I was never told on what the difference between a regular diploma and one with honors, don’t think there are any. It isn’t hard to get one, all you need is a weighted 3.0 or higher GPA and take certain classes. When you get your diploma it will have a gold sticker on it with the words “academic honors”. So what will an honors diploma actually do and help with that a regular diploma won’t? When you get a college diploma, a high school diploma doesn’t matter anymore right? Does it help if you plan on transferring colleges or is it all just for bragging rights?
I can’t think of any tangible benefits to graduating with honors. However, the requirements for graduating with honors are usually a subset of the requirements for getting into selective colleges. If you’re missing one of the requirements to graduate with honors, you’re probably lacking something that colleges want (unless your school has really random course requirements, in which case it probably doesn’t matter whether you graduate with honors or not).
My school district requires a fine arts credit which I don’t have. I would have to sacrifice one of my academic classes to make room for a fine arts class. An academic class is better than an elective right? So wouldn’t it be in my best interest to forgo the honors diploma for the sake of a more rigorous senior year?
It depends on what you want to do. An academic class could be worse than an elective depending on your major