Hello,
I was selected to the University of Pacific Freshman Honors Program. Is it worth joining the honors program or not. Any benefits besides housing? Thank you.
Benefits that the honors program offers include 2 extra units of credit and a more quiet residential living area. The honors residential building is called John Ballantyne and it is generally filed with pre-pharmacy and pre-dentistry students. In my opinion, the honors program allows you to make connections and relationships with students who are relatively more studious and focused (compared to the other communities). However, there are monthly seminars, essays, and classes that entail being an honor student. I was an honor’s student at the beginning of the year, but dropped out because I didn’t think it was worth the time. An extra essay or two can really stress you out during the grind. I lived in Carter House, which is in the same community as John Ballantyne. Since I did not physically live in JB, I was not forced to move out after dropping out. Unfortunately, if you live in JB and drop out, you are forced to move out to a different community, which is the main deterrent for leaving the program. I asked previous honors students for their input before my decision to leave and most of them wanted to drop out, but couldn’t (in fear of being kicked out).
TLDR: If you want generally quiet dorm with focused science major and don’t mind a few extra hours of work every month, then do Honors.