MISSION
The University Honors College is a community of learners dedicated to superior undergraduate education based on the pursuit of excellence, respect for the individual, commitment to integrity, and service to society.
The Honors College offers talented, motivated students educational opportunities designed to enrich and further their personal academic and career goals. It is a portal through which academically talented students gain unique access to the university’s human and physical resources. Transdisciplinary in nature, the Honors College develops curricular and other learning opportunities to meet general and disciplinary undergraduate educational objectives. The Honors College supports undergraduate research, encourages study abroad, guides students to relevant internships, mentors applicants for fellowships and scholarships, and assists students with application to graduate school.
Unique in Arizona and the Southwest, the Honors College serves students seeking degrees on all of ASU’s campuses: the Main Campus in Tempe, ASU West in Glendale, and ASU East (Williams Campus) in Chandler. This allows students across the university to take advantage of the university’s full resources with the assurance of consistently distinguished teaching and research and with commensurately rigorous expectations for performance.
Students from all disciplinary colleges and academic majors enroll in the University Honors College. The Colleges of Business, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Public Programs, and Nursing offer particularly strong programs. The College of Architecture and Environmental Design and the School of Social Work developed the nation’s first honors curricula in their disciplines. The College of Engineering and Applied Sciences has the most complete engineering honors curriculum in the United States. Students with majors in the Colleges of Education and Fine Arts can also choose from a wide range of exciting courses, especially at the lower division.
CURRICULUM
Students seeking to graduate from the University Honors College must also graduate from a disciplinary college. The ASU honors curriculum normally allows students to finish all requirements within the 120 semester hours of credit usually required for graduation.
The first two years of the honors curriculum typically focus on General Studies. The second two years concentrate on the student’s academic major and lead to graduation from both a disciplinary college and the University Honors College. Participating in this part of the curriculum allows students to complete an extended creative or research project appropriate to their academic interests to fulfill their honors thesis requirement. In conceiving and completing this project, each student works closely with a faculty mentor to identify and develop an original concept that extends and integrates the student’s work in a discipline.
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
Office of National Scholarship Advisement
The Office of National Scholarship Advisement (ONSA) assists honors and other high-achieving 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 University Honors 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. Still others 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 on ONSA programs, call Professor William Weidemaier at 602/965–5894.
Study Abroad
University Honors College students have exclusive access to two summer study abroad programs (one in Britain, a second in Paris) and to arrangements with ASU’s International Programs Office that allow for more flexible course registration and transfer arrangements: plans that allow Honors College students to earn honors credit while overseas.
Internships/Mentorships
Upper-division students in the University Honors College may participate in special internship opportunities or mentoring by leaders—in government, industry, and the private sector—throughout metropolitan Phoenix. Applications for these programs are coordinated through Professor Janet Burke at 602/965–2359.
Cultural/Arts Programming
University Honors College students participate in a range of cultural enrichment activities which include deeply discounted tickets to selected performing arts events throughout Arizona, weekly lunches with the dean, and special access to the most important shapers of contemporary thought who visit ASU. The Honors College hosts the university’s premier scholar-in-residence program, The Centennial Lecture, each year; past guests include novelist Carlos Fuentes, paleontologist Steven Jay Gould, psychologist Robert Coles, microbiologist Lynn Margulis, and intellectual historian Susan Sontag.
ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
The University Honors College and all its facilities and services are fully available to every student, regardless of where he or she lives; presently, designated honors housing exists only at ASU Main. There, McClintock Hall, the original Scholars’ Residence, offers an integrated living-learning environment; faculty and academic advisors serve the students from ground-floor offices. Classrooms, recreational and study lounges, and a computing lab compose the principal facilities of the college. Students in the honors wing of nearby Best Hall enjoy the convenience of honors classes in their residence and have faculty and other sources of academic support available on-site.
Honors students have special advisors to help them plan individualized programs of study, and they receive priority at preregistration. Honors courses in disciplinary departments are normally limited to 22 students. Honors College courses (HON) are usually limited to 18.
Students can receive transcript recognition for lower-division honors studies. Students who meet all upper-division requirements of both their disciplinary college and the University Honors College receive transcript recognition of that accomplishment, as well as special acknowledgment in the graduation ceremonies and collegiate honors convocations.
Participants in the University Honors College have diverse interests and strong records of success. Many go on to the nation’s finest graduate and professional programs, including Chicago, Cornell, Harvard, Michigan, MIT, Northwestern, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Yale, among others. Many students have published portions of their honors theses and have presented their work at the national and regional meetings of scientific and honors societies.
ADMISSION
All candidates for admission to the University Honors College must file an application. Only one of the following criteria must be met. An entering freshman is admitted if he or she
Continuing and transfer students who have completed at least 12 semester hours of study with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.25 (4.00 = A) may apply for admission to the college.
Community college transfer students who have graduated from their institution’s honors programs are eligible to apply for Regents’ Transfer Scholarships. Information about this award is available through the Student Financial Assistance Office at 602/965–3355.
Students not meeting the admission requirements, but who believe they can better succeed at the university and meet the college’s academic standards, may apply for provisional admission. The dean of the college reserves the right to interview each such applicant.
Application forms and additional information about the college and its activities are available by calling the college’s offices at 602/965–2359 or by writing to
RETENTION
Honors students must maintain high standards of academic performance and show progress toward completion of graduation requirements in their disciplinary majors and the Honors College. Students normally register for at least one honors course each semester. Good standing in the University Honors College requires students to maintain the following cumulative ASU GPAs (4.00 = A):
A student with a cumulative ASU GPA below 3.25 (4.00 = A) is placed on probation and is withdrawn from the college if he or she does not make reasonable progress in raising the cumulative GPA during the following semester.
COURSES
Only courses in which a student earns at least a grade of “C” may be used to meet University Honors College requirements.
Freshmen and students entering the college with fewer than 45 semester hours of course work must take HON 171 and 172 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.
Students entering the college after completing 45 semester hours must take HON 394, a junior-level seminar that introduces them to critical thinking, discussion, and writing in a topical area chosen by the instructor.
Departmental courses carrying footnote number 19 in the 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 to 22 students. Compared to their non-honors 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.
Departmental courses carrying footnote number 18 in the Schedule of Classes allow 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. Footnote 18 contracts must be filed during the first three 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 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 University Honors College students and always carry footnote 19. 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. 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 Schedule of Classes as 493 will fulfill the student’s L2 General Studies requirement. Students may receive a maximum of six semester hours of credit for an honors thesis, including any directed study (492, 499) and/or research preparation courses directly related to the thesis project.
All courses a student takes for honors credit count toward graduation, even if the student does not graduate from the University Honors College.
HONORS TRANSCRIPT RECOGNITION
All courses used to fulfill lower-division or upper-division/graduation requirements for the University Honors College must carry earned letter grades of at least “C.” A “Y” grade does not meet University Honors College requirements.
Lower Division
To receive transcript recognition for lower-division honors work, students must complete 18 semester hours of honors coursework within 60 earned semester hours with a cumulative ASU GPA greater than or equal to 3.40 (4.00 = A).
Courses must include HON 171 and 172 The Human Event. Courses which earn automatic honors credit, although not carrying a footnote number 19 in the Schedule of Classes include ENG 105 (any section), CHM 117 and 118 (any section), and MAT 290 and 291 (any section).
Students may apply upper-division honors coursework toward lower-division requirements; however, those classes may not also be used to meet University Honors College upper-division/graduation requirements.
Upper Division/Graduation from the University Honors College
To graduate from the University Honors College, students must
Courses must include three to six semester hours of Honors Thesis. Courses may include graduate courses (500-level or higher).
Omnibus Courses: See omnibus courses that may be offered.
1998–99 General Catalog Table of Contents
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