Honors Requirements

Curriculum Requirements

Each student in the Honors College must complete the college-wide general education requirements and requirements for a major. Honors College students must also successfully complete the following courses:

• HONS 100, Beyond George Street (1 credit)
• HONS 110, Honors Academic Writing (4 credits)
• HONS 120 and 130, Honors Colloquium in Western Civilization (12 credits)   
• Two semesters of mathematics to include MATH 120 or HONS 115 (Introductory Calculus) and an additional mathematics course at the 200-level. Students also may choose to take the Honors course, Math Appreciation, to satisfy the 200-level course requirement (7-8 credits)
• A minimum of three additional Honors College courses, at least one of which must be interdisciplinary (9+ credits)
• A 3-credit hour independent study or tutorial, usually done in the junior year   
• A 6-credit hour Bachelor's Essay, usually done over two semesters in the senior year 

All Honors College freshman are required to enroll in HONS 100, HONS 110, and 1 other Honors course during their first semester. Students who receive transfer credit for Honors English must enroll in HONS 100, one Honors class, and either a second Honors class or a First-Year Seminar course.

Honors Academic Writing, Honors Western Civilization, Honors Calculus I and Honors Math Appreciation do not count toward the requirement for three additional honors classes.

You may satisfy some of these requirements through AP exams, however, you must check with the Honors College office to verify whether or not and to what extent your AP credit satisfies the requirement. Sometimes your AP credit only partially fulfills the requirement and you must take additional honors and/or specified subject matter courses to fully meet the requirement.

The independent study/tutorial and Bachelor's Essay may be done either in the Honors College or in the department of the student's choosing. The student must take the initiative in seeking a tutor to help in both the design and supervision of the tutorial and the Bachelor's Essay. In both cases, you must submit a project proposal in writing and have it approved by the Dean of the Honors College or the department chair involved prior to registering for the course. The student should begin planning the tutorial and the Bachelor's Essay well before the semester in which the courses will be taken in order to allow sufficient time to devise a project proposal, to locate a tutor willing to supervise the project, and to submit the completed project proposal. As of the Fall of 2013, the deadline for submitting necessary paperwork to the Registrar's Office will be the drop/add deadline of the semester in which the student will complete the coursework.

Honors College students who complete the above requirements for graduation will be so designated on their transcripts and will receive special recognition during graduation ceremonies.