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Honors Curriculum Requirements

To graduate from the Honors College, students must maintain a 3.25 cumulative grade point average, a 3.0 GPA in the Honors curriculum, and complete the Honors core, thesis, and one of the three elective concentrations. The Honors College curriculum is designed to work with any degree program by overlapping with Foundational Studies requirements and major classes.

Honors Core

The Honors curriculum features a core of four classes that immerse students in the great ideas and works of human civilization and equips them with the tools to think critically, analytically and with the ability to integrate and synthesize across disciplines and concepts. As a part of that, the Honors senior seminar/thesis is intended to challenge the student to conduct a research project that integrates the strands of expertise developed through the Honors core, minor and the student's major program. The four Honor core classes satisfy a block of six Foundational Studies categories, allowing Honors students to move more quickly through those requirements.

  • General Honors (GH) 101: Honors Seminar: Contemporary Issues (3 Credits)
  • General Honors (GH) 201: Introduction to the Great Works (3 Credits)
  • General Honors (GH) 301: Honors Junior Seminar (3 Credits)
  • General Honors (GH) 401: Senior Thesis (3 Credits) - to be taken after completing the other courses in the Honors core plus 12 credits in the student's selected elective track

Honors and Foundational Studies

Students who complete the Honors core (GH 101, GH 201, GH 301, and GH 401) and will have met the following Foundational Studies requirements:

  • Social and Behavioral Science
  • Literary Studies
  • Fine and Performing Arts
  • Ethics and Social Responsibility
  • Upper Division, Integrative Elective
  • High Impact Practice

Honors Elective Concentrations

Note: This information is based on the 2023-2024 undergraduate catalog. Please refer to the requirements in your catalog and consult with your academic advisor before declaring a minor or registering for classes.

In addition to completing the Honors core, students specialize in Honors through one of three elective concentrations designed to allow more substantial exposure and experience in sub-areas:

Global Perspectives

The global perspectives concentration is designed to allow students to better immerse themselves in other cultures by completing a language minor, or strengthening their global perspective through a structured multidisciplinary experience. Study abroad is an essential and integral component of the global perspectives concentration.

To earn the global perspectives concentration, students must complete the following:

Note: Students completing in the global perspectives concentration must take a study abroad experience, which may be counted as elective credit toward the international studies or language studies minor.

Honors in the Major and/or Foundational Studies

 

This concentration allows students to embrace more challenging experiences in their major and the Foundational Studies Program by completing department classes designated as Honors sections or converting classes for Honors credit. Honors Conversion entails a contract between an individual student, an instructor, and the Honors College to determine a suitable enhancement to course content that justifies Honors credit for that class. For example, a student enrolled in ENG 339 - Women’s Poetry might convert that class to ENG 339 - Hon: Women's Poetry through the addition of an assignment(s) or project(s) that raise the level of challenge of the course.

To complete this concentration, students must earn 18 credits of Honors electives through course combinations from any of the following categories. Students may satisfy this requirement with courses from any one, two, or all three categories, according to their preference, needs, and advisement:

  • Honors Conversion
  • Departmental Honors Classes
  • Extra GH Classes (taken in addition to the core requirement)
  • Study Abroad Classes