Michigan Honors Program

<p>I am interested in finding out whether you know anyone who has participated in the Michigan Honors Program and their opinion of the Program. If you participated, did they take part in the Great Books classes and, if so, did they find them worthwhile?</p>

<p>I'm in honors right now (frosh at umich) and yes, I've found it very worthwhile. About 90% of us take Great Books (including me), and that's been just fine. You have to satisfy humanities distriubtion and LLWR somehow, and this is probably the best way you can. A lot of the great books GSI's rock, so it's been a great experience.</p>

<p>Great books generally gives good grades, and that is always a plus. A lot of your experience with the class will depend on your GSI. Also, as chibearsfan says, most students in honors will take that class. It is mostly because there are only a few sections for classical civ. If you want classical civ, your orientation has to be early. Many people love the great books professor, and I can see that he is a great lecturer, but I haven't really appreciated him as much, and I've only been to lecture a few times. To give you an overview of how the class goes, there are 2 one-hour lectures a week. It is optional but recommended for the exams. Then 1 one hour discussion, where you talk about the stuff you read. Participation is important for these. There are about 4 papers. Mine was first 2 pages, then 5, 5, and 7 (depends on GSI). One midterm and one final. The midterm consists of quotes from books that you have to analyze. The final is the same except it also has an essay. Overall, I am glad to have taken that class. In the beginning, honors will only mean you took great books and live in South Quad. Later there are honors concentrations, an honors thesis, and stuff like that.</p>

<p>the discussion is twice a week, to just clarify what redhare said. Also, there is debate over whether or not cameron is a good lecturer. I find lit boring, so i slept like the 5 times i went all year, so im a bad guy to ask.</p>

<p>Do Michigan honors students have advantage because classes are smaller. How about core classes where the class size is big. Do teh honors student get a professor for group discusssion or graduate student? I appreciate any feedback.</p>

<p>To your first question, yes. For yoru second, it depends on what "core classes" you're talking about, because for honors, great books is the only core class. In great books, there is a professor and a bunch of GSI's, most of which are excellent (both of mine were awesome). In other cases, there are honors versions of "core classes" like Psych 114 instead of 111 or Physics 160 instead of 140, etc. In these cases, there is a professor teaching a class of about 30 instead of 300. However, some classes (like ECON 402 or ANTHRO 101) have large lectures but discussion sections taught by the professor or the top grad student rather than any old GSI.</p>

<p>There are two big plusses as far as I'm concerned with Honors college. First thing is Honors housing. If you do Honors housing, you're guaranteed to stay in South Quad. It's a pretty nice place, very good location (at least relative to where they stick most freshmen), and you're living in the same place as all of the other smart people, which is convenient both for working on homework and having people who are more likely to be respectful for when you need to get work done. I know lots of people who sign up for Honors just to get better housing.</p>

<p>The other advantage to Honors is that it kind of marks you as a "smart" person, and they'll be more willing to let Honors students do odd things with scheduling that they might encourage normal LSA students to not try.</p>

<p>As far as Great Books is concerned...I'm very much not a reading/writing person (to the extent that I only took classes second semester which would NOT involve writing papers or extensive reading), but Great Books isn't that bad of a lit class. It's not too hard to get by without going to lecture, using things like sparknotes instead, and getting a few of the main ideas from other people. At least for first semester, practically everyone in the Honors college is doing it, and it's really easy to get help from people. Most GSI's tend to inflate grades so they range from A's to B+'s (assuming you try), but others tend to grade on more of a straight scale and not inflate things, which is very unlike most honors classes. Even my dad said he got a pity B+ when he took Great Books back in the 70's.</p>

<p>quick Q. can you get into the honors program after the freshman year? or do you have to be accepted right from high school ?</p>

<p>In a letter UMich sent me after I was admitted to LSA, it says, "Students who would like to ensure that they are considered for Honors may request a review of their file by writing to the Program at 1330 Mason Hall, or by sending an email message as soon as they have been admitted to LSA."</p>

<p>Well I didn't get this letter till a few days ago, so so much for writing an email as soon as I get admitted, but I'm actually just curious as to what my chances would be if i did write to them. My feeling is that it would be a huge shot in the dark given the fact that they never contacted me about the Honors program during the app process. Is that right to assume? Also, after writing the email, what would getting in entail? Is there an essay or something I need to write? Is there a cutoff for what kind of stats I need? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.</p>

<p>I plan on enrolling as a dual degree student for Michigans Art and Design School and for LSA Honors College. Any tips, advice, comments from students who have done or are doing this program would be greatly appreciated? Also, how much will it help to be in the honors program in terms of prestigiousness for grraduate school?
Thanks</p>

<p>I heard they expect you to take two honors courses a semester. When searching the course catalog, I didn’t find many, but I heard you can do a project for H credit. How many people do this? Is it annoying doing extra work?</p>

<p>Does being in honors help course selection? Do they get any priority?</p>

<p>Does being in Honors actually help make the university smaller, or do you end up as “Honors student #435” instead of “Student #435”?</p>

<p>Iceman22 said: “I plan on enrolling as a dual degree student for Michigans Art and Design School and for LSA Honors College. Any tips, advice, comments from students who have done or are doing this program would be greatly appreciated? Also, how much will it help to be in the honors program in terms of prestigiousness for grraduate school?” </p>

<p>Anyone has an answer to that?</p>

<p>Definitely as dilksy said, living in South Quad is a big perk for honors. The location is great, close walking distance to classes around the diag (Angel Hall, East Hall, etc.), close to the Recreational Sports facility, downtown S. University area with restaurants and close proximity to nightlife (parties, apartments and houses on E. Uni and frats) if that is your thing. Also, living in South Quad with other honors students will allow you to make friends quickly and have a good social network of smart people passionate about learning as well. Not to mention South Quad’s caf is probably the best after Mojo, it’s legit food. Furthermore, if you get tired of caf food, walk across the street to the Michigan Union connected to West Quad and you have Wendy’s (dollar menu is king), Subway, Pizza Hut, Mrs. Fields and some other bakery place and theres the Michigan convenience store (forgot the actual name of it) where you can buy anything from tooth brushes to pop to deodorant (it’s like a mini wal-mart).</p>

<p>Michigan in itself is prestigious and grad schools respect it, honors could help a bit more, but at the end of the day it’s based on your GPA. If you have a 3.7 and above, grad schools will definitely take a few looks at you because they know the quality of students that get 3.7+ at Michigan.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any information on living in Couzens in the Honors Program instead of South Quad? Pros and cons of each? How many Honors students in Couzens? Is it too few to feel like “Honors Housing”? Thanks.</p>

<p>I don’t know that many Honors kids who stayed in Couzens, but location wise South Quad is definitely better than Couzens.</p>

<p>if you wanted to drop out of the honors program how do you that? And would graudate schools see that you dropped out of the program?</p>

<p>Honestly, there isn’t really a ‘dropping out’ of the program, mostly because it’s dependent on what classes you take. You don’t have to submit anything formal, and it won’t go on your record because getting into honors for the first two years doesn’t automatically mean you’re getting an honors degree. </p>

<p>Don’t want to take Honors classes? Okay, don’t take them! Michigan is big enough that you can slip through cracks if you want. They may check up on you, but it’s not an issue. </p>

<p>And grad schools? Won’t see or care.</p>

<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>I am a freshman in Fall 2013, and I wanted to switch out from the Residential College into the Honor Program. I already said no to the RC, but can I apply to Honors without an invitation into Honors? and if yes, where am I suppose to apply to?</p>

<p>Ancient thread is ancient and Google is your friend.</p>

<p>[Prospective</a> Students | Honors Program | University of Michigan](<a href=“http://www.lsa.umich.edu/honors/prospectivestudents]Prospective”>http://www.lsa.umich.edu/honors/prospectivestudents)</p>

<p>My son has applied to the Honors program. He wants to eventually go to medical school. Does anyone know if being in this sort of program would give him a boost when applying or if he would have smaller introductory science classes? I believe that he will likely choose Michigan if he gets into the honors program.</p>