There are three different programs within the Honors College (well, four if you count Great Texts, but I'm not exactly sure about that one). You can be a part of as many of them as you'd like. There are tons of pre-med majors in all three programs, so while it's more work, it's definitely doable.
The Honors Program (which really needs a new name, because it gets mixed up with the other two honors programs) is just a regular honors program. You take a certain number of honors classes, and write a thesis your junior/senior years. My pre-med friends who are in it say that it is not that much work the first two years. Then it gets harder, because not only are you working on your honors thesis, but you're also getting ready for the MCAT.
The University Scholars honors program is a major. The point of the program is to allow you to make your own major and choose whatever classes you'd like. There are few required classes. There is a heavy reading list, though, and you have to write a thesis.
I'm just in the Baylor Inderdisciplinary Core (BIC). I love it so far! And I admit I'm biased against the other two programs. (I will say, though, that my friend in all three programs says that BIC is the only one worth anything.) If you haven't heard of the BIC, the courses you take with it replace your regular core requirements. So instead of taking english, religion, history, etc., you'll take the BIC classes. (If you're a BA major, it'll also cover your science. It doesn't cover math or foreign language at all). These courses are interdisciplinary, and are based more on primary texts instead of text books. It's thus a lot of reading, but it's pretty interesting reading! For example, you'll read
Confessions by Augustine instead of simply reading about the church fathers. BIC is also neat, because you have both large and small group classes for each course. In large group (with all the BIC students in your class - about 200 freshmen), one of the 10 or so professors for the course will lecture on his or her specialty, so you learn a lot of neat information. In small group (20 or fewer students), you have one of those professors, who will lead you in a group discussion about whatever you are reading. BIC mostly just affects your freshman and sophomore classes, and you don't have to write a thesis. On the downside, in the BIC, your AP credits don't count for as much. You still get credit, but you don't get out of any of the BIC classes (you can't just take the history component out of an interdisciplinary course). Also, you don't register as early as the Honors or University Scholars students (which I completely don't understand), though you do register with the Dean's list students, which is earlier than other students in your class.
If you want to know more about the BIC, I can give you a ton of details (If I didn't bore you with a ton of details already!). If you want to know more about the other two programs, I can try to answer, or refer you to the website
here or to a friend in one of the programs.
To sum it up, all three programs within the Honors College definitely require work. But I they aren't that bad, and I think the BIC is definitely worth it (I can't tell you about the other programs, but considering the fact that not everyone drops out, I'd say people would say they're worth it as well.) Oh, and you can always try one or more honors programs, then drop them if they are too much work. There's no consequence for that (except that you can't live in the HC-LLC anymore, so If you're living in Alexander/Memorial, I'd say don't drop till the end of a year.)
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