<p>is it worth it? should i just stick with regular uga?</p>
<p>My D did not get auto-admit and was on the fence about applying to honors but from what I remember:
Good for a person who would benefit from a smaller environment inside a larger school.
Smaller class sizes for core subject honor classes
Priority registration
Honors advisor separate from regular advisor</p>
<p>I know of people who were invited to honors after their freshman year so I don’t think its a one-shot deal. Not sure of what the stats are for how many get in later or what the requirements.</p>
<p>Stellastar: Maybe some of the current Honors program students can chime in with their experiences, but from my daughter’s experience this year there hasn’t been a downside to being in the Honors Program. </p>
<p>Since you have already been accepted to it, I’d say to give it a shot. Your main commitment the first semester is the HONS 1000 seminar required of all freshman honors students. An older Honors program student leads a small section of max 15 students. You will learn all about what the Honors program and the university as a whole has to offer.</p>
<p>My daughter enjoyed taking one of the Honors Seminars on Sustainability last fall and is currently in an Honors/Curo Research Seminar for Engineering.</p>
<p>The priority registration is a definite perk.</p>
<p>According to the Honors website, you will have only 1 other opportunity to apply for honors and that is during the fall semester of your freshman year (transfer students have a different process). </p>
<p>Here is a copy/paste from the Honors website:</p>
<p>First Semester Entry is the only opportunity that current students will have to apply for acceptance into the Honors Program. Students must meet the requirements outlined here during their first semester in order to be eligible to apply.</p>
<p>The requirements include:</p>
<pre><code>* 3.75 cumulative University of Georgia GPA
- 15 credit hours for the semester in which they are applying (14 of which must be graded A-F)
</code></pre>
<p>Credit hours earned through Advanced Placement, summer classes, or joint/dual enrollment courses will not be counted toward this minimum credit hour requirement.</p>
<p>The fulfillment of the requirements listed above does not constitute automatic admission to the Honors Program. Entry into the Honors Program is competitive. In addition to the fulfillment of the requirements listed above, applications will be evaluated based upon UGA grades, rigor of coursework, and the overall quality of the application, including a required essay.</p>
<p>Students must complete the application by the last day of classes for the semester in order to be eligible for acceptance. Complete applications must be received by the posted deadline. In some cases, students may not know their exact cumulative GPA before the application deadline. However, students must submit their application by deadline in order to be considered. Admissions decisions will not be made until all grades have been posted.</p>
<p>Students who apply for entry during the first term will be notified of the Honors decision over the semester break and given the opportunity to register for Honors classes for the following semester if accepted.</p>
<p>Honors will host information sessions in the fall in Moore College for students interested in learning more about the First Semester Entry process. Dates and times will be posted in August.</p>
<p>Wow, I didn’t know they changed the collegiate entry requirements. I got in after my second semester…anyways…</p>
<p>Do UGA honors. It’s really not that much extra work, and it’s worth it for priority registration alone. The honors program could also help you with research or study abroad. It’s not like you have to pay extra money just to be in honors. There’s really nothing to lose by being in honors.</p>
<p>Jenmarie: I have no idea how long the current policy has been in place for collegiate entry, but I know that the current class of freshman received multiple emails outlining the process. There were also several informational sessions held. D had some friends who didn’t pay close enough attention to it and missed out on applying.</p>
<p>You’ve had many very good informational postings in the past jenmarie and I’ve appreciated reading them. If you don’t mind my asking, which classes have you used to fulfill your Honors hours?</p>
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<p>Definitely worth it. As jenmarie said, the priority registration alone is worth it. Smaller, more personal classes are great. Honors regularly sends out lots of information about all the opportunities available at UGA, making it easier to find things to do.</p>
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<p>Well, because I got into honors late, I didn’t take very many actual honors courses (probably why they’ve changed the rules…a lot of what the honors program can do for you they do during your freshman year). </p>
<p>I took honors women studies, statistics, and speech. Everything else I took as “honors option” aka I took the regular class and did extra work (biochem, 2 research classes, biology of aging, advanced genetics (which btw is not like an honors genetics…it’s like genetics 2), and neurobiology).</p>
<p>Jenmarie: so some honor classes are with regular classes, you just do extra work?</p>
<p>Is neurobiology an honors course/option there? Weird. Either way, I’m betting it was hard if it’s anything like ours. The class is good from what I hear, but a real a**kicker. I think I’ll stick to my advanced organic chem. classes.</p>
<p>Honors classes given by the Honors program whose name ends in H (like SOCI1101H) are honors courses, not regular courses. However, there are not really any upper level honors courses (anything numbered 3000+). If you do not take 9 actual honors courses (mostly numbered 1000-2000), the way to satisfy your honors requirement is to do “honors option” which is to do extra work in a regular class and/or take a graduate level courses (numbered 6000+). There are a few “honors” courses that aren’t honors option courses but are basically regular classes (like calculus-based physics). Actually, calc-based physics (as opposed to trig-based physics) might be the only example of that…I’m not sure. </p>
<p>Yes, we do offer neurobiology as an honors option (though that may be dependent on the prof). It’s one of the hardest, if not the hardest, class I’ve taken here. Most of my classes have been somewhat conceptually “easy” - the hard part is just the amount of material covered. But neuro, to me, is conceptually difficult. Our “extra work” is writing a 7 page, single spaced research proposal. Monster. I’m sure most honors options are some sort of writing assignment. My biochem one, though, was kinda unique. They were testing out some new program and had the honors option kids test it out by doing assignments with it. We were building different proteins and manipulating them…it was neat.</p>
<p>Yeah, they were trying to introduce that aspect into our biochem. sections, but the class is certainly too large to take it but so far. Also, my year, they graded the one assignment on it, and the class failed horribly (like 5/10). I imagine neuroscience as being hard because I’ve seen the exams that some of the fall profs. here give (fall offers the weedout section of neurobiology, whereas spring is tough, but more laid back, with easier exams and a soft grading curve), and pheww (I should show you one)! On top of the tough material they give problems that make you design experiments and stuff. One would not expect a bio class (well some intro. teachers here require it) to have exams that require creativity and stuff. The course looks like it gives harder orgo. sections here a run for the money, except I actually like organic chemistry (I’m actually taking a grad. class on enzymology/protein mechanisms now), so I’m sure I’d actually find NBB 301 a bit harder. Also, our “extra work” would be for those (anyone who wants it) who decide to take a type of lab either in spring or fall. The spring one is like your scenario, where they discuss primary literature all for the purpose of working up a research proposal (didn’t seem special to me as I did this in my freshmen seminar, unfortunately it was way longer than 7 pages, involved a presentation, and took away my study time from organic chem. and biology). The fall one is a legit neurosimulation lab. It’s apparently brutally time consuming. Given that it supplements the fall section of NBB 301, your life becomes hellish as fall NBB 301 is so much more rigorous. Taking the lab (which I think is only 1 credit hour) is like taking another course. I thought about doing it last semester, but took physical biology instead. It ended up being extremely hard (I learned, but it was super duper hard, there were two 2.5hr problem solving sessions a week for the harda** HWs, which you needed to know linear alg., diff.Eq, multivariable, and matlab for. We, besides the 3 grad. students who joined, had to just pick most of the stuff up for the first time. It made biochem seem simple. At least now I know that the simplistic descriptions of enzymatic pathways are lies lol) so I probably just should have sucked it up and taken fall NBB 301 w/the lab. I’m not pre-med so I really had nothing to lose. I didn’t need to make A-/A in it like them (almost impossible, fall curve brings average to like C+ as opposed to spring’s B-/B).</p>
<p>I think Emory is considering bringing “honors” courses back for those who wanna come in and take them. However, you have to get teachers who are already probably tied down by their larger intro to find time to put even more effort (most put lots of effort even into those) than in that class, to the honors section. As for calc. based physics. Surprisingly, lots of people are giving it a shot here (however, the trig. based sections normally have the better teachers. They’re changing that though).</p>
<p>Do we have an accurate idea of what it takes for an applicant to be an Honors auto-admit?</p>
<p>I think the ACT cutoff has to be at least 31. D had 30 and did not get auto-admit and ACT score was better than SAT. I believe she probably would have been accepted if she had applied because she still had a pretty high GPA.</p>
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<p>Not really. I used to think it was around ~1420 or 32 ACT but looking over this forum, I’ve seen some posters auto-admitted with stats below that. Other posters with stats. above that (sometimes significantly above that) have not been auto-admitted.</p>
<p>I believe that UGA only looks at math and english for the ACT subsections and pretty much ignores the reading and science sections. That would potentially change some people’s composite scores in UGA’s eyes.</p>