Honors Program / General questions

I'm in SAS Honors and will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability.

  1. Is the atmosphere in the honors dorms much different from that of the regular ones? Quieter, etc?

In my experience, yes. I live in the honors housing on Busch campus so I can only attest to McCormick Hall being a bit more quiet and studious generally. McCormick is comprised of suites and on each floor there's 2 pretty big study lounges. Usually you can nab a spot and it's a great place to buckle down and get work done. Brett Hall is the honors housing on College Ave (Alexander Library is a really close walk), Jameson for Cook/Douglass, and I believe the 8th floor in Lynton Towers on Livingston is reserved for honors. I'm not sure how the housing works for SEBS Honors.

  1. Do honors classes offer any objective benefit other than perhaps sounding better and being smaller/consisting of possibly more academically-inclined people?

They have interdisciplinary honors seminars and department-based honors courses. You need to have 4 completed by the time you graduate. I'm taking an interdisciplinary honors seminar and I already took Chemistry Honors. Sure, it sounds better but nobody really cares unless you're looking for an ego boost. You do go a lot more in depth and are challenged, if that's what you're looking for. Yes, the classes are a lot smaller and yes, you take the classes with other honors students.

  1. Do honors students actually receive internship/research benefits?

Finding internship and research opportunities really depends on how proactive you are. I believe ARESTY is open to everyone but you do have to complete a Capstone project your senior year to graduate with honors.

  1. Does being in the honors program show up on transcripts/to employers, and if not, are there any other tangible benefits?

I have SAS Honors put down on my resume. I'm sure it holds some kind of weight but how much I'm not too sure. Really, I think the best part about being in Honors is the housing. Also, even though the honors sections are a lot harder, the class sizes are significantly smaller which make it easier to interact with your professor as well as opposed to being in a 400 person lecture in which everyone blends into one another.

Hope this was somewhat helpful! Feel free to PM me with any other questions.

/r/rutgers Thread