UCI Honors (applying and some questions)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Irvine
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<p>Hi guys, do you guys know what it takes to be part of the Campus Wide Honors Program at UCI? I wasn't invited to join the program when I was accepted, does that mean I can't join it or are there steps for me to take to be part of the Honors program?</p>

<p>Also, if the latter is true, how selective is the honors program when applying for it? Do UCI honors give special-privileges like other colleges do? </p>

<p>Finally, is UCI honors academically-challenging overall?or how about, say, in comparison to UCSD? </p>

<p>Thank you for your input, I appreciate any comment</p>

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<p>Dear chismoso,</p>

<p>I am a first year CHP Electrical Engineering major at UCI currently.</p>

<p>I am so sorry to hear that you did not get accepted into CHP right now. But, I was not accepted into CHP last year during April, but I was accepted in May, so there is a slight chance that you could be accepted into CHP during May.</p>

<p>If you are not accepted into CHP when you are in high school, then you can apply to CHP after you have taken one quarter of courses at UCI. To be eligible to apply, you must have a 3.5+ GPA for that quarter and fill out an application form. I do not know about the chance for getting accepted then but there is a decent chance.</p>

<p>As for how selective it is, I think CHP is very selective compared to UCSD Honors. I did get into UCSD Honors but not UCI Honors when the college acceptances were sent out. There are many honors privileges for UCI CHP too, like priority enrollment, Honors study rooms, extended library borrowing privilieges, honors dorms and more. But, there is a set curriculum that students have to follow for CHP. Still, I think UCI Honors is great.</p>

<p>CHP Honors students take core courses for the first three years and do required research during junior/senior year. I know that freshmen who are accepted into CHP before Fall Quarter take Humanities Core and students usually take Social Science Core and/or Science Core later depending on the major. Many Engineering students like me do not take Humanities Core the first year, so I can not tell you the difficulty since it is my first year but I think the Honors Core courses are graded leniently, like most people can get A’s. </p>

<p>The courses that a student takes depends on their major, so if I knew your major I could help more.</p>

<p>I think CHP is useful for students that want to go to graduate school since graduate schools like the courses and the undergraduate research that CHP students do as a requirement.</p>

<p>If you want to know more, then check the CHP website.</p>

<p>Good luck and congrats on getting accepted by UCI.</p>

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<p>thanks for your reply, it seems like honors is definitely something I want to consider if I attend UCI. Unfortunately, I am undeclared right now at UCI so I don’t have a major :(</p>

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<p>^shlo</p>

<p>Thanks for the information. Very useful.</p>

<p>^chis</p>

<p>Son was received admission with CHP as an undeclared. So I’m not sure you need to worry about a major and be eligible to apply for CHP if you choose UCI.</p>

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<p>You can apply to be in CHP as long as you meet eligibility requirements.</p>

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<p>I heard that CHP students have to do extra work, which is why some students would rather not be a part of it. Some people say that they have to do more writing. Is this true? Also, I heard that CHP is more useful for some majors like biological studies because of research opportunities. There isn’t anything that the CHP does for the business school, or is there?</p>

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<p>I am interested in graduate school (law, med, business) so I will honors at UCI look good? I don’t mind working harder because I want to be academically challenged. However, do honors students only take extra writing courses? What else is different about the curriculum of an honors students vs a regular student? I know there are honors social science, honors humanities, ect but what does that really mean? Is it like high school where there are different classes for honors kids?</p>

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<p>Hi chimoso,</p>

<p>CHP students take core courses in their own separate honors sections, so I guess it is kind of like high school honors courses for those core courses. So, Humanities Core for CHP is not taken with the regular Humanities students. And also CHP students take Honors Social Science and Honors Science Core. But, if students have to take chemistry in majors like engineering, physical sciences and biological sciences, then Honors Chemistry meets the Honors Science Core requirement also.</p>

<p>Honoors students do not actually have a much different curriculum than regular students in the same major, except they have to take Honors Core courses in that curriculum to fufill G.E. requirements for a grade. All of the Honors Core courses can help fufill G.E. requirements. Since all students at UCI have to take G.E. requirements anyway, the Honors Core Courses provide a good way to fufill G.E. requirements and they are graded more leniently than regular G.E. courses. </p>

<p>As for the Writing requirements, all students admitted as freshmen into UCI have to take at least two lower division Writing courses anyway. The GE requirement for UCI Writing is so strict that AP English does not waive out of it and students can only take Writing at UCI after their first summer getting admitted.<br>
For me, I wish I took Honors Humanities Core since Writing 39B/C is so terrible and very time consuming but I had unit conflicts involving taking more than 20 units per quarter if I took Humanities Core. Since I did not do Humanities Core, I have to take Writing 39 B/C for a grade for CHP requirements. Also, Honors Humanities Core writing is more like high school English essays, unlike Writing 39B/C. It is just that CHP Humanities Core has three quarters of Writing seminars compared to the regular G.E. two quarters of Writing, and Writing 39 B/C can be taken for Pass/No Pass while Humanities Core can not. </p>

<p>In actuality, there is about no extra work required except for the research requirement and all prestigious graduate schools all want to see undergraduate research, so the research requirement is not extra work for graduate schools then. </p>

<p>I hope this helps in deciding to join CHP or not.</p>

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<p>@shlo1992</p>

<p>So basically there’s no really “extra” work but they take different, and probably more challenging courses? What if you join CHP after you finish all your GEs? Won’t that look good without having to go through the honors classes?</p>

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<p>Dear cacophonous,</p>

<p>If a student does complete their G.E.s before coming to CHP, then those students will not have to do the G.E. requirement through the Honors Core Courses, as the CHP website says.</p>

<p>I have to disagree with joining CHP after G.E. are done, since I think that the priority registration for classes is a great benefit that will not be as useful if a student joins during junior year. The priority enrollment for classes means that all CHP students, even first year students can register on the first day that course registration is open. I really enjoy this priority registration since many lower division courses, especially biology courses offer many sections of lectures and the priority registration helps get the better lecture sections. </p>

<p>Well, a student could join after finishing G.E. requirements and gain the benefits later, but I would not do that since there is not as much benefit from priority registration, which really only helps in lower division courses. </p>

<p>After completing G.E.s there is really no point in joining CHP since basically students would only need to complete their research requirement, and CHP will not help students that much in getting undergraduate research. Many schools have Honors research, and regular people with a certain G.P.A can get the same research opportunities as CHP students do, since CHP students pretty much end up joining the school’s Honors research to fufill the research requirement.</p>

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<p>I hope CHP students are able to provide you answers (I didn’t read the posts).</p>

<p>shlo1992,
I hope you enjoy EE at UCI. I have made a huge effort to make some changes in the program over the past few years =]. Did you know IEEE has a lab room that undergrads can use for design projects now? A lot of older universities have one, and my cabinet and I were able to acquire one.</p>

<p>chismoso,</p>

<p>Word on the street is UCI’s CHP is a very well structured program that benefits the students a lot. I haven’t heard much about honors programs at other schools from my friends.</p>

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<p>@shlo1992</p>

<p>In your earlier post you mentioned that Honors core classes are graded more leniently than G.Es? Why would this be so? Also I’ve been hearing a lot about Humanities Core. So there is a Humanities Core, a Honors Humanities Core, and then the regular writing class? What’s the difference between all of these? By “core classes” if this referring to classes that only CHP members can take?</p>

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<p>In CHP Core classes, the grading scale means that almost everyone cen get a B or above. Usually, there are a large number of A’s in those classes. In other classes, there might be a harder grading scale where there will be C’s, D’s and F’s. I have never heard of anyone failing the CHP Core Courses ever. Only CHP students can enroll in CHP Core courses.</p>

<p>There are many different ways to fufill the lower division Writing requirement at UCI: taking
Writing 39B along with Writing 30,31, or 39C, or by taking Humanities Core.</p>

<p>The difference between the regular Humanities Core and the Honors Humanities Core is that Honors Humanities Core is meant for CHP students only while all majors in the School of Humanities are required to take the regular Humanities Core. Both courses teach the same material and have the same Writing assignments, but Honors Humanities Core is graded more leniently than regular Humanities Core. CHP students do not take the same sessions as the regular Humanities Core, meaning that both courses have different lecture sections and different writing sections but cover the same material.</p>

<p>Othe people who are not CHP students or majors in the School of Humanities can take another option to fufill the lower-division Writing requirement instead: Writing 39B and either Writing 30,31,or 39C, but those students can still take Humanities Core also. The regular Writing classes focuses on writing only in a specific theme/context, while Humanities Core has professors from the School of Humanities lecture about certain Humanities subjects and also have separate Writing sections where those students learn Writing based around the subjects that the professors lectured on. </p>

<p>Even though I am in CHP, I did not take Honors Humanities Core because there would be too many units per quarter if I took Honors Humanities Core. In fact, many CHP engineering majors do not take Honors Humanities Core and instead must take Writing 39B and Writing 39C for a grade to fufill the lower-division Writing requirement if they decide not to take Honors Humanities Core. Then, students like me take regular GE courses to fufill the Humanities GE requirement. However, all students in CHP must take Honors Social Science Core to fufill the Social Science GE requirement, and depending on the major, might need to take Honors Science Core (for non science majors) or Honors Chemistry (for science majors).</p>

<p>I hope this helps in clarifying the differences between the Writing classes.</p>

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<p>Although the CHP core classes are graded more leniently, do they have to do more work (extra writing, assignments, etc.)?</p>

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<p>I don’t CHP classes are graded more leniently at all. I think CHP are smarter and have way better study habits than the average UCI student. Thus, the average grades in CHP classes tend to be higher.</p>

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<p>“Graded more leniently” means that the classes’ grade distribution will not typically go below a B (ie 50% A’s and 50% B’s). In regular courses, professors will typically distribute all grades A through to F on a curve (ie 17% A’s, 33% B’s, 33% C’s, 17% D’s/F’s).</p>

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<p>All of the CHP core classes I took (humanities core and soc core) used a linear scale (where 90+% is an A, 80+% is a B, etc) rather than a distribution.</p>

<p>It is true that the average grade in chp humanities sections was higher than in non-chp sections; however, we all sections attended the same lectures, covered the same material, and wrote the same essays. This would seem to indicate the grades were higher because the students were stronger rather than some sort of difference in grading policy.</p>