Hello. My D18 will be starting in the honors program in the fall. During orientation, she met with her advisor and selected courses. She’ll have three Honors courses, including two in her major (chemistry) in her first semester. Is this normal? Do the honors students typically take all courses in their major as “honors” courses? Seems to me like a tough way to get indoctrinated into a new life as a college student.
Hi, I was once an honors chem freshman in her position (I later changed my major but the same advice applies). Three honors classes is a lot, although I’m assuming that one is an English section, which I would definitely recommend keeping. As far as the other two, I was happy to be in an honors chem class - I needed the smaller class size and more individualized instruction. It actually made the transition from high school a little easier to be in a class of 25 vs a class of 100. Something to keep in mind is that, if she wants to graduate with an honors degree, she’ll need 12 credits of honors classes required for her major. Depending on how you look at it, freshman year could be an easy way to knock out a bulk of that requirement, or she might prefer to spread those out (maybe one or two classes a year). I recommend looking at the course offerings down the line, as many upper level major classes probably won’t be offered as honors sections (section numbers ending in -80s, I think). She could always do an add-on honors class, where she does additional work in exchange for honors credit, but she should have a plan in place if she she drops the honors major classes now so she won’t runs out of options as an upperclassman.