“It’s a trap. It’s too much work. Get out while you can.”
These words of frustration are commonly shared among KSU Honors Club students.
Many honors students say that they don’t get the recognition they deserve.
One allure for joining Honors Club is that “honors” title on graduation day.
However, what most don’t realize when they join the honors club is that anyone can graduate “with honors.”
According to KSU’s Commencement page, “Graduation with honor…requires that students have an adjusted GPA of at least 3.5 and earn at least 60 semester credit hours at Kennesaw State University.”
So as long as you have met the minimal requirements, you’re an honors student.
What’s unfair is that, for the amount of work they have to do, honors club students receive the same title as many other students at graduation.
The excessive work begins with maintaining the honors status, which is done by keeping a GPA of 3.5 or higher. Then honors students must fulfill the curricular requirements, which include two one-hour pass/fail colloquia and five additional honors-designated courses.
And if those courses have filled up when it is time for you to register for classes (a common trend), then you have to sign honors contracts, agreements to complete an additional amount of work for a regular class.
Furthermore, honors students must have one applied learning honors experience related to their discipline with some product to prove they did it.
And of course, there’s the grand finale, the Honors Senior Capstone, in which students enroll in yet another three classes, two one-credit, and one three-credit pass/fail classes to submit their Capstone Proposal, their research outline, and finally that all-extensive Capstone project.
Lastly, don’t forget the honors portfolio that advisers most likely failed to mention until students have thrown away their honors work that must be included in that portfolio.
As a senior honors club member, I have experienced all these frustrations.
So why am I still in Honors?
I’m staying because of President’s Emerging Global Scholars. This leadership-based, intercultural-focused honors program is what introduced me to Honors, and I blame it for keeping me in it as well. Although it’s only a three-year program, PEGS ropes you into Honors with its fulfilling camaraderie, insightful professors, and studies abroad. Throughout college, it honestly shaped who I am, and I suppose I owe that appreciation to honors club.
After PEGS had sucked me in, I had already sunk too deep. Three years into the program, I had already spent the extra money on one-hour classes, completed the curricular requirements, and all that was left was my capstone, which takes forever, by the way.
However, despite all of the stress, extra costs, and difficulties, it’s all been worth it.
My honors classes had no more than 15 students, and I learned a lot.
PEGS, the learning experiences and honors contracts I was forced into helped me build relationships with my professors, enhance my resume, and opened various opportunities for me.
Even the dreaded capstone that I am currently working on introduced me to an innovative project that has inspired in me a new knack for journalism.
Honors Club can be stressful; it can be a pain. But, it’s what you make of it.
In the end, graduating “with honors” and graduating as an honors student are two different things that can only be distinguished by the experiences that give you that title.
