Worth of honors program

<p>I go to a small private school in the south and am currently enrolled in the honors program. I just started the first day of my new honors class and am extremely annoyed by it and am considering dropping the course and possibly the honors program altogether. We get out of certain gen-ed requirements to alleviate the fact that we have to take an honors class (usually of a choice of 2) but it still feels restricting. </p>

<p>I was just wondering the end worth of an honors program in terms of medical or graduate school placement vs. just graduating with honors in my major.</p>

<p>It will have little effect on graduate or professional school placement. Simply put: They really don't care.</p>

<p>What about it are you disappointed with?</p>

<p>I guess I'm just not interested in the classes offered. A lot of them are discussion-based philosphical topics. The one I'm in right now is 17th century revolutions and today we had an hour long discussion on whether Pythagoras "discovered" or "created" his theorem. I honestly could care less and would rather worry about its applications (I'm more of a math/science/econ guy). Furthermore, I would rather not take a harder class in a topic I don't care about since I run the risk of hurting my GPA. Basically, I'd rather focus on things I want to learn.</p>

<p>are you in the honors philosophy program? i have no idea whether grad schools care (someone said they don't, but it sure seems like they might). i don't know the point of these honors program. i guess it's for people who just want to research and explore in depth. but if it's not for you, grad schools won't hold it against you.</p>

<p>I don't think grad schools care. The idea is, I believe, that an honors program will engage and challenge you more, you'll put more work into it and do better overall. I know that I usually work much harder in my interesting classes. So if you don't care about it and it's going to hurt your GPA, drop it.</p>

<p>But you should probably try talking to a counselor at your school who knows the specifics of the program, not anonymous strangers on the internet.</p>

<p>It seems to me that honors programs benefit humanities/social science majors more as those are topics which really benefit from having a whole class of more intelligent people to discuss and debate ideas with. When it comes to math, what are you supposed to do? Give a few extra homework problems and call it honors? All you can really do is progress faster. Science on the other hand could have some interesting offerings depending on your college.</p>

<p>Take classes that interest you. Honors classes tend to be more enjoyable for people seeking intellectual challenges, but if it bores you, there isn't much advantage to it.</p>