<p>Hello,</p>
<p>So I have been wait listed for a MATH 233 class for this fall semester. My friend and I are planning on taking a math class together. Recently, he's been trying to encourage me to sign up for MATH 233H with him. As much as I love math, I don't want to be overwhelmed with an extremely difficult, impossible-to-get-an-A class my first semester as a freshman. I don't mind challenging myself and I usually do well in math, but does anyone know the difficulty in taking such a course? What was your final grade? It's with I think Jonathan Whaul. Does anyone know anything about this professor? I tried looking him up on myedu, ratemyprofessor, and blinkness, but he's not showing up.</p>
<p>Thanks :)</p>
<p>Taking an honors course is always tougher than a regular course. Unless you plan on getting into a competitive graduate program after college then I wouldn’t recommend honors. I haven’t started college yet, so I don’t know how that particular class is, I just know from friends that in general(not always) taking a regular class in college is just fine. With either the honors course or the regular, you are still getting credit for taking that certain math course. A college degree is a college degree. However, if the regular one is so easy that you’ll get bored then challenge yourself with the honors, and you’ll have a friend in it to study with!</p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn’t go for Honors just b/c you had to waitlist the regular. People drop by the dozens in the first week, so you’ll be able to get into 233 without a problem. Don’t do something you’ll regret - just be patient and it’ll all work out.</p>
<p>I don’t really think it would be that bad. If you’re taking 233 anyway, it’s not like the honors class will be significantly harder. More than anything, it’s a smaller class where you have more of an opportunity to interact one on one with the professor during lecture. Honors courses at UNC are not to non-honors classes like AP and regular level classes in high school. </p>
<p>That being said, I have not taken a math or science honors course, only humanities based ones. So there may be some sort of significant difference that I don’t know about. But I doubt it. If you love math you should be fine.</p>
<p>It is Professor Jonathan Wahl. BS from Yale, MS from Yale and PHD from Harvard. I’ve not had him personally, but, my friends who have, said he knows his stuff. The downsides are, his classroom style is a little dry and he writes really small (so, sit close to see the board). Perhaps a smaller honors class would be better in that respect. As previously stated, honors classes are not that significantly harder and people drop 232 and 233 like crazy (and early), so, chances are you will get into a regular session if you want it.</p>
<p>agree with jessimo- honors courses at UNC don’t always equal harder. It’s definitely not like high school, where honors meant more advanced. I can’t speak for all departments, but in many cases they are almost the same if not identical to ‘regular’ courses curriculum wise. Like jessimo pointed out, the difference is that they are a smaller class size, and by consequence fill up faster, given honors students get priority registration for those.</p>
<p>I would actually recommend 233H if it’s open, to be honest. A smaller class size for math 233, which has a reputation along with 232 for being difficult, would be greatly beneficial. If for some reason it’s not working out for you, you can always switch to regular 233… but again, from experience, it’s not going to be that different pace/content wise.</p>
<p>Are you guys serious?</p>
<p>…Honors classes are definitely not harder from whom I talked to. In fact, it’s often easier to get an A as teachers are explicitly instructed to maintain a higher class average (e.g. a B+ in Math233H v.s. a B- in Math 233). You can check myedu.edu to see grade distributions that confirm this.</p>
<p>The bar is set higher, yes, but you’ll be surrounded with students who do well, so chances are you’ll do better as a result.</p>
<p>I don’t see how you can suggest that honors classes are easier. Yes, the classes are smaller, which is likely to help. However, I would imagine that the average GPAs are higher because the motivated students are the ones taking the courses. I doubt that instructors are told to maintain a certain GPA - that’s their own decision to make. I took Math 233H with Rozansky and the content was more difficult (i.e. proof-based rather than computational like reg. 233).</p>