MSU Red Cedar Message Board

Absolutely 100% worth it.

Definitely do it if you have the opportunity.

This. I had a good experience and would recommend.

Also, maybe the Honors College will teach the OP to use the search function.

I was going to say, even if you don't do it you can always lie about it like blanch.

Flexible scheduling for core requirements is worth it by itself. The key is honors classes in your major/college. That was the key selling pt for me

Yea, that sounds like a typical honors college decision.

Not worth it. It is meaningless when it comes time to apply for jobs or get into grad school, and it's a lot more work. A 3.8 without honors looks better than a 3.5 with honors. Grad schools and business could care less about honors. I've heard this from more than one person on graduate school acceptance boards.

It's true that you get to pick classes first, that is definetly nice. But I really think that in the long run, it is better to forego the honors route.

Most Honors sections are definitely easier and also the retarded IAH/ISS papers don't bring down your grade.

FWIW, Physics was the only honors class i did poorly in. Other than that, my GPA in honors classes was higher than my non honors classes. It doesn't necessarily drag you down.

Can't comment on the grad school side but businesses could give a shit since 95% of the interviewers have not a clue what that even means. Nonetheless you actually learn the matl more w cooler students. Believe it or not but the craxiest time I had at msu was on the business honors study abroad in mexico. Holy shit!

It really depends. I am applying to a couple competitive grad schools and everybody and their sister has some kind of "honors" program on their application.

I also noticed that some professors do a half-assed job of teaching their honors courses since these "gifted" students should be able to figure out material not covered in class. This is especially true in mathematics courses.

That being said, early enrollment is useful (for freshman/sophomore classes) and some honors courses are actually more interesting than the normal sections.

I'd definitely say it's worth it. It's not really valuable on the resume; professional employers don't give a damn, and graduate schools pretty much assume that you were top 10% in the general undergraduate pool. But it lets you skip a lot of the BS your first couple years, and I'd say the best advantage is being able to choose your gen-ed classes. I admit I skipped a lot of the pre-reqs in physics and chemistry, and while that's fun and all, occasionally you can get yourself into trouble.

Basically, just make sure you use it to make your life easier, not harder. Take the classes you want, reorganize your schedule so it feels better, but don't bust your ass for a largely meaningless title. Most of my honors "credits" were short and mindless projects in easy classes.

If you're looking into grad school, it could make a difference (I can't speak to which would be better). The Honors College isn't about improving your GPA, it's about the experience while you're in school. It's about being able to take the classes you actually WANT to take instead of the ones you HAVE to. Making a decision on whether to go to the HC based on what your GPA will be is probably going to be flawed. Graduating with a 3.5/honors or a 3.8 is going to be irrelevant in pretty much any field of employment.

Also, if you do choose to go into the Honors College, don't rule out IAH/ISS classes just because you don't have to take them anymore. I took one of each and they were two of my favorite classes during my four years.