Sun25

HI,
Does anyone have any firsthand knowledge about the 1st year engineering honors program (professors, difficulty) or the honors learning community?

thanks for any insight into this --

EuroBoilerMaker

Hey,

I don't have any firsthand experience in the honors learning community, but I've heard some great things about it. But I was in the honors program my first year, though.

Being in the honors program has its advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages: - You get used to studying a lot, useful once you start taking upper level classes)
-It helps taking several classes together with the same people (honor learning community)
- Professors and TAs tend to be marginally better compared to regular classes.

Disadvantages: - You really don't learn that much more for the amount of extra time you have to put in. And trust me, sometimes you really do put in a lot more effort than people taking the regular version of the class.
- Unlike high school, grad school and employers don't care much for honors program, they rather have research experience, extracurriculars and work experience. And that might be a bit hard to do your first year if you're stuck doing homework all the time.

I have some mixed opinions about the honors program at Purdue. I think they're utterly useless at the upperclass level. BUT everyone I know from the engineering honors learning community said they loved living in the learning community, so...
My advice, do first year engineering with the learning community. After a semester, decide if you like it or not and whether you want to continue. But definitely, do not do honors after your freshman year.

Hope that helps

Sun25

Thanks a lot for info.
Do you have any opinion on the professors teaching honors 1st year, i.e, registering for certain classes that perhaps the better professor teaches?

EuroBoilerMaker

Hmm, interesting question.
I'm not quite sure if you know this, but you only have to take 8 credits of honor classes each semester to be classified as a honor student. So in that perspective, you have some options as to what classes to take as honor-designated or 'regular'.

If you've tested out of Calc I, I highly advise you to take MA 173 is the fall and MA 174 in the spring. They're honor-designated classes, but from my experience, the professors are much better and the classes are more relaxed.
Similarly, if you've tested out of Calc II, I would take MA 271.

I tested out of CHM 115/123. And I took CHM 124 (honor-designated) in the spring. Even though I did put in more work than the people in CHM 116, my professor was a lot better, my graduate TA was really cool and I did enjoy the class.

I didn't take PHYS 172H, but I hear some homeworks took ~10hrs. On the other hand, PHYS 172 has online homework (pretty simple) and the TAs aren't bad at all (I'm one myself, lol). But seriously, PHYS 172 is a tough class, even without the honors portion.

And now, the greatest fear of all first-year engineering students: ENGR 126. No one really likes the class, it is a bit stupid and it's seriously meant to weed out students. I am a bit reluctant to give any advise on this matter, since they're changing the format.

Basically, ENGR 126 used to be 1 semester, 3 credits. Now it's made into a 2 semester, 3 credits each sem. The class' format has changed as well, so I really can't give a proper opinion about this class. Although, from what I heard ENGR 116 (Honors CS 159) will be implemented in the new ENGR 126 honors class. So I think if you take the honors class, you don't have to take CS 159, but I might be wrong. Better ask your advisor.

nono

Does that mean that the only Honors Program in Purdue's Engineering Department is First-Year
Engineering Honors Program, which is available for Freshman only, and after that there won't be any other Honors Program available except the UHP?

ExplorerCY

I'm in the FYE honors LC. i can answer your questions. its late so i dont feel like reading all this right now though. tomorrow.