Anyone attending in the fall?

lovelydevil
Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:31:18 +0000

Thanks for the congrats! Alright, let me see. This stuff you might already know because I think it’s on the website, but I’m not entirely sure. Basically, if you enroll in the Honors Program, you would do the following:

You take on average one course per semester in an Honors section. What I didn’t really understand about this, before I went to the Honors Evening, was they correlate to courses in the Central Curriculum all students take. Instead of Writing and Thinking in the Fall semester of Freshman year, I would take Thought. This series continues through sophomore year. One semester sophomore year I will take Thought & the Natural Sciences OR Thought & Social Diversity.

The other semester I will complete my Sophomore Essay. This is basically an independent research project. I can pick any topic, not just within my major (though many students go this route), and write a thesis on it. Although they stress the project is independent, the faculty don’t expect you to get there without help. I’ll take a 2 semester hour class that basically sets deadlines and work closely with an academic advisor (who I get to pick) on the project. I was really scared of the Sophomore Essay before I went to the Honors Evening, but after hearing a student who had just written and presented hers explain the process I calmed down a lot.

In junior year, I’ll take two Honors section electives which CAN fulfill Central Curriculum reqs, but don’t HAVE to.

In senior year, you fulfill the CC Capstone req by taking the Senior Capstone Seminar, which brings different majors together for one final common experience, and Senior Research, which is required of all Honors students.

Basically, the Honors Program doesn’t add a ton to your workload. It does, in my opinion, make you look great to prospective employers and graduate schools. With all the independent research, the Capstone experience, and just the Honors Program itself on your resume: I think that looks good.

I’ll mention one last thing about the HP. I was lucky enough to get into a few other HPs at equatable schools. I personally liked Susquehanna’s the best for one main reason. It doesn’t seclude you from all the other students. I’m not constantly going to be taking Honors sections in my major and there is no option for Honors Housing. I was disappointed about this at first, but I came to realize that even though an Honors dorm is generally nicer: it’s also smaller and you get to meet less diverse people, even if you’re only speaking of diversity from an academic level.

I hope this helps! If you have any more questions about anything feel free to PM me. I kind of went on and on, but I’m SO excited for the fall!