Does any adcom care about honors degrees?

[iluvexcel]

I'm a second year student at western headed into my third year, and I have the option of pursuing an honors spec program. I was wondering if any admission committee cares about the "type of degree", i.e. an honors degree in medical sciences vs. just a major in medical sciences.

If i pursue the honors degree, I would have to pick more challenging courses than a non-honors degree, which could hurt my GPA.

I was also wondering what the minimum "competitive" GPA would be for a 3rd year applicant in ontario. I planned on applying to Mac, Queens, UofT, and Ottawa if I have a chance. 

Thanks!

 

[ExercMed]

Degree difficulty is not taken into account by adcom when reviewing your file. However, an honours degree usually allows individuals to pursue a research project in a field that they are interested in and is not solely course based. Does the honours degree at western involve a research project?

As far as minimum GPA, the statistics from these schools are all available on their website. If you are going into an honours you better get used to doing some research .

[lulu95]

Unless you're applying to a french school (eg Laval, Sherbrooke), program difficulty isn't taken into consideration. As for research, even though it may be easier to find one for an honours thesis, you should be able to secure research at Western whether or not you're doing an honours program. Frankly, I actually preferred doing a major and minor rather than honours, it gives you a chance to explore something outside your major which can either give you a more holistic understanding of the field - if you choose a related minor - or to get a taste of another field.

[Snowmen]

22 hours ago, lulu95 said:

Unless you're applying to a french school (eg Laval, Sherbrooke), program difficulty isn't taken into consideration. As for research, even though it may be easier to find one for an honours thesis, you should be able to secure research at Western whether or not you're doing an honours program. Frankly, I actually preferred doing a major and minor rather than honours, it gives you a chance to explore something outside your major which can either give you a more holistic understanding of the field - if you choose a related minor - or to get a taste of another field.

Even then, the french schools consider the discipline rather than the degree difficulty itself. Therefore, a regular health science degree would be worth the same as a honors degree.

[iluvexcel]

On 6/2/2017 at 7:24 AM, ExercMed said:

Degree difficulty is not taken into account by adcom when reviewing your file. However, an honours degree usually allows individuals to pursue a research project in a field that they are interested in and is not solely course based. Does the honours degree at western involve a research project?

As far as minimum GPA, the statistics from these schools are all available on their website. If you are going into an honours you better get used to doing some research .

An honors degree would give me an opportunity at working on a thesis project, but I've managed to secure a research project in an area that I'm interested in outside of my studies!

On 6/2/2017 at 2:24 PM, lulu95 said:

Unless you're applying to a french school (eg Laval, Sherbrooke), program difficulty isn't taken into consideration. As for research, even though it may be easier to find one for an honours thesis, you should be able to secure research at Western whether or not you're doing an honours program. Frankly, I actually preferred doing a major and minor rather than honours, it gives you a chance to explore something outside your major which can either give you a more holistic understanding of the field - if you choose a related minor - or to get a taste of another field.

Thanks for the insight? Can i ask what you majored/minored in? 

[ExercMed]

15 hours ago, premed176 said:

An honors degree would give me an opportunity at working on a thesis project, but I've managed to secure a research project in an area that I'm interested in outside of my studies!

Thats great! My only other pro of doing an honors is that it is basically a research project that counts as a course credit. Because of this, it can give you more time to work on other credits you might be taking.

Ie. without honors, you are taking 5 credits per semester plus a research project
With honors, you are still taking 5 credits per semester but only 4 are traditional course work and 1 research project. 
Personally, I found this ideal because it felt like I had more time. I ended up taking on another research project in another department on top of my honors (however the 2nd project filled my schedule).

Although, I do agree with what lulu is saying. It is nice to explore other areas to get an idea of what else you are interested in. 

[Eian01]

Research may help you out in the long run, but they don't the difficulty into account. Just maintain a good GPA and you are through ...

[la marzocco]

On 6/3/2017 at 12:45 PM, Snowmen said:

Even then, the french schools consider the discipline rather than the degree difficulty itself. Therefore, a regular health science degree would be worth the same as a honors degree.

.

[lulu95]

On 2017-6-3 at 5:09 PM, premed176 said:

An honors degree would give me an opportunity at working on a thesis project, but I've managed to secure a research project in an area that I'm interested in outside of my studies!

Thanks for the insight? Can i ask what you majored/minored in? 

That's great to hear! And it was neurosciencd/pharmacology, quite interconnected and very interesting.

ExercMed made a good point about research courses though, it's much easier on your course load if you're getting credits for the time you put in for the research; I did an "honours thesis" as part of the major as well, where I practically lived in the lab, a time commitment that wouldn't have been likely if it was outside of the full course load. On the other hand, you don't have to worry about getting graded, haha.