<p>My son was accepted to the Honors College, which I was very excited about. He was much less excited because he has the impression this means he will have to take extra classes and do a lot more work than if he was not in the Honors College. I know scholarships can be tied to this. Can someone with knowledge of the Honors program provide more detail on what this would mean for him? What are the pros and cons of being in the Honors College? Thanks!</p>
<p>It really depends on what LLP within the Honors College your son wants to be involved in. Some require projects and more work (Gemstone, Honors Humanities) while others require minimum requirements and are more fleixible (University Honors). One advantage is that you can take honors version classes which tend to be smaller and can be easier to get into. Also being in the honors college lets you live with other honors students your freshman year if you want to…tend to be quieter dorms. My brother started in Gemstone but did not want to do extra work and switched to University Honors. He did not take enough honors classes to graduate with citation but he is still able to take a honors course if he wants. He lived on honors floor for freshman year but then joined a fraternity and lived in the fraternity house.</p>
<p>I am currently a Freshman in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation (EIP) honors program, and I would definitely recommend it to prospective students. EIP does involve some work, but not nearly as much as some of the others. It is a two-year program, meaning that after four semesters of taking EIP-specific classes, you are done with the EIP requirements. First semester was an easy 1-credit course, and from what I hear the next three semesters are not much harder. It is a great experience, and you get to meet and learn from many different entrepreneurs. Other than the EIP classes, Honors students are required to take at least two honors seminars. However, these courses tend to be discussion based and have fewer than 20 students. I took one last semester (HONR289T Rule of Law: Bedrock of Democracy), and it was my favorite class. Most of them fulfill a GenEd requirement. Also, I am almost certain that you can also fulfill that two-class requirement by taking I-Series classes. If you haven’t heard about I-Series classes, they are discussion-based seminars as well. You have to take two of these anyway for GenEd, so it’s not really any more work to be in the honors program. </p>
<p>Overall, if you’re concerned about the workload of the honors program, don’t do Gemstone or Life Sciences. University Honors is the most flexible, but you really don’t get that much out of it. I haven’t heard much about the Humanities, DCC, or ACES, but I can tell you that EIP is worth it. You learn a lot about entrepreneurship and it’s a great experience with great people. You also get to live in LaPlata, currently one of the few air conditioned dorms.</p>