Is anyone in honors that can give me some feedback on their experience with the program?

6/24/2006 10:13:33 PM

waste of time. I only joined for the perk of early registration.

6/24/2006 10:18:44 PM

i got invited to univ honors and scholars. i decided to go with scholars b/c i like the cultural aspects of it - plays, concerts, etc etc. i think the comparision i've seen is

honors:
70-80% academic
20-30% cultural

scholars:
70-80% cultural
20-30% academic

i also think the people in charge of scholars, and the folks i've met in the program are pretty awesome. you get to register early, as well, not QUITE as early as UH, but right after them.

6/24/2006 10:41:50 PM

Honors registers before every undergrad (cept atheletes and retards). Scholars only registers before your class. Don't underestimate having honors sections of academic classes. you can get in on research projects and whatnot, get ins with professors in smaller classes. That's worth a lot. Honors can also take any scholars classes, so you can do all that cultural shit if you want to.

[Edited on June 25, 2006 at 3:16 AM. Reason : sdfsdf]

6/25/2006 3:16:02 AM

it depends on you really...im in scholars because i really wasnt interested in doing the research required for the honors program. ...and you still have to take honors courses with scholars....so...it just depends on what you want to do really..

6/25/2006 6:13:09 AM

yea, in honors, you have to take these required honor seminars, which are the dumbest classes I've ever taken in college. I know a lot of honors people feeling the same way about this. I would say most people are in the honors program because they want to have that on their resume, and they want to register early.

6/25/2006 7:27:11 AM

If you are thinking about going to graduate school, the honors program makes it a bit easier to do research with a professor. Otherwise, it really doesn't do much for you once you graduate.

6/25/2006 8:39:02 AM

Quote :

"I only joined for the perk of early registration."

6/25/2006 9:35:50 AM

I completed both the UHP and the USP (last class to be able to do that, entering in 2001 - God I'm old).

I liked both of them. If I had to choose one of them, I would do the UHP again. Entering grad school in the fall, it and the research focus just made sense. USP only takes three semesters to complete, and the activities are pretty fun, but it's not really something that was amazing for me. I do know a lot of people who really got a lot out of forums and felt deeply connected to the Scholar's program, but that wasn't really me. Their staff is excellent and the program is well run. It is much older than the Honors Program.

I'm the wierdo who actually enjoyed my honors seminars. It's a pretty new program (started in 2000-2001 school year), and they've been really responsive to student feedback in terms of revising requirements. It's nice to see that flexibility. I had a lot of fun with undergrad research (three years, baby!) but I know many people who started the honors program, didn't want to do any research/extension experience, and so dropped it. Early registration was such a perk - only athletes, disabilities, and grad students register earlier. Ten semesters and got every class in the time slot I wanted it every time. Without that perk, I couldn't have finished in five years (double major) and done three years of undergrad research (I needed classes clustered in the AM so I could have long stretches of time to be in the lab 10 to 25 hours per week). I have some friends who are mentors in the honors village and they really enjoy the community there; they also offer trips and such that are more cultural in nature.

6/25/2006 9:37:07 AM

you don't have to be in honors to do research, take the initiative. you should probably be looking into that already as we speak...

6/26/2006 12:14:55 AM

^ indeed. Publish a paper on something, that'll speak more than any scholarly credentials. Or just bust down the door on your subject GRE. Also get a 4.0, it's not that hard here with the A+ in place, I mean there were like 70 validictorians when I graduated.

But seriously, the only big difference between my friend and I was a 100 point spread on the subject GRE. He had schools fighting over him for gradschool and ended up with some scholarship deal that was worth like $25,000 a year ( that's big for gradschool, we make like half that here at NCSU for the privilige of teaching you punks ). I got into where I wanted, but I didn't get any special treatment.

Don't worry so much about what people think, worry more about what you know. If you know enough people will figure out who you are quick enough. And for the love of logic don't blindly listen to your advisor, they're always uber-cautious. You gotta take some chances and bust out of the mold.

6/26/2006 1:12:47 AM

honors /= scholars

Honors will fast track you for grad school if you're up to the extra work.

6/26/2006 2:39:33 AM

Early registration is the only benefit I can think of. The Honors seminars are good/easy alternatives to humanities, but plan early and make sure they will count correctly. There are tons of alternatives for the "capstone" (or whatever they are calling it these days, it changes alot). I did research, but you can do internships etc. Just look into it early and also find out what overlaps with your specific college/major honors program. The CALS honors program overlaps with the UHP very well.

6/26/2006 3:24:24 PM

YOU GET TO REGISTER BEFORE ANYONE ELSE IN THE SCHOOL.....this is priceless....you can get all the classes you want and when you want.....the seminars are boring but the grades always come out good....do honors

6/26/2006 4:50:01 PM

I was actually a member of the first group of freshman invited into the honors program six years ago. They were still working the kinks out of it that first semester and it definitely left something to be desired. In the end, I dropped the program after two semesters because it was so . . . well, it was just a new program still getting its feet on the ground and I couldn't deal with it at that time.

However, I would do it all over again. That first class was comprised of a phenomenal group of students that I felt incredibly lucky to be included in. The honors program provided me with resources, classes, and professors that are not available to most freshman. Not to mention, the early registration is indeed absolutely priceless.

And after reading some of the earlier posts: I had a great experience with the Honors Seminars. Honors Colloquium was a waste of time, especially if you're already a Park Scholar or something along those lines. But one of the Honors Seminars I took with David Greene was out of this world -- what an amazing professor.

[Edited on June 26, 2006 at 10:56 PM. Reason : more.]

6/26/2006 10:48:47 PM

Yes, you can do research outside of the context of the USP or a college-based honors program, but I would make sure that my first semester of research was done within the context of some sort of course credit and preferably through one of these avenues. Why? When you do undergrad research as a "course" you have to submit a plan of work and some sort of writeup of results, and in many cases present a poster at the undergrad research symposium. Some people like to make light of these things, but I think they serve a few really important purposes:

1. Send a message to your mentor about the purpose of you being there. With an outline at the beginning that indicates you need to give some sort of presentation of data in the end, it's clear that you're looking for more than $7.50 an hour for washing dishes. When you interview for graduate schools in the future, they honestly won't care as much as whether or not you published but how much hands-on, actual research experience you have - a very important thing I learned in my interviews.

2. Give structure to your learning. When you are forced to sit and think about why you're doing something, and to explain it to someone outside your lab, you really learn much more than when you simply continue chugging along in the lab. Expressing yourself as a scientist both cements your learning AND helps you practice really important communication skills. I think that being forced to do that through your course-credit can help this stay a priority for you and your mentor.

3. Provide a support network. These people can help you work through issues that may arise between you and your mentor in terms of expections, etc. Just quitting if something gets rough in the interpersonal sense (which can seem like a good option if you aren't signed up for course credit for being there) may have damaging reprecussions for you later when you try to get a different job in the department or you need recommendations. Academia can be very political and sometimes it's best to have a third party to turn to when you need support.

Even if you choose to do undergrad research outside of the UHP or a college-based honors program, make sure you stop by and get to know the people in the Undergrad Research Office on campus. They can help in the support area and keep you plugged in to funding opportunities.

6/28/2006 1:20:32 AM

I was in Honors for a year until I dropped out. I still maintain the GPA but it was entirely researc based. Once I realized I did not want to do research for a career I dropped it but if you are heavy in the science it is a great way to get hooked up with professors in research.

I also found that while you could get a job as a research assistant being outside the honors program, you got a lot more respect and tolerance to curtail your research around your own interest so long as you knew what you were going and had decent rapport with your professor.

BTW...if Eric Davies in Botany is still there, he would be a leading candidate for someone to do research with. I worked with him and his doctorate candidate for two years and I ended up with two co-written publications, awards in the URS, and they flew me all over the country to present. Some professors will have you there to do their grunt work, while others will have you work on their tenure research which is usually where the interesting science begins.

Good luck

6/28/2006 1:27:01 AM