Other Should I continue on with my school's Honors Program?

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The discussion centers on the benefits and challenges of completing an honors program for a first-year undergraduate student aiming for graduate school in physics. The student is concerned about balancing additional general education requirements with existing commitments, such as tutoring, research, and potentially serving as a Resident Advisor. Participants emphasize that graduating from an honors program can enhance graduate school applications by providing access to exclusive scholarships, research opportunities, and mentorship. They note that honors courses may fulfill general education requirements, making them less burdensome. The importance of consulting an academic advisor for tailored advice is highlighted, as they possess specific knowledge about the university's honors program and its implications for graduate school aspirations. Overall, while the honors program may require extra effort, it can offer significant advantages for future academic pursuits.
TheBurningWorld
I am a first year undergraduate student at a state school, and I am currently enrolled in my university's honors college. Completing the honors college would require just about a gen ed per semester, while I am almost complete with my gen eds at the moment.
I am fairly certain that I want to go into grad school and hopefully one day into professional physics, will graduating with from an honors program help with Grad School applications? I am especially wary of these extra responsibilities as I am already planning on tutoring, doing research, and as well as hopefully being a Resident Advisor to pay for college. Does anyone have any advice? Suck up the gen eds (that I do well in mind you)? Or focus on GPA, research, and GRE?
 
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You'll have to give us more information on your honors program for us to give you advice. More gen eds are annoying, but the honors program may offer more opportunities which will indirectly help you go to graduate school.

In undergrad, i was able to apply for many scholarships that were only available for honors students (I'm talking $30k+ total), and also got help applying for national scholarships (my Goldwater application went through a seemingly infinite number of revisions). Most significantly, I got a summer research stipend from the honors program - not having to work full-time meant more time for research, which meant more papers, which meant a better grad school application. I also went to a state school. Some honors programs are like this, and at other schools they exist just for an extra tassel on the graduation cap.
 
TheBurningWorld said:
I am a first year undergraduate student at a state school, and I am currently enrolled in my university's honors college. Completing the honors college would require just about a gen ed per semester, while I am almost complete with my gen eds at the moment.
I am fairly certain that I want to go into grad school and hopefully one day into professional physics, will graduating with from an honors program help with Grad School applications? I am especially wary of these extra responsibilities as I am already planning on tutoring, doing research, and as well as hopefully being a Resident Advisor to pay for college. Does anyone have any advice? Suck up the gen eds (that I do well in mind you)? Or focus on GPA, research, and GRE?

I've asked this a million times when questions of this type appears, and I will ask it again for a million and one times: Have you asked this very question to your academic Advisor?!

He/she knows more about the situation and requirements at your school than any of us will, and he/she will be able to judge your situation first hand, including info that only someone in his/her position are privy to.

So who else here in this forum is more qualified than your advisor to answer this very question?

Zz.
 
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Most of the students we mentor have the inside track for research opportunities because they are in their institutions' honors programs.

That matters.
 
Are you sure that your program requires EXTRA courses? For my university's honors program, the honors courses arent exactly "extra" because they count towards gen ed but are honors designated courses. For example, the instead of taking a Social Studies gen ed, you would take something like Renaisance xyz Honors, and that would knock out the gen ed requirement for Social Studies while counting towards honors points simultaneously.
I do have to do extra things, but they arent money out of pocket for more classes.
 
Hey, I am Andreas from Germany. I am currently 35 years old and I want to relearn math and physics. This is not one of these regular questions when it comes to this matter. So... I am very realistic about it. I know that there are severe contraints when it comes to selfstudy compared to a regular school and/or university (structure, peers, teachers, learning groups, tests, access to papers and so on) . I will never get a job in this field and I will never be taken serious by "real"...
Yesterday, 9/5/2025, when I was surfing, I found an article The Schwarzschild solution contains three problems, which can be easily solved - Journal of King Saud University - Science ABUNDANCE ESTIMATION IN AN ARID ENVIRONMENT https://jksus.org/the-schwarzschild-solution-contains-three-problems-which-can-be-easily-solved/ that has the derivation of a line element as a corrected version of the Schwarzschild solution to Einstein’s field equation. This article's date received is 2022-11-15...

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