|
What does
Honors offer me? |
|
Great classes,
some of Marshall’s best professors, a community of learning,
access to helpful staff in a welcoming office, a social network of
other honors students who also are bright and motivated, the
prestige and feeling of accomplishment that graduation in honors
will bring. |
|
How hard are Honors courses? (Will Honors affect
my GPA?) |
|
Honors courses
differ from courses in the regular curriculum because they ask
more of the students. Honors courses expect students to take an
active interest in the educational process itself. You may find
that Honors courses will involve more work than some regular
classes (more reading, more writing, independent projects, etc.).
Or, you may find that Honors courses, rather than requiring more
work, involve work of a different kind (more conceptually
sophisticated material, an emphasis on primary/original materials,
more self-directed learning outside of the classroom, etc.).
Honors courses may be accelerated (cover more material than a
regular course) or they may advance at a slower pace (engage the
material in more depth). All Honors courses will be organized as
seminars with a low student-professor ratio and an emphasis on
active learning. The style of teaching as well as content will
interest and engage you more than some other classes. You also
will be among students like you—intelligent, hard-working,
engaged—who will inspire and help you in workshops and writing
exercises. In the end creatively designed courses with innovative
subject matter also may open new interests, new avenues in study
and in life for you. |
|
If there is
some risk involved with taking Honors courses, why should I take
on that risk? Isn’t college enough of a challenge already?
|
|
Graduate and
professional schools as well as potential employers will look for
candidates who have pushed themselves, accepted challenges, and
taken risks. They recognize, as you should recognize, that growth
and development result from meeting challenges and accepting
risks. You will be well served by the skills, habits, and
dispositions that you develop as a result of overcoming fear of
failure (or underperformance) and exceeding the expectations that
you have set for yourself. There is real value in the unexpected
encounters that come with avoiding the easiest or most comfortable
path. The Honors Program is designed with this in mind. You are
not on your own here. There is a support system in place and
resources available to help you meet these challenges
successfully. |
|
What do
I have to do to get in the Honors Program? |
| You must fill
out an application form and return it to the Center for Academic
Excellence (Old Main 230). You must have a 3.3 GPA to enroll in an honors
course or an ACT composite of 26 for entering freshmen to enroll
in HON 101 (see
About
the Program). Transfer students are welcome
to take Honors classes as soon as they enroll at Marshall
University, as long as they fulfill the GPA requirements.
If transfer students are interested in graduating in University
Honors, they should pay special attention to credit hour
requirements to determine if it is possible to meet these
requirements during their time at Marshall. |
|
What is
the difference between graduating “in University Honors” and “with
honors”? |
|
Graduation “with honors” is
solely determined by the final cumulative GPA: cum laude (3.3 to
3.59), magna cum laude (3.6 to 3.84), and summa cum laude (3.85
and above). A student graduating “in University Honors” has
completed all of the requirements for the Honors Program including
the required number of Honors units and the maintenance of GPA. If you
fulfill the required 24 hours of Honors classes across the
appropriate distribution (see
Graduation
Requirements), the Registrar will place the
"University Honors" designation on your transcript. |
|
How do I take a regular class for honors
credit? |
| Use the
H-Option
form that allows you to enroll in a regular class
but perform Honors work while in that class, as long as you have
the permission of the instructor and Honors Program before the
semester begins. |
| Is a class like HON 196
(The American Experience), for example, the same class each
year? |
| Not
necessarily. All Honors seminars are assigned to standing
numbers like HON 196 or HON 395, for example. But the content of
those courses can vary from year to year, so that HON 196 might
one year look at the American Experience in the Vietnam War and
during the next year look at the evolution of American Music. So
pay careful attention to the subtitles in the course catalog or
see the extended course descriptions available in the Honors
office. |
| What is MUHSA? |
| The Marshall
University Honors Student Association is an organization of
active Honors students who meet regularly to discuss ways in
which to improve the Honors Program. Students also meet socially
to raise money, eat pizza, and watch movies when the stress of
university life gets too intense. The organization has two seats
on the University Honors Council, a faculty committee that
governs the Honors Program. |
|
What if
I am a John Marshall Scholar who does not make a 3.5 GPA my first
semester, as required by the terms of my scholarship? |
|
You have until
the end of the spring semester to bring it up to a 3.5. If you
fail to meet the 3.5 GPA requirement, you may appeal to the
Director of the CAE. Appeals must be submitted in writing and will
be accepted only if students can demonstrate the possibility of
reaching a 3.5 by the end of the spring semester of the sophomore
year. (Policy effective with the fall term of 2006.) |
About the Program