My experience in Honors

QOTD: <I was just wondering if you could tell me more about your personal experiences in the Honors Program so that I would have a better understanding of the program. If you know anyone else that would be willing to tell me more about the Honors program please let me know.>

Before I start, I want to point out that Honors has changed quite a bit since I entered as a freshman. During my first few years, Honors focused primarily on what you do and what you accomplish. I think you can see an obvious difference in the current focus—now, the emphasis is on how you think.

Students in my year had to meet 10 Honors experiences—7 were course experiences, 2 were non-course experiences, and 1 could be from either category. Now, you need to complete 12 experiences, but more activities count toward Honors experiences. In theory, you could have knocked out all of the requirements in two years without ever reaching what is now Tier 3. I actually finished 9 experiences by the end of my sophomore year. Less than a fourth of the students in my class ended up writing a thesis and graduating Honors with Distinction, but I think this will change now that students have to take Tier 3 experiences. The new program is built around students’ interests—really, it’s built by students’ interests.

Anyway, back to your question. Let’s see… where to start?

Like every Honors student, I took Honors courses (my favorite one was Folk and Literary Fairy Tales). I also did a course extension for a seminar on German literature after the fall of the Berlin Wall and have UAed for three classes. Right now, I’m looking forward to defending my honors thesis and taking two graduate courses next semester.

I also lived in Honors housing for four years—Tappan as a freshman and then three years in Bishop—and that was one of the best decisions that I made at Miami. I had a group of dorm friends as a freshmen, and we ended up living next door to each other in Bishop as seniors. We also rented a house together between our sophomore and junior years. It was great; we played Apples to Apples every night! One is in graduate school, another is in medical school, one will start medical school next year, and another is in law school. Aww, they’re so accomplished!

My friends say that it’s worth being in Honors just for priority registration. This is probably why so many of us have double majors and why 98% of students graduate within 4 years.

I’m a little unusual in the Honors community because I have also seen the administrative side—I worked at the front desk in the Honors office for almost two years, answering the phone, carrying tubs of applications from Admissions to the office, filing said applications, and giving myself a lot of paper cuts. Also, I was a student representative on one of the Honors faculty committees for three years.

For me, being in Honors was absolutely the right decision. Honors gave me the encouragement that I needed to become more involved in campus activities and to approach professors. However, Honors did not create my experience; I had to be self-motivated and a little assertive to take advantage of some of these opportunities.

If you have any more questions, please ask! You can also contact Honors Ambassadors by going to the main Honors site and clicking on “Who’s in MU Honors?”. Each student has a profile that includes their interests and their contact information.