Honors Program Overview

Program Overview

In order to successfully graduate from the Honors Program, a student must take 12 credit hours of honors courses and complete a special project. This latter requirement is accompanied by additional coursework to help students navigate the process of designing and executing the project.

Guidelines for Honors Credit Courses (minimum of 12 required credit hours)

• Minimum of six credit hours from the Core Curriculum (if fewer than six credit hours remain in the Core when the student joins the Honors Program, then the student may submit a request to appeal to complete additional hours in his/her major to reach the total of twelve honors credit hours).
• Minimum of six credit hours from the student’s major.
• To earn honors credit for a course, a student can enroll and complete a section of a course with the honors designation OR a student can submit a request to designate the course as honors to the Honors Oversight Committee. As a part of this form, the instructor of the course must also agree to provide additional guidance to the student without remuneration. For suggestions and guidelines regarding the criteria for adjusting the course curriculum to facilitate the elevated learning associated with an honors course, instructors should contact a member of the Honors Oversight Committee.

Additional Honors Courses to Guide Project

Students in the Honors Program will also take the following courses in order to guide them through the project process in addition to the twelve credit hours outlined in the previous section. With the course number is an explanation of the purpose and timing of the course.

HNRS 2011 Honors Introduction to Research

During this course, students formalize the specialized project and submit a final proposal by the end of the course. The course begins with the guidance of a member of the Honors Oversight Committee but leads to students meeting with their project advisors to establish the relationship between the student and a faculty advisor. This course can be taken after acceptance to the program but should be completed at least two semesters prior to the final presentation of the project.

HNRS 4993 Honors Research

This course is an independent study overseen by the faculty member serving as the advisor for the project. Students will engage in scholarly activities required to complete the project (i.e., research, experiment, travel, interviews, work, etc.). This is to be completed no later than the semester before the student will graduate.

HNRS 4001 Honors Senior Seminar

During the last semester in the program prior to graduation, students will draft a final paper and develop a presentation describing the results of their projects. These results are presented to the university at large at the end of the semester. This course is overseen by faculty project advisors in conjunction with a member of the Honors Oversight Committee.