The Honors Program

The Honors Program is designed to provide students of superior ability and accomplishment with challenges and opportunities that will allow them to more fully realize their potential. The program emphasizes teaching excellence, small classes, and a core curriculum of innovative and exciting courses. Honors students have numerous opportunities for individual counseling and discussions with honors faculty.

Curriculum

In the freshman year, honors students enroll in an honors preceptorial during fall semester, and in a section of a lower-division core curriculum course in the spring semester. During their sophomore and junior years, Honors students enroll in at least two upper-division, team-taught interdisciplinary courses. These courses, which change yearly, represent the honors core curriculum. In the senior year, students in the honors program work on an independent research project in the fall semester and, in their final semester, participate in a Senior Honors Colloquium in which they share the results of their research with fellow honors students and the honors faculty. Students may also receive 4 units of honors credit for studying abroad.

Admissions

In evaluating the records of high-school seniors, the Office of Admissions and the Director of the Honors Program will invite those students who have the ability and motivation to achieve in the Honors Program to join. Involvement in community, school, leadership activities, and evidence of a sustained desire to do excellent academic work are the most important indicators of a potential Honors student’s ability to succeed in the Program. Students who do not enter the Program at the beginning of their undergraduate career may apply for admission at the end of the fall semester of their freshman year.

Requirements

Students in the Honors Program must complete a minimum of 25 Honors units and maintain a GPA of 3.4 or above for graduation with the Honors Diploma.

Recommended Program of Study

Freshman Year
Semester I
Honors Preceptorial (4)

Semester II
Lower-division elective (3)

Sophomore Year
Semester I
Team-taught course (4)
or
Single-taught course (3)

Semester II
Same as Semester I

Junior Year
Semester I
Team-taught course (4)
or
Single-taught course (3)

Semester II
Same as Semester I

Senior Year
Semester I
Independent Study (1-3)

Semester II
Senior Colloquium (3)

HONORS Course (HNRS)

495 Honors Senior Thesis Seminar / 3 units
Students will conceptualize a project of original scholarship and share results of their inquiry in the seminar. The project should be original and compatible with the student’s major. Projects can take the form of a scholarly paper, original writing, artistic composition or design, science experiment, or a curricular module. Students will propose a project, prepare and lead a seminar, and turn in a final thesis by the end of the semester. Prerequisite: Senior standing and enrollment in USD Honors Program.