Hey everyone, I was admitted to Purdue mid-January (woo-hoo) and finally came to the conclusion that I would like to continue my education there! I am majoring in Pharmaceutical Sciences, and had gotten admitted into the Honors College. My question is concerning the workload and overall experience of a student in the Honors College. I know Pharmaceutical Sciences is a very rigorous major, which will require a lot of studying, so would it be too much to place myself into the Honors College, too? I know a lot of engineering students tend to shy away from this option because their workload is no different, and taking more rigorous English and Humanities classes don’t appeal to them. If any other admitted students have been facing this dilemma, I would really enjoy hearing your experience, and how you came to the conclusion you did (if you did decide that is)? Also, I really want to enjoy my college experience. Believe me, I know I’m going to be spending a lot of time studying for Pharmaceutical Sciences, but will those Honors courses obliterate my social life? Thanks for the input!
Hey! Congrats on becoming a Boilermaker! I am currently in Honors Engineering at Purdue. I haven’t met many honors pharm students, but I know pharm is a very difficult major. The first year in the HC was the most difficult for me as we had to take specific honors engineering classes. I believe honors pharm is a smaller program, so I am not sure if you’ll have to take honors specific pharm courses your first year. Besides that, you’re able to really pick and choose what courses you want to take as honors, and it’s pretty easy to make a regular class honors with an honors contract. Also being in the HC, you’ll get to live in HCR which are very nice dorms, and you’ll get priority registration.
All that being said, I’m not sure if I recommend the honors college. A lot of people that start honors don’t finish it. There are a lot of extra requirements that you have to complete, and you need to keep a 3.5 GPA to get all honors privileges. Taking engineering classes (or in your case pharm classes) which are already very hard, and willingly making them harder by making them honors isn’t always appealing. You could always start in honors and see how it is your first year, and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to continue with the program. I would see if you could ask someone at Purdue about the requirements specifically for pharm honors credits to see if you think it’s doable. Honestly being in the HC hasn’t really afforded me more opportunities, but I did gain experience in classes that I can talk about in interviews.
As far as social life, as long as you’re able to balance things well, you should still be able to enjoy college. You’ll be living with other honors students your first year, so you’ll all bond over the struggle, and will make a lot of friends in your dorm. People in the HC are still in clubs, they still work, and people are still in greek life. It’s doable, you just need to be organized.
I am a sophomore, started in honors engineering. My advice is to do honors. The dorm is great. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to continue after your first semester. But the experience of just one semester in honors is enough to put you ahead on your resume, in interviews, etc. I decided not to continue the honors curriculum after the first semester, but I still benefit a lot from the invaluable experience. I talk about my honors projects in every interview, and employers LOVE it. Social life is also not a problem.