The Computer-Based Honor Program (CBHP)

<p>For the benifit of incoming and potential future members of the CBHP, I thought it would be useful to have a discussion about the program with current members or the parents of the members.</p>

<p>For example, DS is very excited to be a part of the program in the fall. During our discussions, a number of questions have surfaced. I also remember trying to get a good feel for the program during the application cycle.</p>

<p>So, I guess I’ll start. DS was wondering about the workload of the CBHP freshman courses. How many additional credit hours are typically taken by first year students of the program. Does the workload remain relitively the same each semester, or does it vary by year? We would also love to hear about current CBHP students’ experiences in the program? </p>

<p>We look forward to your response.</p>

<p>So glad you started this thread, as, after two years, we still have questions.</p>

<p>Our son was a freshman during the tornado, so his class had a unique end of year experience. Would love to hear how this year’s freshman class handled their spring project and perhaps can give some advice to incoming freshmen CBH who hopefully will also have an uneventful end of freshman year.</p>

<p>As for second year, son has worked with the same professor both semesters. End of fall, he gave a presentation which we were able to watch over the internet. Spring semester, he participated in a poster presentation, which he showed off to us when we moved him out. </p>

<p>As for courses, as son is an engineering major and CBH, he has not taken any honors courses other than Alabama Action, and we need to check with someone about this. Anyone can give us a reliable source to talk to in the honors college as to whether he’s on track to graduate as part of UHP and CBH? </p>

<p>Looking forward to hearing others responses as well.</p>

<p>My son took 16 hours his first semester but just 13 counted, as he elected to audit Honors Calculus I. A big mistake, he admits. He should have had more confidence in his math abilities but had not taken calculus since his sophomore year. Looking back on that first semester, I remember him telling me he was somewhat bored. Perhaps things would have been different if he had taken an additional three-hour class or jumped right to Calculus III.</p>

<p>During his second semester, he took 15 or 16 hours and prepared for his Alabama Action: Costa Rica trip. Everything seemed to go along okay until the final few days of school. While completing his CBHP project, he got a heck of a cold and felt pretty lousy when he boarded the plane for San Jose.</p>

<p>He spent two years working with the same economics professor, as the two had a mutual interest in game theory. He met with this professor regularly – also had him for a class or two over the past couple of years, as they worked to set up his project/research. There were times when he was a bit tired with his research commitment, 15 to 18 hours of classes and all his extracurriculars (which included serving as a student leader for Alabama Action his second year), but he was never bored again. He’s really good when it comes to time management – in fact, he probably could teach me a thing or two.</p>

<p>One thing I will add regarding number of hours. Try to take 15 hours (or more). The more credits a student has, the earlier he or she will select housing for the next year or classes for the next semester. Credit numbers also factor into ticket selection for football games, especially away games. </p>

<p>Montegut, my son informs me that CBHP classes count as UHP.</p>

<p>the info is on the Honors College website… To graduate in UHP, he needs more non-CHP honors credits.</p>

<p>GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS FOR THE UNIVERSITY HONORS PROGRAM:</p>

<p>a) Minimum OVERALL GPA of 3.3
b) Minimum of 18 hours of honors courses:</p>

<p>i) 6 out of the 18 hours MUST be in graded UH seminars at the 100, 200, or 300 level </p>

<p>(1) IHP 105 or IHP 155 can be applied towards 3 out of the 6 hours of UH seminars</p>

<p>(a) All UHP students are eligible to take IHP courses</p>

<p>(2) All UH seminars are repeatable provided the course content differs</p>

<p>ii) The remaining 12 out of the 18 hours may be completed by taking:</p>

<p>(1) 12 additional hours of UH classes</p>

<p>(2) 12 hours of departmental honors courses (English, Math, History, etc.). These courses either have ‘Honors’ in the title or carry an attribute indicating “University Honors.”</p>

<p>Exceptions:</p>

<p>(a) EN 103 Advanced English Composition counts as honors
(b) EN 104 Blount Freshmen English counts as honors</p>

<p>(3) 12 hours in any combination of UH and departmental honors courses</p>

<p><a href=“4”>b</a> 8 hours in CBH 101/102 and 4 hours in UH and/or departmental honors courses**</p>

<p>Can one graduate in CBH and not in UHP?</p>

<p>So, CBHP coursework counts for 8 hours towards the fullfillment of the 18 hour University Honors requirement. Good to know!</p>

<p>Do the students take a 3 hour CBHP course each semester during their sophomore, junior and senior years? I think I recall reading this, but also recall reading that the CBHP minor consists of 20 hours…</p>

<p>^^
Yes…they don’t have to do CHB their senior year…that’s optional. They’ll have their 20 credits by the end of junior year.</p>

<p>Can one graduate in CBH and not in UHP?</p>

<p>Yes, but can’t he fit in the rest of the honors credits? Did he take EN 103?</p>

<p>No, son did not take EN 103. He took an EN 102 themed course that was an interesting subject matter to him. He loved the course and the teacher. And although he got a B+ in it, he was happy to have taken the class. He also took Intro to Fine Arts for Engineering Majors, another non honors course, that he absolutely loved. He and we discovered so many hidden talents that we never knew he had! Now he’s looking at French as his last core requirement, which also won’t be an honors designation, because he really wants to learn the language.</p>

<p>One thing son liked about Bama and why he chose it over other options was the variety of courses. He did not want to be limited by a small selection of core choices. So, he’s taken courses that he’s enjoyed, and even though he’s not gained honors credit, he’s glad he’s taken them.</p>

<p>Given the scenario that son will take three years of CBH, and only has Alabama Action and maybe one or two one credit freshman engineering honors courses, he may fall short by nine hours of fulfilling the honors requirement. We have two years to see if that’s important to him or not.</p>

<p>He does want to make sure that not having UHP requirements fulfilled will prohibit him from graduating with a CBH designation, after all the hard work he’s put into the program.</p>

<p>His schedule is checked by an advisor in the engineering department, and perhaps he should have someone in honors help him out in the next few semesters in planning out his schedule if he wants to graduate with UHP designation as well.</p>

<p>I’m assuming CBH designation alone will not prohibit him from living in honors housing. And he is a NMF, so I don’t know if he’s guaranteed honors housing because of that designation.</p>

<p>There are often 1 or 2 CBHP students each year who are not in CBHP. However, membership in UHP is required for those in UFE. To the best of my knowledge, students in any of the 4 Honors College programs are eligible for honors housing and priority registration.</p>

<p>As for completing UHP requirements, he can do 6 credits (2 courses) of honors by contract in which he would do a small amount of extra work for an upper division (300/400 level) course of his choice. He could also take some 1-credit honors courses to fulfill UHP requirements.</p>

<p>Montegut: Will he fulfill his “W” courses through engineering? University honors has many interesting classes to choose from. That would take care of six hourse towards the honors requirements…</p>

<p>Do the students typically stay with the same professor throughout CBHP? Or does that vary?</p>

<p>Okay, this W requirement is something new, too. Son really needs to get an advisor to go over his requirements with him. He gets advised by the engineering department to lift registration holds, but I don’t think they do any advising about honors curriculum, other than to okay his CBH course every semester.</p>

<p>The “Writing Courses” are part of the core requirements. Students commonly satisfy this requirement in upper-level courses in their major, or through University Honors courses with the “W” designation. My DS is not an engineering major, so I don’t know how the “w” couses are fit into that major. I’m sure someone will chime. Here is a link to the core requirements:</p>

<p>[Core</a> Curriculum – General Studies Course Listing | The Office of the University Registrar - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://registrar.ua.edu/academics/core-curriculum/general-studies/#tab=tab-7]Core”>http://registrar.ua.edu/academics/core-curriculum/general-studies/#tab=tab-7) </p>

<p>And here is the link to the “W” courses offered next semester by the honors college:</p>

<p><a href=“http://honors.cbhp.ua.edu/uploads/forms/Current%20Students/honorscourses_interim_summer_fall2012.pdf[/url]”>http://honors.cbhp.ua.edu/uploads/forms/Current%20Students/honorscourses_interim_summer_fall2012.pdf&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>I sure didn’t mean to alarm you, I was just thinking of different ways he could satisfy the UH requirements. I’m sure engineering has course offering that satisfy this requirement.</p>

<p>The workload of the freshman courses is not bad at all until about the week of or the week before finals. The vast majority of your grade comes from the final project, which the professor doesn’t actually give you until very late. I just finished my freshman year and we weren’t actually able to do the project until a week before it was due. A solid quarter of the class did not get it finished.</p>

<p>It seems the consensus among the classes that you have a good amount of time to do the project in the fall, but then very little time to do it in the spring. The best you can do is go into finals week prepared for your other exams, so you can spend a good amount of time on the project.</p>

<p>Okay, this W requirement is something new, too.</p>

<p>The W requirement isn’t something new. It’s been around for years…long before your son enrolled.</p>

<p>If it were “new”, your son wouldn’t have to do it.</p>

<p>There are W requirement classes within MechE that your son can take. ME 460 and ME 360 are the MechE W classes that he’s supposed to take.</p>

<p>If he doesn’t need those classes specifically, he can ask to do an Honors W class instead.</p>

<p>^^^I didn’t mean it’s a new requirement. It’s something I haven’t heard of before. I’m glad to have been given a heads up so he can ask questions about that as well.</p>

<p>As son is approaching his third year, I don’t want him to have a rude awakening senior year that he’s missing all sorts of requirements and has to jam pack them all in before he graduates.</p>

<p>It should be on his sequenced schedule. Is he following the MechE chart?</p>

<p>he probably already knows about it. It’s on the MechE pages, it’s on the MechE chart, and it’s in the MechE section of the undergrad catalog.</p>

<p><a href=“http://me.eng.ua.edu/files/2011/09/BSME-Curriculum.pdf[/url]”>http://me.eng.ua.edu/files/2011/09/BSME-Curriculum.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;