had already completed my math and physics classes when I came. Since you’re going to be registering after all the returning students, it’s understandable if you don’t take honors classes your first semester. However, it is frowned upon to use your priority registration for spring classes without registering for an honors course. I don’t know if there are any consequences, but that might be one of the things they’re changing.</p>
<p>So if I have this straight, a student probably shouldn’t apply to honors if they are not going to take honors classes freshman year. Once they are in TAMU they have to have a 3.5 to take any honors classes. So if a student concludes first semester freshman year or all of freshman year with say a 3.2 they would not be allowed to take any honors classes until they get their GPA up to 3.5, if I’m understanding correctly. At that point are they not in the honors program? I know in some schools where students have to maintaln a GPA for scholarships there is usually a probation period before the scholarship is lost. Is the honors program similar to that? Its a little confusing but it may be that with the changes to the honors program some things are getting figured out along the way. Part of the confusion is, if said honors student is living in the honors dorm and they don’t make the 3.5 mark do they have to move out for second semester? My S is taking BC calc and AP physics right now. I don’t know how he’ll test on these but even if he gets 5’s I’ve heard it is a good idea to take at least Calc 2 in college. I’m not sure how accurate this is but when we attended the info session for engineering they said that the average engineering GPA is a 2.8. Judging by that scale a 3.5 sounds really high with all of the adjustment that happens freshman year. From what I’m hearing it sounds like it might be better to wait and see before taking on the extra pressure of honors. I raise the question because my S is apprehensive about if he will be able to maintain that 3.5. I know he wants to enjoy his college experience so he doesn’t want to go in feeling that he needs to study every minute. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I don’t know how it will work now that they’re changing it, but in the past some students didn’t take any honors classes their freshman year. You could contact someone working in the honors department to ask. Up until now, being in the honors program was very loosely defined, and I suppose that yes, while the GPA was below 3.5 students were out of the program. Once again, I don’t know how this will work this coming year. There might have been exceptions to not being allowed to take honors courses while the GPA was lower than 3.5, but not being allowed to take honors courses wasn’t an issue. You would just get back into next semester when your GPA was better. I think students were able to stay in honors housing for the second semester even if they did not maintain a 3.5. Taking honors courses also depends on which classes you’re taking. Honors Environmental Design, ENDS 101, is considered an easy A class <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/texas-m-university/1069150-easy-classes.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/texas-m-university/1069150-easy-classes.html</a> . I didn’t find the honors engineering 111 and 112 courses I took difficult, and the honors astronomy 109 course I took only differed from the regular fairly easy course by a five page research paper. I haven’t taken any honors math or physics classes, but those might be the ones to worry about instead.</p>