My d will be pursuing a BFA at DePaul University in the theater school. She has been admitted into the honors college there as well but is hesitant about enrolling. She is worried about the work load in addition to the work that she will be putting in to shows, etc. How many of you have children who have been in this position, how many have pursued it and how has it turned out for them? How was the work load compared to that of a regular work load? She will have to complete 36 credit hours through the university in addition to her major. Curious. She is currently completing high school in the IB program. She is exhausted from the experience, even though she has learned quite a bit. I don’t want her freshman year to be too overwhelming. Any experience here? She doesn’t have to make a solid decision until orientation this summer.
Are all honors students housed together?
If they are, she may want to consider signing up for honors, with the realization that she can drop out if it proves to be too demanding on top of her time-consuming major.
Rationale: By participating in the honors program for her first semester or first year, she would have the opportunity to meet and make friends with other top students. This is one of the biggest advantages of being in an honors program, but she only has to be in honors for a semester or two to get the benefit. If she drops out of honors later, she still has the friends.
That’s very true. She isn’t choosong to be housed in the honors college, rather dorms close in proximity to the theater school. They don’t have to be together. I think that she’s worried more about the work load in comparison to regular credited hours in the University and coming in to her freshman year… I guess what it boils down to is how much more rigorous it might be rather than regular classes. I like the smaller class size that HC would offer her!
Honors programs vary in benefits from college to college. Will she get priority registration? This is gold on some campuses and well worth an honors program. Honors housing can be nice unless this is a school that likes to house their theatre majors in the same area (and some do like to put them in dorms close to the theatre due to the late nights and such.) Are there special travel opportunities? Would your D even be able to partake in them? Find out exactly what the benefits are before discounting the opportunity. You might also find out if it’s a program that has to be joined Freshman year.
I don’t know how the honors program works with a BFA in theatre. Many BFA programs are limited in their traditional academic requirements if they have any at all. Have you looked at the courses? Would they be honors theatre courses or would it be adding an academic component to a non-academic major? (and understand that when I say “academic component” I mean will she have general eds in English, math, science history or will she be adding those courses to her major and how will that show on her degree.)
Yes, she will have general ed classes in addition to her BFA program. However, many general education classes can be geared towards her major. There don’t seem to be honors classes specifically for theater majors there. She would take honors classes (smaller ratios, socratic type lectures) for her general education requirements. The classes would be a bit more challenging and more centered in English, history, math and science. It looks as though she wouldn’t have to take the language requirement as a theater major. You’ve given me some ideas in what to ask for sure. I hadn’t thought of what the true ‘benefits’ would be for her.
The rigor of her Honors courses depend greatly on her program. It wouldn’t hurt to give them a call and ask them how the courses are typically structured or go on the school’s website. The website should have the honors curriculum along with the current courses.
I’m in a somewhat rigorous major and my honors program hasn’t added any rigor. The honors courses replace the FKLs (gen eds). If anything, the courses add diversity and opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise. The honors program allows for priority registration, scholarships for study abroad and the like, along with special abroad trips and seminars. Although I entered into college with the majority of my FKLs taken care of, I don’t mind taking the classes. Great diversity in topics along with the people.
EDIT: I reread the OP and saw the honors program is a whopping 36 hours or the equivalent to one honors class a semester. Their credit requirement is double of what my honors program requires. I would definitely look into what courses the honors courses go towards and see if it’s worth the extra classes. If my program required 36 hours, it would’ve made my semesters tougher and extended my graduation time.
@Niquii77 that’s what we’re looking at and why she’s reconsidering! Thanks for the input. We’ll do some more digging and see. I may post in a theater thread specifically for DePaul and see if there are any helpers there too! I appreciate it!
Is there any way that non-Honors classes can be changed to Honors? I’m going into aerospace engineering, which is not something that has much overlap with usual Honors coursework, but the college has a policy that any class can be an Honors class, I just have to get the teacher to agree to give me an “enhanced” assignment (aka, some extra work.) So, I could take Fundamentals of Atmospheric Flight as an Honors class, fulfilling my obligation to Honors and getting the benefits of an Honors student, but wouldn’t have to take whole extra classes.
I’m not sure! I’m hoping to find out more. I know that she doesn’t have to fulfill the language requirement or one of the science classes. Another thing to put on the list to ask.
Honors IS the most rigorous form of courses. There are programs and colleges. Your D needs to figure out if the courses available and the structure suit her course plans. Are there any courses relevant to her major she can take with the honors college? Perhaps breadth requirements with honors courses will be more intellectually satisfying than the regular offerings. I do not believe your D’s major is any more rigorous than many other majors- lab sciences also require many extra hours than credits given, for example. Other courses require a lot of reading and papers.
@albert69
Holy moly. Your Honors program is sick. I wish my program had a policy like yours.
Honors meant priority registration and very small classes for my D. What it means and would it worth it to somebody else, they have to decide. Who can tell them?
If she had many distribution credits through her IB diploma she may have very few left to take. I would think that even if the honors college confers early registration with a BFA program her class schedules will be largely set in her program. It seems like it would be added stress to an already very busy schedule. BFA classes tend to be high work/low credits.
I know @MiamiDAP . She needs to investigate it more, @saintfan thanks for the input. She may earn enough IB credits to skip a few of them. Her theater school is a conservatory and intense I’m sure. She will definitely need to consult her advisor in the theater school when she registers for classes in July.
@wis75 it’s a conservatory program in costume design. Her classes are pretty intensive and she will be exposed to and participating in all aspects of production during her freshman year. There will be a lot of time spent on productions, class workshops, etc. I think that she could work with her advisor to see if there were classes in the honors college that might sync well with her theater classes. I agree, the breadth of the honors classes might be far more interesting than a typical lecture hall for her as well. She is incredibly excited about her program but knows that it will be a lot of work. This is why she’s a bit nervous about honors classes. She’s equating them with the IB work that she’s done and it is intimidating at a time when she’s studying for her exams.
My daughter’s roommate is in a BFA for dance program but also in honors. She chose not to live in the honors house as a freshman or a sophomore. I know she has some dinners and meetings just for honors, and has had some pretty hard classes I think through the honors ‘upgrade’ (anatomy, biology). She’s a very nice kid. My daughter wasn’t offered honors, but could have joined a ‘Freshman Interest Group.’ She’s very glad she didn’t because those students are together ALL the time. Her good friend who is in the FIG spends most of her time with DD and roommate because she’s tired of all the kids from her dorm floor and having classes with them all the time.
My niece is graduating from the honors college at her school this May. It meant $15k in merit money per year, but it has been challenging. She’s writing a thesis now, along with her other classwork. Hard.
@twoinanddone thank you for the input. My daughter didn’t receive scholarship money from the honors college. Her scholarship is from the theater school only. I think that she would be more motivated if she had received more scholarship. However at DePaul you can not receive scholarships from both schools. She definitely feels more devotion to the theater program.
So if there are no $$$ attached to it, she isn’t interested in honors housing and it looks like priority registration (if it is a perk) wouldn’t help much with a fairly regimented BFA curriculum are there significant upsides to honors?
That’s exactly what she wants to know. What are the benefits for her personally? It seems that every university is different too. She will have a list of questions at registration for sure. Thanks for your help!