Your Opinions on TAMU University Honors?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Texas A&M University
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<p>As we understand it, there are many ways to participate in "honors" at Texas A&M. There is the University-wide Honors Program, there are honors programs associated with the various "colleges" on the campus, and some departments have their own honors courses and programs. Apparently, you can be involved in any or all of the above. At least that's the way we understood things from our last TAMU visit.</p>

<p>For this thread, our questions revolve mainly around the University Honors Program. How is it? Have you been able to enroll in the courses that interest you? Are there plenty of classes that interest you? Do you find the courses to be uniquely engaging or challenging in the way that you had hoped? Do the class sizes in those courses meet your expectations? Are you able to make the same kinds of high marks in those courses as you were used to making prior to college?</p>

<p>In your opinion, what are the good, the bad, and the ugly about TAMU University Honors?</p>

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<p>^Bump. Anyone?</p>

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<p>For this thread, our questions revolve mainly around the University Honors Program. How is it? Pretty nice. Being able to register for classes early is a HUGE benefit of the honors program! Not only that, but if you apply to the email listserv, you will be notified of many opportunities for honors students. WHETHER OR NOT YOU PLAN TO GRADUATE WITH UNIVERSITY HONORS (ie take a certain number of honors courses), I would highly reccommend participating in the honors program if you are eligible. There is NO DOWNSIDE to being able to register early, being offered special opportunities for honors students, and having the option to take honors courses or apply for honors scholarships.
Don’t stress out and think that you are required to take many hard honors courses. As an honors student, you can take honors courses at your own leisure.</p>

<p>Have you been able to enroll in the courses that interest you? Not sure how to answer this question. Most people don’t take honors just to enroll in some random interesting honors course. If a course that is already on my curriculum is offered as an honors course, then I’ll consider taking it.</p>

<p>Are there plenty of classes that interest you? Quite a few of the courses in my degree plan are offered as an honors course, so I’d say so.</p>

<p>Do you find the courses to be uniquely engaging or challenging in the way that you had hoped? Yes. In general they are a little bit tougher, but the class sizes are usually small and it’s much easier to get to know people to form study groups with.</p>

<p>Do the class sizes in those courses meet your expectations? Sometimes the honors courses still have a lot of people, but sometimes they are indeed quite small.</p>

<p>Are you able to make the same kinds of high marks in those courses as you were used to making prior to college? I have made an A in every single honors course I’ve taken. I think the professors know that every student in an honors class has a GPA of 3.5+, so it’s very rare to made a “C” or below in an honors course. From what I’ve seen, the students perform very well in honors courses, and almost everyone makes an A or B. </p>

<p>The courses I’ve taken as honors:</p>

<p>Engr 112 - So glad I took it honors. The class had 30 people instead of 100. </p>

<p>Calculus 2 - Didn’t seem to be very different from regular Calculus 2. Nevertheless, I made an A and it says “Honors Calc 2” on my transcript.</p>

<p>Design Process - Easiest honors course there is. Also a pretty fun class.</p>

<p>Introductory Aerodynamics - We had to do quite a bit more work than the regular class. Most of us made A’s or B’s though. </p>

<p>Organic Chemistry 1 - Easily the most “enriching” honors course I’ve taken so far. We had homework and quizzes everyday in class, but it really forced us keep up with the material. The professor also had a great personality.</p>

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<p>Honors is good for various classes like mentioned above. I vouch for
ENGR 112 honors, best decision ever. As far as the actual program as a whole, I don’t know very many people if any that are participating in it for anything other than the priority registration.</p>

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<p>Reveille2013 - Who did you have for Honors organic? My D is trying to decide whether to take the honors course or not. She has honors chem this year and is glad.</p>

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<p>^^^I know I’m REALLY late in thanking you, Reveille2013, but THANKS!! That was a SUPER helpful answer! </p>

<p>We are so glad to hear that TAMU’s honors program has been enriching in some ways, extra convenient in other ways, and not too hard.</p>

<p>I think my son’s going to really like A&M!</p>

<p>Thanks to you, too aGGieENGiNeeR! Good info.</p>

<p>If anybody else wants to add their two cents about the Honors program, we’d love to hear it! :slight_smile: (My son’s going into Mechanical Engineering, btw, if there’s any specific advice about that program and honors.)</p>

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<p>In my experience:</p>

<p>The “good” (for honors students) and the “bad” (for regular students) : In upper level EE courses, the honors students are in the same class as the regular students. Usually the only difference is the homework. Whether it be extra problems each hw set or an extra set. But exams are usually the same. Just saying there isn’t much difference.</p>

<p>And yes I believe profs are more willing to give A’s to honors students. Even if they don’t deserve them…</p>

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<p>^That’s interesting, AggiEE. It doesn’t seem to speak highly of the honors program.</p>

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<p>I’m a junior at A&M and absolutely love the honors programs! I agree with what Reveille2013 said and wanted to add:</p>

<p>Participating in Honors classes allows you to more easily foster relationships with professors (which is a huge deal when the alternative regular version of a class has 400 people)</p>

<p>Honors students get to meet honors students with the same and/or different majors. It is the only interdisciplinary forum in which highly motivated students can meet one another and I’ve found it to be really rewarding. </p>

<p>I’ve also received A’s in all my honors courses (psychology, chemistry, political science, environmental design, bilingualism, microbiology) and did not find the classes to be harder than regulars classes. When it comes time to ask for recommendations or network with the most interesting students on campus, honors paves the way.</p>

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<p>^Awesome. Thanks, icecream! </p>

<p>(Did you take more than one honors course in your first freshman semester? We were recently told that they prefer that you sign up for only one as a freshman – to spread the wealth. But we’re more than a little disappointed with that guideline. Did you follow it when you were an incoming freshman?)</p>

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<p>I took honors general chemistry in the fall of my freshman year and took honors environmental design the spring of my freshman year. I’d encourage staying away from more than one honors class during the first semester. If you can handle more next spring, go for it! </p>

<p>In all honesty, what stops most honors kids from taking multiple honors classes in year 1 is the difficulty of registering for classes. It’s hard to get a good time to register and as a freshman, you have an entire degree plan full of options as far as what classes to take (as opposed to a junior with one year and a handful of classes left). </p>

<p>Don’t worry about honor guidelines on honors class limits; theres no backlash from taking more than the recommended amount. But be careful because there is always a backlash to not having a great GPA (honors requires at least a 3.5). So make sure you can handle the coursework (honors or otherwise) before signing up for a class.</p>

<p>The Honors office is really awesome about catering to students’ schedules. Id recommend calling them to set up a phone appointment now and an in-office appointment the first week of school.</p>

<p>All the best!</p>

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<p>Even if you don’t take the Honors courses, if you qualify you get to register early the next semester. I’m not sure how often you can exploit this loophole, but it worked out great for my DS this semester.</p>

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<p>AllThisIsNewToME: It might have been because your DS is a freshman maybe? To get honors early registration (HER) and A&M, you have to meet two criteria</p>

<ol>
<li>Be honors eligible (>3.5GPA and not be in academic probation etc.)</li>
<li>Have completed 9 hours of honors coursework OR be currently enrolling in an honors class</li>
</ol>

<p>The second requirement is waived for 1st-semester freshmen who meet honors eligibility.</p>

<p>[Honors</a> Programs at Texas A&M University | Scholarships](<a href=“http://honors.tamu.edu/honors_faqs.shtml#Early]Honors”>http://honors.tamu.edu/honors_faqs.shtml#Early)</p>