I was recently accepted into Northeastern into the University Honors Program, and I have heard that the program has great benefits in regards to more scholarships, better dorms, etc. How difficult is the honors program at Northeastern? I plan to go onto medical school, and I know medical school largely takes into consideration your GPA and MCAT score. Will it be significantly harder to get a 4.0 at Northeastern than it would be at a school like Pennsylvania State or Fordham University?
Did you apply early decision? Was Honors college a separate application?
@funaviator no, I did early action and you’re automatically considered for honors when you apply to the school
about every 5th frosh is “pre-med” but only a small percentage ever end up applying to med school. Unless you already have volunteer work in a patient-care setting (having this is an unwritten rule to apply to med school, BTW) its best to consider yourself interested in exploring a career in medicine rather than as someone that has already picked a career path.
For that matter, why are you so settled on becoming a doctor?Might be a good idea to look around before you sign up for a path that will take the next 11-15 years of your life and cause you to take on hundreds of thousands in debt. Even if health care is a fit, doctors are far from the only ones in the health field that help people. Physical therapists, radiology techs, nurses, speech pathologists, physician assistants, to name but just a few. Spend a few hours browsing on http://explorehealthcareers.org
Honors at Northeastern does not translate to more challenge, only more perks / attention generally. You have a few extra class requirements and get a few smaller class sizes but otherwise will be in the same classes as everyone else. The whole student body is at a high level, so the honors separation does not really reflect a strong line in quality of students / peers.
There is a rumored revamp of the program but changes are TBD and unlikely to affect difficulty. I think you’ll find similar academic difficulty at all schools mentioned.
Not many students graduate Northeastern with a 4.0 - at the graduation I attended they were recognized and it was maybe a half dozen students in a graduating class of thousands. The class marshals (valedictorians) in several of the colleges didn’t have perfect 4.0 GPAs.
Also, as it stands now, being in the honors program does not require you to graduate with honors. You can stay in honors as long as you maintain a certain GPA (3.5) You graduate with Honors if you take 6 honors classes including one interdisciplinary upper level honors class. You can also graduate with Honors in a major as defined for that major (typically an honors project).
The honors program is also different from graduating with Latin honors: Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude. That is determined solely by GPA.
My DD has gotten EA admission at NEU in Cellular and Molecular Biology major with Deans Scholarship. Her mid term grades are pretty good. Could she email her counselor to reconsider her admission into honors college? (kind of an appeal). My daughter doesn’t want to. So could parents email NEU counselor? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Edit: Answered elsewhere
D is not comfortable appealing/emailing that’s all. So parents could send email? We felt NEU Honors is a privilege, if she can get into it, then she should. We also feel that, if not now then later it would be very competitive
Thanks! @PengsPhils
@PengsPhils … curious that you mention rumors about the revamp of the honors program. I know there was talk of this when they stopped admitting new students to Scholars this past year and are phasing that program out. What have you heard recently if anything, about the revamp of honors. Seems the new honors director has been there about a year now, maybe they have new program ideas?
Nothing much yet, just of the revamp itself. I would wait for a formal announcement to be sure of anything at all, not sure what’s going on there exactly.
Thanks @PengsPhils . Please post if you hear any announcements or changes. Besides offering a little help for some post-frosh doc fees for this current frosh class, there has not been any substantial change in perks, new programs etc.