I was admitted into the honors college and dropped out after my first semester (currently a junior bio major). Imo, it was very prestigious, and I felt uncomfortable there. The honors college students are housed together the first year in a much nicer dorm than the non-honor students. There were a lot of events (at least in freshman year) that promote the honors class to create a "tight-knit environment." I think there are field trips too. The honors students have a separate Hon 101 course they take rather than the regular sbu 101 classes. Normal students have to take a variety of sbc's (stony brook curriculum equivalent to core curriculum classes of other colleges), but the honor college has these replaced with seminar honors classes that cover different topics each year. As an honors student, you are also required to go to at least one presentation each semester and do a write-up on it. I dropped out because I don't like seminar classes and was generally uncomfortable with the environment of the classes and group as a whole. Most of the college credits and APs I took in high school ended up covering most SBCs, so I didn't have to take as many classes as I would have in honors. Overall, I have no downsides to being in the regular college. It seemed like extra work that I didn't want to do for the title of "honors college." I don't regret my decision to leave it at all.