<p>In the begining I was crazy about getting into the honors program at UMich, I couldn't think of a reason not to, but then I went to orientation and spoke with the honors program assistant director as well as some random students. Now I'm not sure why you would want to join the honors program. </p>
<p>The advantages as I see it are: Smaller classes, better professors (to an extent), graduating with honors, and reserved seats for class registration. </p>
<p>The disadvantages: Harder classes, more homework (or so I hear), and you can still graduate with honors if you go through your concentration committee and write a senior thesis.</p>
<p>Any other advantages or disadvantages that you have come accross would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, I think Ill just drop the honors for fresh and soph year and just apply for the honors program my junior year. Any other suggestions?</p>
<p>Getting housing in South Quad, it makes it easier to get into Honors classes, better advising, and general access to do whatever the hell you want. If you want to take more than 16 credits, take an upper level class as a freshmen, or skip the prereqs for something, being an honors students helps eliminate the crap you have to go through to make that happen.</p>
<p>Like DTow said, underclass Honors is separate from doing an Honors concentration, so you can just join for underclass honors and not bother doing the requirements for it.</p>
<p>meanvaluetheorem1: Practically all the honors math majors do honors and live in South Quad for the first year, and about half of them are still in South Quad for the second year. You have no idea how much this helps with homework.</p>
<p>No. There is an underclass honors award you get for jumping through stupid hoops. Then there is declaring an honors concentration, which requires an honors thesis for all majors except math and comp sci, and is how you graduate with honors.</p>
<p>Lots of lies floating around here. To DTow, honors classes (save a couple) are no harder and give no more homework than their standard counterparts, they're usually just more personalized and have smarter students. And dilksy is wrong in saying that the advising is better. Perhaps within your concentration it is because the advisors see you are honors and will give you preferential treatment, but honors advising is worthless at best.</p>
<p>Honors advisors are more likely to say "we can help you do this" as opposed to "you can't do that". Regular advisors try to tell kids they can't take more than 16 credits, and my honors advisor told me to up mine to 18, which I handled just fine.</p>
<h1>1 son is in honors - and did not get into south quad for his freshman year. He was in Oxford. At first - was a little concerned about it - but he loved it and had a great experience. In fact, 2 weeks before school started, he had the option of switching to an "economy triple" in south and stayed put - and is so glad he did.</h1>