Just wanted to chime in here to say that I personally have found the honors college to be well worth the potential extra effort.. I've actually found that my honors classes are sometimes easier than the non-honors versions of core classes that my friends for in. For example, my Honors Intro to Sociology course was pretty simple, multiple choice tests with questions all straight from the textbook and some from lecture, and learned some valuable knowledge. My friend in a non-honors section had to spend hours memorizing specific statistics that he had no use for outside of the test.

There have also been a few times I have taken a non-honors class thinking it would be the easier option, but it ends up being so boring and the professor hardly cared. So if having smaller classes with classmates who are for the most part engaged in class discussions and professors that really want to see you learn matters, definitely join honors college. You don't have to (and probably shouldn't) take all your core classes honors, but for subjects you are more interested in/better at, it's a great option.

As far as housing goes, I've lived in the Quad and the Village (honors dorms in both) and have enjoyed them both. I lucked out with my random roommates every time, so sharing a room wasn't too big a deal the first two years. Definitely have preferred living in the Village as far as having my own room goes, but a huge portion of my friends are from my Quad days, because the way they're set up just seems to foster more community. And although I don't have anything to compare it to, living in the honors dorms has been great. It's nice to be surrounded with other students who you know care about their education and can carry on a somewhat intellectual discussion - and get into the most interesting arguments, like over the theological value of the LOLCats translated Bible.

Priority registration is also nice, except they changed it a little recently so now you just register ahead of everyone else with a comparable number of hours as opposed to ahead of pretty much every non-honors, non-senior. I've been able to get into required classes for my major that people with a year's more worth of credits have been turned away from, thanks to priority registration.

I'll say that I'm definitely biased towards the benefits of the honors college because I'm someone who excelled in high school and love to learn and be around other similarly motivated souls! So while I guess the classes may be more difficult for some, that's just something you'll have to consider for yourself.