I just wanted to talk with you all about the experience of going to SBU without belonging to an honors program. My daughter was just rejected today from Honors College and WISE so we are trying to figure out if she should still go here without those advantages. On the website, SBU offers so many opportunities to a select number of students who belong to Honors College, WISE, etc, including scholarships, priority housing and registration, and personalized guidance. However, what is there for you if you are not eligible for these perks?
From what we have seen, we like the academics around here and the overall atmosphere of the university. It’s just that by going here, my daughter will have her first experience of not belonging to an honors program and taking advantage of what it offers. She is worried because she will not have anything to put on her resume and, possibly an application for medical school. I tried to assure her, reasoning that without the stress of having to excel in such a program, she can easily get the GPA she wants.
Can you help us see what is there for us (opportunities, advantages, etc.) without belonging to an honors program? Thank you!
Honestly for medical school…its all about the GPA and MCAT scores. Tell your daughter to survive the weedout premed courses and get the 3.7 GPA or higher that she needs and she will have nothing to worry about. And believe me, in college its not that easy to get a 3.7 GPA for premed. There are plenty of other stuff that she can put on her resume over the next 4 years.
I am in the same position as your daughter, except that I am not going to medical school. I still find it hard to believe but what can I do? I will save my time on keeping up with my gpa 
It is as important
Here’s my two cents as a current student who is part of the university scholars.
For me the only things that really affected my experience here was the scholarship and priority registration. Other than those two things I don’t really think there was anything else that really made a big impact. Doing well in school will have a far bigger impact on your resume than simply putting that you were apart of one of the honors programs.
thanks for assuring
my son got accepted to SBU in computer science but he also got accepted to Drexel university computer science honors program .we are now very confused to pick which one .
My daughter is in the honors program at another university. She has had both honors and non-honors science and math classes. The honors classes are smaller, but the competition for grades in those classes is harder, because all of her classmates are among the very top in academic ability and ambition to make high grades. Her lowest grade so far is in an honors science class in a subject she is very talented in with strong preparation in high school. However, she did not take advantage of all the other honors perks that she could have, which includes hours upon hours of tutoring for every honors science and math course – all just for honors students. I would bet that the students who aced that course are the ones who went to tutoring to get help with homework and test prep.
What my daughter enjoys most about her honors program, aside from the course offerings and seminars, are the social events. There are social gatherings large and small just for honors students, and even an annual retreat. They also schedule tours of national corporations and labs, meetings with professors, and other special events. If she had wanted to, she could have also stayed in an honors dorm. Also, at her university, only honors students can graduate with Latin Honors, which is something important to some students, and what my daughter is aiming for. She will have to do an honors thesis, but she is looking forward to it.
It sounds like it might be a source of pride for your daughter, where being in an honors program is personally very important for her (like it is for my daughter, who was in several honor societies in high school). If that is the case, she may find that an honors program at another university means more to her than attending Stony Brook. Or perhaps she really just wants to be at SBU. If that’s the case, I would imagine she can always apply again for the honors program if she makes high grades her freshman year. However, if she still doesn’t get in, and it is that important to her, she may feel left out.