<p>As a current ETE Scholar, I would say that most people in my program don’t think it’s worth the effort because the colloquium is so much more work than is proportionate to the 1 credit it gives us. However, I have heard that our program just has way more work than most of the other programs. </p>
<p>Personally, I liked the first semester colloquium because it focused more on career planning and a general overview of topics in environmental science and the work assigned was useful and relevant. The spring colloquium, however, has thus far been solely focused on group projects, but the workload and stress involved is more than I go through for my 4 credit Econ class because our Scholars instructors grade really strictly so it’s hard to get an A or even A- for a 1 credit class.</p>
<p>All in all, Scholars is a nice bonus to have on your transcript, plus I think you get a medal at graduation, but honestly it’s just extra work for if you’re not passionate about the subject area of your program, especially for STEM majors who are pretty much guaranteed jobs after college anyway and don’t need anything fancy to stand out from the crowd to compete for jobs. So if it’s important for him to have a Scholars citation, go for it, but otherwise it’s not that big of a loss if you work hard in classes and get involved on campus in other ways.</p>