A Message from the Director
Welcome to the University Honors Program website. The program offers students who have achieved excellence during their high school years a set of challenging opportunities to continue to grow and to explore new horizons, intellectually and personally. Our program has been recognized by the National Collegiate Honors Council as one that does just that, and 93% of our recent Honors Program graduates report being satisfied or very satisfied with their experiences in our program.
Five components distinguish the Honors Program: curriculum designed just for the program; close relationship with faculty members from the first day of freshman year; strong student community with its foundation in first-year courses taken as a cohort and a residential learning community; dedicated advising.
Students begin their honors career by taking the Honors Triple, two semesters of integrated courses in English, History, and Philosophy that explore western culture from the ancient world to the present. Students take the “Triple” as a cohort with the same professors over two semesters. The triple is enhanced by Honors “Labs,” excursions out of the classroom to visit museums and attend the theater, ballet, and symphony. Students round out their core education with courses in Religion and Ethics. After completing the Honors Triple, students are then free to choose four electives out of a range of offerings of Honors electives, seminars offered by professors from business, the physical sciences, social sciences, and humanities. In their later years, honors students have the opportunity to explore their own academic interests through independent research by completing an Honors Project of their own design.
Students in majors which require clinical placements, internships, or field experiences are released from the Honors Project and some of the electives.
The University Honors Program has developed a reputation for producing alumni who combine the pursuit of excellence in their chosen fields with a commitment to collaboration that builds community—two qualities nurtured first in the Honors Triple and the residential community. They also embody the program’s encouragement to ask the “impertinent questions” that shake the foundations of settled knowledge and behavior and create new ways of thinking, doing, and living.
Enjoy exploring the University Honors Program.
Br. Michael McGinniss, F.S.C