Merit scholarships don’t come out until mid February or so…
Students in honors can enroll is special, limited-size classes. There are two types of honors classes. There are honors seminars and H-versions of classes.
So, the honors seminars are unique topics that may be able to fulfill a gen ed requirement or they are program-specific (i.e. only students in ACES can take those classes). Honors seminars, from what I have heard, are the most interesting/worthwhile classes, but do require a lot of work. Here is a link to the honors classes that are offered this semester to give you a sense (note that different classes are offered every semester) https://ntst.umd.edu/soc/201801/HONR
Then there are h-versions of classes, so for example, there is MATH141 and MATH141H. Yes, one is a lecture hall 2 days with one day of small discussion, and the honors version is small all the time. However, it is more challenging to do well in the honors version.