I'm not a University Scholar (though I'm sure I can get you in touch with one, if you'd like), but here are my thoughts. As some things can be pluses for some and minuses for others, I'm just going to list everything together.
- You have fewer core requirements.
- You have the freedom to basically design your own major (some refer to it as a "glorified undeclared major", but I don't think that's quite fair, because you do have one or more concentrations).
- You get to register first for classes (with the grad students). The students in the Honors Program (which really needs a new name, as it's one of 4 honors programs) also get to register first. BIC students, on the other hand, register only a day ahead of their class, which stinks.
- If you ever decide you want to switch out of U. Scholars, it might be hard, as you'll have to make up for all the core classes you didn't have to take before (unless you're also in BIC, in which case you actually would have fulfilled some of the core requirements).
- It's a BA major, and heavily focused towards the humanities (most of the honors programs here are, actually). If your S is going for a humanities major, this might be good. If he's going for a science major, but wants a good grounding in the humanities, it can also be good, especially if he's going to med school or some other type of graduate/pre-professional school afterwards where his major wouldn't matter so much.
- No one outside of Baylor knows what a University Scholars major is. U. Scholars have still done really well after graduating (I think they have an extremely high percentage of people who get into med school). And most tell others that their major is whatever they're concentrating in (so if you're a U. Scholar with biology and english concentrations, you could just tell people that biology and english were your majors). But the point is, what's on your degree is the U. Scholars major, which means nothing to most people without you having to explain what it is.
- You have a reading list and a thesis.
...And that's all I can think of at the moment, but if you have any specific questions, you can feel free to ask!
College Confidential is dedicated to providing the best free college admissions information available on the Web, through our many articles and this discussion forum.
