Academic Requirements
Courses
The Honors Program is designed to use special sections of general education courses as its major academic component. Certain sections of general education courses are designated as “honors” each semester. These designated sections have a smaller enrollment, and only honors students may register for these courses.
- An honors student must complete seven honors designated courses, one of which must be an area 12 senior colloquium. Normally, an honors student takes
one honors course each semester through the first three years, and an
honors senior colloquium during one semester of the fourth year.
- A student has the option of replacing one lower biennium honors course with an extra upper biennium honors course. A student entering the Honors Program with sufficiently advanced standing may be granted a reduction of one lower biennium honors course.
- Because of the additional reading and writing requirements within the Honors Program, a student who completes two semesters in the program
automatically satisfies area 9 of the general education program.
- Any student beginning the Honors Program in the fall semester of his or her freshman year will be granted a
reduction of one lower biennium Honors course in the Honors Program requirements if he/she has completed at least four courses toward graduation through
AP courses, CLEP credits, transfer credits or retroactive foreign language credit. A student who enters the Honors Program under the late-entry procedure may be granted a reduction of one lower biennium honors course on a case-by-case basis.
Readings
Associated with each honors course, except the senior colloquium, is a special reading assignment. Each lower biennium honors student reads the same book, engages in several discussion sessions and submits a critical essay on the book to his or her honors instructor. The essay accounts for about 15% of the course grade.
Each student in the upper biennium honors courses reads the same pair of books, engages in several discussion sessions and submits a comparative essay to his or her honors instructor. Essays are approximately 1,500 words in length.
Class Standing
Each honors student is expected to be in the
top 20% of their college class or maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.50 or better, to continue in the program and receive the designation "Graduate of the Honors Program" on their diploma and transcript.
Honors students who fall below the top 20% of the class, but for whom there is reasonable expectation that they can improve their academic standing, may be allowed to continue in the program on a provisional basis.
Four Courses per Semester
Each honors student is expected to successfully complete four courses per semester. However, a student can initially enroll for three courses and use AP or CLEP credit to compensate for the reduced load. An excessive number of withdrawals, regardless of GPA, can result in dismissal from the program.
Exceptions
In consultation with the general education and honors committee, the director of the Honors Program can make an exception to the academic requirements listed above on an individual basis, but the reasons for granting an exception must be non-academic (for example: illness).
