<p>I recently was admitted to UMich's Honors and Residential College programs. I'm really excited about both programs however I'm scared that taking both will restrict my schedule too much and I won't be able to explore, particularly my freshman year because we can only take 18 credits.</p>
<p>The RC requires taking 2 eight credit intensive language courses and a less intensive four credit foreign literature course. While the Honors Program requires taking a four credit literature course (there are other requirements but I'm not that worried about them). In addition, all freshman need to take a four credit writing course.</p>
<p>Basically, I reason that my freshman year my courses will look like this</p>
<p>SEMESTER 1
"Intensive French 1" (RC Requirement, 8 Cred)
"Writing Seminar" (Frosh Requirement, 4 Cred)
Some sort of Political Science course (My intended major, 4 Cred)</p>
<p>SEMESTER 2
"Intensive French 2" (RC Requirement, 8 Cred)
"Great Works" (Honors Requirement, 4 cred)
Another Political Science course or perhaps Statistics (4 Cred)</p>
<p>As you can see, I don't have much room to try things that I have a fledgling interest in. Does anyone have any experience in this sort of situation or can offer advice? Thank you!</p>
<p>My D2 is in a similar position. She’s been admitted to RC and has thought about applying to Honors where she could probably be admitted. But friends in both programs all advised her that the people they knew who were doing both felt too constrained to meet the requirements of both programs. So she’s presently inclined just to go with RC.</p>
<p>Others may have different advice and/or different experiences.</p>
<p>The problem I have is that both programs interest me a lot. I really want to improve my French and poetry (RC) but also I want to be with intellectually engaged kids and have smaller classes (Honors). If I had to choose, I might lean towards the honors program if only because I could still potentially take RC Language courses.</p>
<p>RC classes are pretty small, maybe on the whole smaller than Honors which if I recall has some big first-year lectures. I’m also not sure I’d characterize Honors students as being more “intellectually engaged”–not to say they aren’t intellectually engaged, but that seems way too dismissive of RC students who are a pretty self-selective group, drawn to RC by the prospect of small, intellectually engaging classes, and an emphasis on languages, the arts, and interdisciplinary studies. In some ways that seems a more focused intellectual engagement than Honors, where the statement seems to be simply that “We’re smarter than the rest of you.” (At least, that’s how my D2 sees it, but as an alum of the Honors Program myself, I’m hard-pressed to deny it). </p>
<p>If you’re in Honors and meeting all Honors requirements, and on top that that taking intensive 8-credit RC language classes, I don’t see how that’s much different from being in both.</p>
<p>The “Great Works” is called “Great Books” (GTBOOKS 191, or you can also take Classic Civ I, which is CLCIV 101) and you must take it the first semester. This also counts for your freshman writing requirement, so it takes care of that as well.</p>
<p>Also, the 18 credit max applies for all students, and it’s for your own good. Believe me, you do not want to take any more than this.</p>
<p>I would highly advise not doing both, especially since doing both is, as you said, too restricting and in the end won’t look that great on a transcript together anyway. The honors requirements are very loose in that… you really don’t have to do them, to be honest. We theorize that they don’t kick anyone out of honors (unless they don’t meet the minimum GPA requirement) because they need alumni to donate to the program and want as many potential donors as possible. I’ve never heard of anyone being kicked out for failing to meet a requirement.</p>
<p>Another reason I don’t advise doing both is that you can get an honors degree without being in the program, and all you have to do is write an honors thesis starting your junior year, so further down the line. That being said, the few people I know in RC do not like it, and a couple have left it already. I’m in honors and have not felt restricted at all by it, but I have also not done any of the requirements except for Great Books (I don’t take the “required” 2 honors classes per semester nor did I take the 2nd semester “Text & Ideas” “requirement”-- believe me, they just really do not care).</p>
<p>Edit: also, honors classes aren’t smaller. Honors seminars are the same size as non-honors seminars (capped at 20-25 students) and honors sections of non-honors-specific classes are the same size as non-honors sections (also 20-25 students). You’ll be sharing a lecture with non-honors students in these classes. Great Books has 400 students in it. So this is a common misconception, but a misconception nonetheless.</p>
<p>entenduintransit,
I’d be curious to know what it is about RC that your friends don’t like. My sense is that RC has had a hard time operating as a true residential college while East Quad has been undergoing renovation, but are there other issues beyond that? I’ve known a lot of people from past generations of RC who loved it.</p>
<p>I slept on it and I realized this morning that it isn’t as restrictive as I thought. Everyone is going to have to take 16 Credits of Foreign Language, RC students just do it in two semesters as opposed to four*. All Freshmen would have to take a Writing Course so that’s a non-issue. In regards to the Honors Class: even if I weren’t in Honors, I would probably take a similar class.</p>
<p>If I were ONLY in the RC my schedule would probably look something like</p>
<p>SEMESTER 1 (The exact same as if I were in both Honors and RC)
“Intensive French 1” (RC Requirement, 8 Cred)
“Writing Seminar” (Frosh Requirement, 4 Cred)
Some sort of Political Science course (My intended major, 4 Cred)</p>
<p>SEMESTER 2 (The only change would be taking a statistics course)
“Intensive French 2” (RC Requirement, 8 Cred)
Statistics (4 cred)
Political Science (4 Cred)</p>
<p>If I were ONLY in Honors my schedule would probably look something like</p>
<p>SEMESTER 1 (The exact same as if I were in both Honors and RC)
“French 1” (LSA Requirement, 4 Cred)
“Writing Seminar” (Frosh Requirement, 4 Cred)
Political Science (My intended major, 4 Cred)
Classical Civilization (Honors Requirement, 4 Cred)</p>
<p>SEMESTER 2 (The only change would be taking a statistics course)
“French 2” (LSA Requirement, 4 Cred)
Statistics (4 cred)
Political Science (4 Cred)
Great Books (Honors Requirement, 4 Cred)</p>
<p>I guess my point is that if I were to only take do Honors or RC, my course load would still be pretty regimented and out of my control. What are your thoughts?</p>
<p>*The RC actually requires 20 Credits but I already have 6 of those from a college program and I’ve confirmed that they are transferable.</p>
<p>As I pointed out already, Classic Civ and Great Books both fulfill the freshman writing requirement (what you have listed as “Writing Seminar”), and you don’t have to take Great Books in your second semester. You only have to take one or the other, and it would be in the first semester.</p>
<p>@bclintonk
They mostly didn’t like the other kids. RC kids have a reputation of being “strange” and it’s often found to be not exactly invalid. While they did find other students they could relate to and be friends with, it was limited, and they felt socially restricted. I’m sure they had other reasons, but this is the only one I know of.</p>