<p>It irks me that there is so much misinformation on this site. I’m a current junior at Umass and since I’m already on here looking at grad schools I might as well clear some stuff up.
I am in the honors college. Like every other experience ever it is what you make of it. Being in the honors classes gives you access to honors RAPS (honors floors, I highly recommend them if you want to be surrounded by other high minded individuals), honors classes (they are capped off at 24 people, a good way to fill gen eds) and a thesis.
There are 2 ways to graduate with honors from Umass.
- be a commenwealth college member, complete a thesis (huge for graduate schools) and you can get com col honors (magna, summa etc.)
- get a high enough gpa (it depends on the department) and graduate with latin honors.
Therefore it is possible to graduate with 2 different types of honors (elite students do)</p>
<p>I have greatly enjoyed my Umass and Honors experience. Not expecting to come here I met a lot of other people with the same mind set and they all love it honors and non honors. I for one didnt mind the extra com col requirements (some people like it, others hate it I dont think its that hard to pick one that seems interesting though), the classes were small and intimate, and my thesis (effects of stress and addiction on decision making) is going to give me a huge boost when I am inevitably going on to grad school.</p>