Undergraduate Honors Programs
Guidelines for Developing and Revising College and Departmental Honors Programs
The following Guidelines were developed by the University Honors Council and endorsed by the College Curriculum Committees and the University Courses and Curricula Committee and approved by the Provost in September 1990.
- ADMISSION
- Honors programs will have a minimum admission requirement of a 3.25 overall GPA and a 3.25 major GPA after at least 9 hours of coursework required for the major or other coursework approved by the major department. Each college should establish minimum admissions criteria for its honors programs sufficiently distinctive that eligibility for admission would be limited to not more than the top 25% of the sophomore class of that college.
- COURSEWORK
A minimum of 9 credit hours in courses numbered 300 or above drawn from at least two of the three following categories:
- Special courses for Honors students, either courses open only to Honors students or Honors (H) sections of regularly-offered courses or Honors options in regularly-offered courses or regularly-offered courses that departments or colleges designate as appropriate for their Honors programs.
- Advanced courses, 500-level courses that are taken as electives or as substitutes for lower-level courses
- Independent studies that can take on a variety of forms: a senior thesis or paper, a project and project report, lab work and lab report, a group of individual tutorial guided by a faculty member.
- OPERATION
- Proposals for new or revised Honors programs will be reviewed and approved according to the regular procedures for undergraduate academic programs including review by college curriculum committees, the University Courses and Curricula Committee (UCCC) and final approval by the Dean of Undergraduate Academic Programs. Individual programs will be directed by the colleges and/or departments. Each college and/or department should designate a member of its faculty as coordinator or director of its Honors program.
- RECOGNITION
- Students who complete Honors programs will be recognized in the Commencement program, the phrase “Completed Honors Program in (college, department, or major)” will appear on their permanent transcripts, and their names will be in the Honors Convocation program.
- COMPLETION
- A student will be deemed to have completed an Honors Program upon completing successfully the designated coursework of the program and achieving an overall GPA of at least 3.25.
- DEPARTMENTAL/COLLEGE HONORS PROGRAMS
- Anthropology
- Biochemistry
- Biomedical Engineering/Biomedical and Health Sciences Engineering
- Biological Sciences
- College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
- Chemical Engineering
- Chemistry
- Communication
- Computer Science
- Business Analytics
- Economics
- English
- Genetics
- History
- Mathematics
- MEAS
- Microbiology
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Political Science
- Psychology
- Religious Studies
- Sociology/Criminology
- Statistics
- Zoology
- UNIVERSITY HONORS PROGRAMS
- University Honors Program
- University Scholars Program