??

1/23/2007 4:54:42 PM

That was easily the worst part of my NCSU career. A complete and utter waste, except one tiny thing.

If you're an incoming freshman, GET IN IT. After your initial semester, you can get to register as if you're 1-2 semesters ahead of where you actually are. So when all the freshmen are registered for courses last and getting terrible times, you can register a few days earlier with the sophs. Never go to the forums, let them kick you out, just register early for at least 1-2 semesters and take full advantage. Early registration is the ONLY good thing about it, unless you're the geeky type who enjoys spending 2 hours per week for ZERO credit hours listening to some random people babble on in the middle of your beautiful day.

Like an idiot, I stayed in it and did all 2-3 (forget how many) years of the forum things, and then lacked 3 honors credit hours from getting it on my transcript.

I'd say strive for a 4.0, then random crap like this won't even matter.

[Edited on January 23, 2007 at 5:03 PM. Reason : .]

1/23/2007 5:02:25 PM

You get to go to some pretty cool events for free.

1/23/2007 5:14:23 PM

WELL I DUNNO!!!

A CLUB BASED ON ACADEMICS???? SOUNDS FUN TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1/23/2007 5:23:44 PM

No.

1/23/2007 6:05:54 PM

i enjoyed the optional forums. the required ones were often boring.

1/23/2007 6:06:59 PM

Quote :

"WELL I DUNNO!!! A CLUB BASED ON ACADEMICS???? SOUNDS FUN TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "

1/23/2007 6:09:18 PM

They've change the program significantly since I was a freshman ... I would look to talk to some folks who just got out of it, rather than some of us "old" graduates.

The program really depends on your interests. I personally enjoy learning and attending events that emphasize diversity in cultures, multiple forms of theater and entertainment, and many different perspectives of the world. Some of the events were REALLY nice, while others completely sucked. (Note: I wasn't actually in the program, but I ended up going with friends who were to some of the more interesting events).

[Edited on January 23, 2007 at 6:33 PM. Reason : .]

1/23/2007 6:32:32 PM

Quote :

"After your initial semester, you can get to register as if you're 1-2 semesters ahead of where you actually are"

1/23/2007 7:36:19 PM

i enjoyed a lot of the things that they did in the forum thing. i saw quite a few decent films and some good musical performances that made that part worth it. but the big advantage is what SouthPaW12 said, you get to register for courses early. this is a huge advantage, so do it.

i didnt graduate as a university scholar because i didnt get the 15 (i think) honors credit hours that are required. The courses they offer with honors credit are mostly humanities, and i had already filled most of my requirements coming in as a freshman. I think they had a program where you could set up something with a professor from any class in order to make it count as honors credit (like doing an extra paper or 2 or maybe a project). I didnt bother with that because i had enough to do in trying to graduate a semester early. but also like SouthPaW12 said, its more important to try to graduate with the high gpa. i had graduated with a 4.0 and when i applied to grad school at penn state, i had multiple professors trying to hire me as an RA. so i dont think it is all that prestigious for your resume.

1/23/2007 8:01:04 PM

i would say join now while you live on campus and can make the events easily. some of them are actually pretty cool, and if nothing else, they usually have a film series that takes up a lot of the events. it really isnt bad. i wouldnt get kicked out either, its not hard to stay in and ride the early registration as long as you can.

each semester pick either a class you want to learn more about, or the most slack and do an honors contract. its really easy to get honors credit for not much work.

1/23/2007 8:27:12 PM

MA241 Honors - F
MA241 Non-Honors - A

That answer the question?

1/23/2007 9:13:14 PM

worth getting to register early...

for me... that's about it

1/23/2007 9:18:00 PM

after your freshman year is over, it will be a more difficult to take enough honors courses. As a freshman you can take first year inquiry and those also count, or later on you can take grad level classes to count.

But registering early is def. worth it even if you don't fulfill all the other requirements.

1/23/2007 9:34:35 PM

yeah, I pretty much gave up on it my sophomore year. When I was in it, you could register early if you were a)a current member of Scholars, b)had taken 3 semesters of forum, or c)completed 15hrs of honors courses. Not sure what the rules are now though. Some of the optional events were actually pretty interesting but other than that, the only thing good about it is registering early.

1/23/2007 10:27:01 PM

did the 3 semesters of the forum, but had zero honors credits so i didn't graduate a scholar.

definitely worth it to register early. hell, one semester i had movie night once a week to fulfill my requirement. some things were pretty boring, but they had some pretty good stuff mixed in.

saw a couple good concerts, some good movies, and a few good forums (including one the day after 9/11 where everything was dropped and the scholars leaders just talked to us and tried to explain some of what was going on).

The people running it were good people (I think Alex was the name of one of the guys a while back?). But one thing worth repeating is that love it or hate it, registering early is absolutely worth it.

1/23/2007 11:30:16 PM

nerdy kids

1/24/2007 2:11:25 AM

I never minded going to see a bunch of random plays and movies (I basically hit the film series and stuck to it) for free- it was a lot of fun. My honors classes weren't that hard, either.

1/24/2007 7:38:26 AM

scholars is definitely worth it, even if you don't graduate as a scholar. you get to go to all sorts of free things, and if you sign up early enough, you can even get free CDs and books. not to mention the early registration.

1/24/2007 7:58:47 AM

Some of the forums sucked, but there were often some very interesting events to go to. And some of the honors classes have really good teachers. The grades may not be better, but sometimes the experience is worth it. Don't do it to have it on your transcript. Only do it if you think the events and experiences would be worth it for you.

1/24/2007 10:05:17 AM

Graduate courses and study abroad count as honors courses, so if you have a couple of each, it really isn't all that hard to meet the requirements

1/24/2007 11:33:05 AM

^ yeah but why do that, trust me it's not needed to get into top grad schools. Don't waste your time on that bullshit, just get a good GPA in the regular classes. The only reason to do it is to SIGN UP EARLY, I dropped it because I had a lot of credits coming in and got to register early anyway.

[Edited on January 25, 2007 at 2:14 AM. Reason : .]

1/25/2007 2:14:21 AM

scholars does not exactly = fun butt there are perks to being in it. They go on trips to london and paris and stuff for cheap in addition to registering early. Also, you don't have to just take honors classes to get that credit, you can take Q, N, graduate level or study abroad I believe. I got most of my credits w/ the Q & N classes which weren't bad at all.

1/25/2007 7:24:55 AM

^^ because taking graduate courses WILL help you get into graduate school. and the scholars credit that it comes with doesn't hurt.

1/25/2007 10:05:58 AM

I felt like the forums did enhance my freshman experience. It's not too hard to attend once a week and you get to go to a lot of stuff for free. If you can't make the scheduled forums because of a class conflict, then that can be a pain because you are always trying to fit events into your schedule.

The annoying part, I think most would agree, is getting the 15 honors credits. They give you a very short list of courses that count. Most of the classes were things I didn't have an interest in at all and it was nearly impossible to get into any of them anyways. As a plus, I did take a first year inquiry psychology that was a lot easier than the normal pscyhology, no tests and one paper. I still don't know how I'm going to get my last 6 credit hours. They let you create an "honor's contract", but I don't really want to do extra bullshit.

1/25/2007 3:49:02 PM

when i was an undergrad i was in both U. scholars and the honors program. the honors program was pretty useless and i didn't bother competing it, but scholars had some interesting stuff sometimes. and really i never had a problem finding honors courses to take. hell the honors course i took with tavakoli we ended the semester by spending a weekend at a cabin and getting drunk/smoking from the hookah all night long

1/25/2007 4:07:30 PM

There were definitely some fun and interesting events that I attended during the 3 semesters I did it. Like most people have said, the best perk was early registration. I only took one honors course, so I will not be graduating as a scholar, but it was worth it for the registration perks.

1/26/2007 1:52:33 AM

So, were the scholars forums anything like E100 (I'm sure that dates me)? Because if they were there are no amount of free movies that would offset the boredom.

1/26/2007 3:18:54 PM

Aside from the occasional movie or performance it was pretty fucking lame. I only took scholars forum for one semester and took an easy ass Q class humanity to stay eligible for another semester. It's pretty much just a culture and 'diversity' class, which almost always was 'put you to sleep' boring. Once you're a few semesters into your major, the registering early advantage becomes a pretty moot point. I seriously doubt anyone in the real world gives a damn about your scholars designation as long as you have decent grades or some coop/intern experience.

1/26/2007 3:44:18 PM

i completed all the requirements to graduate in the scholar's program, but i agree that it's not a very noteworthy accomplishment. however, i did enjoy the scholar's forum...got free tickets to various and sundry performances. also, i thought that getting a copy of the ny times most days was worthwhile. but that's just me

1/26/2007 4:58:59 PM

U. Scholars is a joke. NCSU puts it in b/c they think it makes them look good to have a program like that. But, like everyone else says, the program is a complete hack. There pretty much are no honors courses after your freshman year. With the credits I received coming in to college, there weren't even enough honors courses for me to ever meet the requirement.

You can take 500+ level courses to count instead, but that just pisses me off. "So you are telling me that I get the same amount of honors credits for Honors Mechanical Physics 121 as I do for Advanced Circuitry 532? Where do I sign up?" They also say that you can try to convince your teacher to give you extra work in the class so that it can be considered an "honors" course, but none of them ever would for me. I don't blame them either. More work for no extra pay = teh suck. NCSU should make that a requirement for teachers if the students request it.

Its a good idea for a program, but NCSU doesn't give a rats ass about it.

[Edited on January 27, 2007 at 2:12 PM. Reason : .]

1/27/2007 2:09:36 PM

hell yeah i want to be an overacheiver and get extra work just so i can say i took honors classes

1/27/2007 3:16:32 PM

Like almost any past US you run into, I say I did for the early registration and thank God I got out when I did!!

1/27/2007 9:03:34 PM

I was in scholars for freshman year and half of sophomore. Never took any honors classes. Basically it's nice to be in the program if you want to register early and do a lot of plays and stuff for free. But doing the hard classes to get a word on your diploma - not worth it.

1/28/2007 10:03:09 AM

scholars is a waste of time, but get in it early so you can register for classes early as shit.

1/31/2007 12:00:30 PM

i didnt think it was such a waste of time... i found some of the forums to be very stimulating

its not really an 'academic' club either. i found it more of cultural enrichment than anything.

Quote :

"MA241 Honors - F MA241 Non-Honors - A "

ouch. from my experience, honors classes have the better teachers and i usually get a lot more out of them than my non-honors classes. but i guess if i was just farting to get by, i'd probably hate them too.

2/5/2007 6:25:54 PM

Quote :

"but i guess if i was just farting to get by, i'd probably hate them too."

that's not very nice at all

2/5/2007 6:49:03 PM

Scholars wasn't too bad- the forums are not terrible- just pick and choose which ones you want to go to.

MA241 screwed me when I was a freshman but it was because of the professor and I am pretty sure he isn't there any more, other than that I had slack honors classes but still didn't graduate with scholars because I was too lazy to do honors contracts for classes- most of the honors classes are humanities and are 8 or 9am- at least that was my experience.

2/5/2007 11:20:59 PM

Honors is pretty decent if you can get in.

The seminars are interesting and taught by some of the top profs at the university (Scearce, Hester,...) and they pretty much keep it at A and B level unless you completely slack off.

I took a music course in that program that was difficult but fun and well worth it.

2/6/2007 12:45:29 AM

no. it was a complete waste of time.

and most employers, etc. don't give a shit if you were in scholars or not.

however, i'll admit, some of the forums were interesting.

2/6/2007 1:07:54 AM

Quote :

"MA241 Honors - F MA241 Non-Honors - A "

haha me too, except it was 242

[Edited on February 6, 2007 at 6:17 PM. Reason : forums are cool, though i slept through many]

2/6/2007 6:16:58 PM

I dreaded Scholars while I was in it.

2/6/2007 10:43:00 PM