<p>Who are the honors students that are able to register for such courses - BFS, JWS etc? is there ever an exception made for non-honors students to register for a recitation labeled as such? </p>
<p>If all recitations are closed but lecture is still open, how does one get into both? </p>
<p>thanks so much!</p>
<p>yeah, prolly BFS, but you can also enroll if you contact the instructor. So contact the instructor if you want to enroll.</p>
<p>thank you so much. do u know if this has actually happened before - the instructor has the authority to grant permission for a non-BFS student?</p>
<p>will the honors recitation be tougher? ie will the quizzes etc be more difficult or is the discussion level different? </p>
<p>thanks again!</p>
<p>I am not completely familiar with Penn details, but Rudess’ answer seems wrong to me.</p>
<p>Most/all undergraduate majors at Penn offer a “departmental honors” option. Students in that major with good enough grades apply to be considered for honors. If they are accepted (which happens during their junior years), they generally have to write a thesis as seniors, but some departments also have special seminars for their honors students and, I’m guessing, honors sections of some popular higher-level lecture classes. Or at least that’s what a recitation that is denoted a “departmental honors course” would sound like to me.</p>
<p>So I don’t think this has anything to do with the Benjamin Franklin Scholars program. It has to do with whether a student has been accepted as an honors candidate in his major. That’s probably not a very limited group at all. But, for that very reason, it might make it harder to talk your way in, unless, perhaps, you are a junior in the major whose honors application has not yet been accepted but will almost certainly be.</p>
<p>I’ve also heard of more than one case of people who are trying to get into the class getting placed in the Honors recitation even when they have no experience of the subject whatsoever. They were placed there because all of the other recitations were full.</p>
<p>lovemom, in general, the instructor usually has the authority to enroll any student he wants. Of course, you should expect an honors recitation to be tougher. How tougher it will be depends on the course. Say which course you’re considering and maybe someone can give additional details.</p>
<p>JHS, my answer is no less wrong than yours is wrong. You’re right that some majors offer departmental honors, but that’s mainly a designation on your transcript subject to each department’s requirements for honors. In Econ, for example, you need to complete Econ300 which involves writing a thesis. But a course named “departmental honors” is not necessarily related to earning honors in the major. You can take that course without earning departmental honors. Heck, you can take that course without even being a major in the subject. So in this sense, the courses don’t have a lot to do with getting departmental honors. Also, you emphasize the notion of “being accepted in the honors program” too much. Getting honors just means you satisfied certain requirements. In the econ case, this is equilvalent to finishing Econ300 and that’s it. You can take the departmental honors version of Econ212 without even knowing if you’re going to do 300, which in your lingo means “without having even applied to the honors program”.</p>
<p>The right answer here is that a departmental honors course is intended for anyone who wants to enroll in it and meets the requirements, whether officially or with instructor’s approval.</p>