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Honors - Barrett, The Honors College Policies

Curriculum

Students planning to graduate from Barrett must also graduate from a disciplinary college. The ASU honors curriculum normally allows students to finish all requirements within the 120 credit hours of credit usually required for graduation. Thirty-six of those credits are honors courses—with a minimum of 18 upper-division credits.

Special Programs

Lorraine W. Frank Office of National Scholarship Advisement

The Lorraine W. Frank Office of National Scholarship Advisement assists students by identifying nationally competitive programs appropriate to each person’s intellectual and career goals, nurturing these prospective applicants and advancing their candidacy. This office, administered by the college, serves the entire ASU community. ASU students regularly earn distinction in the most rigorous and prestigious scholarship competitions. Many pursue enhanced degree programs and research projects under the auspices of Goldwater or Truman Scholarships. Other students undertake postgraduate study in the United States and abroad as Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, Udall, National Science Foundation or Mellon Scholars. Many others have been recognized by a range of postgraduate awards, fellowships and assistantships. This office does not administer any need- or merit-based student financial assistance. For more information, call 480-965-5894.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Undergraduate research and creative opportunities are available across many disciplinary programs, centers and institutes at ASU. Barrett maintains lists of current opportunities, available by accessing the college’s Web site at http://honors.asu.edu. In addition, the college actively seeks new opportunities matching student training with emerging research on campus

Study Abroad

Students in Barrett have exclusive access to study abroad programs that significantly enhance their educational experience. Directed and taught by Barrett faculty, these programs usually occur during the first summer session and last between five and six and a half weeks and allow students to earn honors credit while overseas. The five current programs offer students the privilege of studying in several of the most significant and dynamic cities in China, Europe and Latin America. The London, Dublin and Edinburgh program has been offered since 1995, the Paris and Loire Valley program since 1998, the Latin American program since 2002, the China program in 2007 and the Athens, Crete and Rome program started in 2008. The International Programs Office offers semester- and year-long programs abroad for students who desire a fuller experience. Often, students who have participated in one of Barrett’s summer programs realize the major benefits of studying abroad and choose to continue through extended programs.

Beginning in Fall 2009 a limited number of Barrett students will participate in an honors exchange program in Singapore through a partnership with the University Scholars Programme at the National University of Singapore.

Internships, Mentorships and Opportunities

Students in Barrett may participate in special internship opportunities—in government, industry and the private sector—throughout metropolitan Phoenix. The college maintains a database of special opportunities, including community service and international and cultural events. For more information, call 480-727-6993.

Events and Programming

Students enrolled in Barrett are given special access when important contributors to contemporary thought in society visit ASU. Each year the college hosts the university’s premier scholar-in-residence program, the Centennial Lecture. Past guests include novelist Carlos Fuentes, paleontologist Steven Jay Gould, psychiatrist Robert Coles, microbiologist Lynn Margulis, essayist Susan Sontag, paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey, American Indian author N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer Prize winning authors David Halberstam and Anna Quindlen, prolific and wide-ranging African American author and National Book Award recipient Charles Johnson, playwright Edward Albee, a prominent innovator in modern American drama and Kathleen Sullivan, a renowned constitutional law scholar. In 2008 the Centennial Lecturer was Leonard Downie, Jr., former executive director of the Washington Post.

The college is also home to the John J. Rhodes Chair, designed to bring persons to the college who have significantly contributed to civic life and distinguished themselves as public service leaders. Students have unique opportunities to engage intellectually with these outstanding visiting lecturers. In 1998, the college was honored to have Dr. Henry A. Kissinger serve as the inaugural chair. American Indian scholar Donald Lee Fixico was the 2002 Rhodes Lecturer, followed by Jean Strause, notable biographer of J. P. Morgan in 2003, world-renowned astronomer David Levy in 2004 and leading alternate energy expert Hal Harvey in 2005. The Rhodes Lecturer in 2006 was economist and author Silvia Ann Hewlett, followed by long-time CNN anchor and journalist Aaron Brown in 2007, author Eric Schlosser in 2008 and Newsweek senior editor Jonathan Alter in 2009.

Additional Benefits

Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University is the site of the nation’s first purposely-designed four-year residential honors college campus. The new Barrett campus stands alone among honors colleges for its size and comprehensiveness of services. The honors campus offers housing to 1,700 students and features its own dining center, classrooms, café, faculty and administrative offices and activity space.  Amenities include a fitness center, computer lounge and lab, amphitheater, classrooms, outside activity courts and dining hall with covered terrace, garden and special dining rooms for events. The campus also features a student-driven sustainable living and learning community with low consumption plumbing fixtures, enhanced energy monitoring, a green roof and organic garden. Barrett and all its facilities and services are fully available to every honors student, regardless of where he or she lives.

The Honors Halls of Residence offer students an integrated living-learning environment. Barrett has its own faculty and academic advisors to serve all honors students. Classrooms, recreational and study lounges and a state-of-the-art computing lab make up the principal facilities of the college.

Students enrolled in Barrett receive priority at preregistration and have extended checkout privileges in the campus libraries. Honors courses in disciplinary departments are typically limited to 25 students. Honors courses (with the prefix HON) are usually limited to 19.

Students who meet all requirements of both their disciplinary college and Barrett receive transcript recognition of that accomplishment, as well as special acknowledgment during graduation ceremonies and collegiate honors convocations.

Barrett students have diverse interests and strong records of success. Many are accepted into the nation’s finest graduate and professional programs, including at Chicago, Cornell, Harvard, Michigan, MIT, Northwestern, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, Virginia, Wisconsin and Yale. Many students have published portions of their honors theses and have presented their work at national and regional meetings of scientific and honors societies.

Admission

Students who have demonstrated high levels of academic achievement in high school or college may apply for admission to Barrett. All candidates for admission must file an application to the college separate from their ASU application.

Applicants are evaluated on the basis of their high school GPA (Arizona Board of Regents GPA based on 16 competency courses), high school class rank and performance on the SAT or ACT; as well as talents that contribute to leadership and community service. Continuing ASU or transfer students are evaluated on their college GPA.

Application forms and additional information about the college and its activities are available by calling 480-965-2359 or by accessing the Web site at http://honors.asu.edu.

Retention

Honors students must maintain high standards of academic performance and show progress toward completion of graduation requirements in their disciplinary majors and in Barrett. In order to graduate from Barrett, students must complete the following (which includes a total of 36 credit hours of honors course work):

  1. HON 171 and 272/273 The Human Event must be completed by the time a student has earned 45 credit hours at ASU. Students are placed on inactive status if this requirement is not met.
  2. Thirty additional credit hours of honors course work must be earned with a letter grade of “C” (2.00) or higher. This may include HON prefix classes, honors sections of classes, honors contracts or any automatic honors course such as ENG 105 (in-person sections), CHM 117, CHM 118 or PHY 333, or any graduate-level course.
  3. Included in the 30 credit hours of honors course work are 18 hours of upper-division or graduate-level honors credits for an earned letter grade of “C” (2.00) or higher, including six credit hours of honors course work outside the academic major. Students should investigate specialized honors upper-division tracks within their majors.
  4. Upper division transfer students (defined as 60 or more university credits completed at the time of Barrett application) must complete a three credit 300-level upper-division HON special topics course in addition to the 18 required hours of upper-division honors course work. A total of 21 hours of upper-division honors course work are required for these transfers because transfers do not have time to complete all 36 honors hours.
  5. Students are required to complete an honors thesis/creative project for at least three credit hours though students are encouraged to complete six thesis credit hours. The thesis credit hours may be included in the 18 required hours of upper-division honors course work. The thesis is launched with a prospectus form due one academic year before the defense. The final copy must be filed by the last week of classes during the student’s graduation semester.
  6. ASU graduation requirements in an academic major must be met.
  7. The student must maintain a cumulative ASU GPA of 3.25 or higher.

Barrett students are expected to meet regularly with honors advisors. Three sessions are mandatory: one during the first semester in Barrett, one during the third semester and another during the sixth semester. To make an appointment with an honors advisor, call 480-965-9155. Office hours are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., in MB C100-L1.

Course Requirements

Barrett course requirements may be met in a variety of ways. There are two specific required courses for first year students. Only courses in which a student receives a grade of “C” (2.00) or higher may be used to meet Barrett requirements.

Those entering the college as lower-division students must take 18 lower-division honors credits, which include HON 171 and 272/273 The Human Event. This cross-disciplinary seminar acquaints them with ideas that form the foundation of a university education and emphasizes critical thinking, discussion and writing. Barrett students complete HON 171 and 272/273 during their first 45 units at ASU.

Those who enter as upper-division students must take 21 upper division honors credits, including a required 300-level honors course. Junior-level seminar courses introduce them to critical thinking, discussion and writing in a topical area chosen by the instructor. It is expected that all students complete this course no later than the first or second semester after transferring.

Departmental honors-only courses carrying footnote number 19 in the Online ASU Schedule of Classes are limited to honors students and others who receive special permission from the instructor to enroll. Enrollment in these courses is limited. Compared to their nonhonors equivalents, these courses are designed to offer a richer, more complex intellectual experience appropriate to the discipline and the level of the course for all students enrolled. Other disciplinary honors courses group honors students in small cohorts to work on research projects of common interest.

Honors contracts are available in many departmental courses allowing honors students to contract with the instructor of designated nonhonors courses to earn honors credit by pursuing enrichment activities, which may include supplemental sessions with the instructor. Honors contracts must be filed during the first four weeks of class and completed during the semester in which the course is offered. Each contract form offers guidelines to aid students and faculty in developing appropriate contracts.

Course numbers listed in the online ASU schedule of classes as 298/492 Honors Directed Study, 493 Honors Thesis, 497 Honors Colloquium and all classes with the HON prefix are reserved for students in Barrett and always count for honors credit. Students may receive credit for more than one of each of these courses in a given department.

Departmental courses with the number 493 are reserved for honors students completing their honors theses and creative projects. A student may enroll for these courses only with the approval of the sponsoring academic department and of the faculty member who serves as the student’s thesis director. Course numbers listed in the online ASU schedule of classes as 493 fulfill the student’s upper-division literacy and critical inquiry (L) General Studies requirement.

There are certain courses that carry automatic honors credit. These include ENG 105 (any in-person section) and CHM 117 and 118. MAT 300, PHY 201 and PHY 333, when taken by students with 45 or fewer credit hours also carry automatic honors credit, as long as the student receives a grade “A” (4.00) or “B” (3.00). Graduate level courses automatically earn honors credit.

Honors Transcript Recognition

All courses used to fulfill graduation requirements for Barrett must carry earned letter grades of at least “C” (2.00). A “Y” grade meets college requirements only for HON 492 Honors Directed Study and HON 493 Honors Thesis.

Graduation Requirements

To graduate through Barrett, students must

  1. Complete all honors course requirements.
  2. Complete all required credit hours of honors course work with a grade of “C” (2.00) or higher (a “Y” grade is allowed for HON 492, HON 493, and for one-semester-hour courses offered through Barrett) unless otherwise provided for by Barrett and the college of the student’s major.
  3. Complete ASU graduation requirements in an academic major.
  4. Earn a cumulative ASU GPA greater than or equal to 3.25 (4.00 = A).