Are college honor programs worth it


















Applicants are encouraged to choose to respond to one essay prompt that speaks to them! Be sure to check out this article for expert advice on how to write a killer admissions essay. There are many benefits for students in the Judy Genshaft Honors College.

This lets honors students receive lots of personalized attention to help them reach their academic and career goals, which is probably why USF honors grads have gone on to do amazing things, like become CEOs and work for NASA.

USF honors students are able to register for classes on the day registration opens, which means they get first pick of course choices every year. Honors students also have special academic advisors that help students plan class schedules, make decisions about their majors, and even search for internship opportunities. Another perk of being in the Judy Genshaft Honors College is that students are also eligible to live in a special Honors Living Learning Community LLC , which is on-campus housing option only available to honors students.

This program helps students graduate in three years rather than four , and it provides students the chance to study abroad, learn leadership skills, and gain professional development. The Provost Scholars Program allows high-achieving students to save money on their education while simultaneously helping them jumpstart their future careers.

As is typical of honors college, the Judy Genshaft Honors College requires its students to complete a research track consisting of either an honors thesis or capstone project. The thesis track is recommended for students who want to go into research-based fields or academia, and the capstone project is for those interested in conducting research with their fellow honors college peers. Capstone projects happen in a classroom-style setting, and the topics vary from semester to semester.

Judy Genshaft Honors College graduates are invited to attend a special graduation ceremony for all graduating honors students. Family and friends are invited to the ceremony, and each graduating honors student is recognized individually during the ceremony.

At the university-wide commencement ceremony, Judy Genshaft Honors College graduates wear special honors college regalia to signify their successful completion of the honors program. There are a lot of perks to enrolling in an honors college, but before you decide that being an honors student is the best choice for your academic career, it might be helpful to weigh a few pros and cons that come with honors colleges.

After all, participating in an honors program can be a pretty big time commitment! Check out our list of five pros and cons for enrolling in an honors college below to help decide whether an honors program is the right choice for you.

Honors colleges are a more equitable alternative to elite colleges and universities. One of the benefits of an honors college is that most provide funding opportunities for both incoming and current students. Even better: because there are fewer honors students, you have a better shot at actually winning a scholarship.

Additionally, enrolling in an honors college at a public school gives high achieving students the opportunity to receive an elite education they can actually afford.

Honors colleges offer the kind of highly specialized, rigorous academics that are the hallmark of the most selective college s. That means that at some schools, you can get an Ivy-style education for a fraction of the price. One of the biggest recurring perks of being an honors student? A little thing called priority registration.

Priority registration allows honors students to attend academic advising sessions to plan their semester schedules and register for classes before all non-honors students. When enrollment periods open for different groups of students at colleges and universities—especially big universities—classes fill up fast. The later you enroll, the less likely you are to get into the courses you need to take, and the less likely you are to come out with a schedule of classes that you find appealing a.

These honors courses usually have limited enrollment so that the class sizes are small. On top of that, many universities have special housing, classrooms, and study spaces reserved especially for honors students. The honors college can form a close-knit community of students, since honors students spend so much time in the same spaces doing the same things. Whether they become a consistent study partner or your BFF, your honors college peers can be one of the biggest pros of the honors college experience.

While there are some pretty big perks to being in an honors college, there are some downsides, too. In general, honors college students are going to be doing more work than their non-honors schoolmates.

In general, honors courses require more studying, more homework, and more writing. For example, an honors history class may require you to read more than just a textbook. And you can expect for your tests and papers to be graded on a tougher rubric, too.

Honors students also have to do extra work if they want to graduate with distinction. This involves you guessed it! Most often, the resources and opportunities available to honors college students depend on how well-funded the honors college or program is. He's taken advantage of all the research opportunities of the fine university he attends, found his set of advisers, and has been remarkably successful as an undergrad and will pursue his PHD at a world class institution - but no thanks to his Department which still sneers at this non-Honors punk ruining their party.

All the pluses for the Honors programs, the third place to grow mind and soul with peers that my son found in clubs and such to some extent but was really denied because he wasn't in the Honors program underscores why he didn't join the Honors program - the very real cronyism and elitism - is distasteful at best. The fact that he's a student who should be celebrated but is at best tolerated because his success dampens the Honors parade vividly highlights the sense of entitlement of those RUNNING the Honors programs - they expect their students to get all the awards and such - deserving or not.

This isn't a matter of sour grapes - my son landed a dream PHD opportunity where he's been picked up by one the premier scientists in the world in his field.

I'm just pissed that he's had to bob and weave his way around these Honors obstacles. Again I repeat - it is the Honors professors themselves who have the vested interest in their little golden gooses who foist their brand of elitism onto the unlucky 'rest'. People call the Honors programs meritocracies - hogwash. They may compete among themselves but at the end of the day they and their teachers expect that they'll walk to the front of the line - right past the 'rest'.

So, not a fan of your little Honors programs. Honors programs need to understand that they showcase some of the best students NOT all of the best students.

Their hubris pisses me off to no end. If you'll note that it is implied by all Honors fans that the best of the best ARE there and if you're not then you're one of the 'rest'.

That's not elitist? Until they understand that they're just some of the best or even many of the best, then I think the undermine their own core value of meritocracy. At my university the Honors college has a fair amount of money, which supports some additional classes intended for Honors students.

In some cases these are only available to students in the Honors college; in others, non-Honors students can take these classes but there is some annoying bureaucracy involved. If it were me, I would find dealing with this bureaucracy more annoying than sitting through the 'Honors Student Council'.

You could always prepare a physics problem in advance and then try to solve it in your head during the meeting. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Is being an honors student really worth it? Ask Question. Asked 7 years, 1 month ago.

Active 5 years, 9 months ago. Viewed 67k times. Improve this question. Almo 3 3 bronze badges. Arturo don Juan Arturo don Juan 1, 2 2 gold badges 13 13 silver badges 17 17 bronze badges.

If you're going to do most of the work anyway, why not also do the one unpleasant thing each semester so that you can get credit for the program? Is this only for honor students? Alexandros You can get a thesis without being in the Honors program where I'm at.

However, the Honors program required that or a capstone where I went. I recommend an honors student learn that you don't make plurals with an apostrophe. ArturoDonJuan I wouldn't quite put it that way Show 2 more comments.

Active Oldest Votes. It depends on your reasons for being in the Honors program. In it for the Learning Experience If you're in for the learning experience, by all means, it is certainly a learning experience.

In case it wasn't apparent, I attended an Honors program in college to completion. Improve this answer. Community Bot 1. Compass Compass 5, 23 23 silver badges 41 41 bronze badges. Do you mean disenchanted? Or disillusioned. TRiG I went ahead and made the changes with dissatisfied. Add a comment. Stephan Kolassa Stephan Kolassa 29k 11 11 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Kimball Kimball I can imagine this not fitting well with you but to be honest, 30 years on, I actually feel that learning to do the above will be of HUGE benefit to you because: you'll learn to deal with snobs just like in the working world.

Real world training. Michael Durrant Michael Durrant 1 1 silver badge 4 4 bronze badges. Depends on how well known your university is in the area. While the academic expectations are higher in honors classes, colleges offer many benefits to these students to aid their studies including smaller class sizes, networking opportunities, research opportunities, extracurricular academic opportunities, and early class registration.

In this particular honors program, students take designated honors classes during their first and second year. During junior and senior years, honors students participate in weekly seminars.

The program also puts on various events and activities throughout the year, provides students with funding for special projects, and provides advising and mentoring for students. I saw the benefit of more challenging work, but got way more: smaller class sizes, easier access to extracurricular academic opportunities, and having similarly driven people in class with me. Honors students are also often able to live on the same floor during their first-year on-campus living, which allows students to form connections.

Mantsch continued on this path throughout her time at the university due to the various academic and professional benefits she received as an honors student. Now as a college graduate, Mantsch shared how the program has benefited her.

Some of my best friends in college were my honors friends, and I was able to do some really cool portfolio and extra class work. Rather, it required me to take a Dana freshman year seminar, complete an internship and mentorship, and participate in a senior year forum.



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