Honors Program?

[Tamim]

I am a community college student that will be transferring to CSU Fullerton in the Fall of 2010 going for my bachelors in English.

My question is whether or not it is worth putting in the extra effort to complete the schools honors program?

My ultimate goal is to get into a PhD program and imagine if I were to get my bachelors degree with honors my GPA would be slightly lower then if I were to get it without the honors.

Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you.

[Pamphilia]

I am a community college student that will be transferring to CSU Fullerton in the Fall of 2010 going for my bachelors in English.

My question is whether or not it is worth putting in the extra effort to complete the schools honors program?

My ultimate goal is to get into a PhD program and imagine if I were to get my bachelors degree with honors my GPA would be slightly lower then if I were to get it without the honors.

Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you.

Yes. Do it. I have several reasons why you should!

1. Opportunity for more research and/or more independent research

2. Opportunity for more rigorous study, which is neat

3. The opportunity to "test" if you can hack it doing intensive work in an English program (an undergrad honors program is going to be nowhere near as difficult or demanding as a PhD program, so if you're overwhelmed or hate doing your undergrad honors program, you might want to rethink grad school in English). This is why I applied for and entered my undergrad's honors program, and it was a very revelatory experience for me.

4. Getting a PhD is a labor of love. It's like being an artist, in that if you can imagine yourself doing anything else, do something else. Those of us who aspire to get PhDs are attempting to do so largely because we love intensive [insert subject] study--so why wouldn't you want to exploit of the opportunity to undertake as intensive a course of study as you can? I really hope this doesn't sound mean, because I'm just trying to be straight with you: if you're even questioning "whether or not it is worth putting in the extra effort to complete the schools [sic] honors program," I wonder if you reeeeally want to get a PhD in English.

I'm assuming that this is an English honors program, and not a general ed one. However, I think these points still stand in either case.

As for your concern about a lower GPA...well...work hard and do your best to keep your grades high. I know this sounds like a brush-off, but it's not intended to be. You're supposed to work harder in an honors program. Don't let it become an excuse. (Yikes, I sound like a parent. Blarg.)

[piccgeek]

Yes. Do it. I have several reasons why you should!

1. Opportunity for more research and/or more independent research

2. Opportunity for more rigorous study, which is neat

3. The opportunity to "test" if you can hack it doing intensive work in an English program (an undergrad honors program is going to be nowhere near as difficult or demanding as a PhD program, so if you're overwhelmed or hate doing your undergrad honors program, you might want to rethink grad school in English). This is why I applied for and entered my undergrad's honors program, and it was a very revelatory experience for me.

4. Getting a PhD is a labor of love. It's like being an artist, in that if you can imagine yourself doing anything else, do something else. Those of us who aspire to get PhDs are attempting to do so largely because we love intensive [insert subject] study--so why wouldn't you want to exploit of the opportunity to undertake as intensive a course of study as you can? I really hope this doesn't sound mean, because I'm just trying to be straight with you: if you're even questioning "whether or not it is worth putting in the extra effort to complete the schools [sic] honors program," I wonder if you reeeeally want to get a PhD in English.

I'm assuming that this is an English honors program, and not a general ed one. However, I think these points still stand in either case.

As for your concern about a lower GPA...well...work hard and do your best to keep your grades high. I know this sounds like a brush-off, but it's not intended to be. You're supposed to work harder in an honors program. Don't let it become an excuse. (Yikes, I sound like a parent. Blarg.)

+1 to everything Pamphilia said. I completed two honors programs in my undergrad (one for liberal arts, one for the university in general), and EVERYTHING I did for those programs helped rather than hurt me. The extra research opportunities are a major bonus to any grad school application, and honors undergrads often have opportunities to do things like mock colloquia that really help you get a feel for what grad school/the field is really all about. But more importantly than how the honors program will look on an application, if you really want to do English studies for the rest of your life, you should WANT to take the harder classes, do the extra projects, and whatever else is required for the honors program. Grad school is grueling even when you love your work, and there's no way to succeed in academia if you do what you need to get to the next step, but nothing more. Getting into grad school or getting a job--either way, the adcom/search committees are looking for applicants who did as much work as they possibly could, doing side projects and extra research and all that jazz. It's not a matter of having an "honors" on your diploma or a particular gpa, it's a matter of trying to do as much grad school type stuff before you actually get to grad school. And, of course, there's no reason that doing an honors program means you will get a lower gpa. It just means more work to get the good grades--and what's wrong with that? Like Pamphilia, I'm not trying to be mean (I really hope I don't sound mean), I'm just trying to be honest.

Good luck with everything!

[graddamn]

Agree that the honors program is worth while for reasons mentioned by OP, BUT which honors program is important. My school offers 3 honors programs: 1 class oriented, 1 research oriented, and 1 major oriented. I think spending more energy in honors programs related to your department of interest is ultimately most beneficial. I say this because I did one honors program at my school that required a lot of extra courses that were in no way related to my program of study and ultimately sucked time away from completing my major. Guess what I mean to say is, look for honors programs but if you are facing time constraints, go for the honors program most related to your field of study. Plus look at grad classes. The more preparation the better.

[grad_wannabe]

I attended CSU Fullerton's Honors Program. I was also a Presidential Scholar.

Do it. There are a lot of resources and perks available to the Honors kids that the regular student body does not have access to.

There's an Honors-exclusive office and study lounge with unlimited free printing (which, believe me, really comes in handy when you have 3 essays due the same day during Finals week and you spent all your money on beer). There are research opportunities and plenty of free events, symposiums, and lectures. If I remember correctly, the Honors kids also have privileged access to class registration and dorm reservations (the Honors kids get to register for classes and reserve dorms first, I think - though that may have been a Scholars perk. I don't remember now.) There are also free-food events.

Yes, the classes are harder, but they're much smaller. You'll be taking your lower-division general ed classes, like logic, philosophy and speech, in group seminars of 12 or 14 instead of a large lecture class of 200. Much better access to faculty, which means better LoRs down the line. Plus, the classes are just more interesting.

One caveat - I wasn't there for junior or senior years (I transferred to UC Irvine) so I couldn't tell you whether the required Honors thesis project or the upper-div Honors classes are a huge time-suck.