Honors Program
>> Honors Department Site
The honors program guides invited students through four years of special
honors seminars and
honors courses. There are two
paths to completing a degree with honors:
- Honors through project or
- Honors through coursework
Students who successfully meet these challenges are awarded a degree of bachelor of arts with
honors or bachelor of science with honors on the recommendation of the honors committee.
Honors Through Project
All students intending to pursue an honors project or a distinction
project must complete the following requirements:
1. Declaring Intent and Finding Readers
Generally, students pursuing the degree with distinction begin working on the project in the
first semester of their junior year. The first step is to develop a project idea in consultation
with key faculty members.
In the spring semester of their junior year, students submit a letter of intent to pursue the
project. Students also submit a detailed proposal.
The faculty in the discipline approve the project, and the student’s first and second readers
recommend the project proposal to the honors committee in early March of the student’s junior year.
A project in an interdisciplinary major or one which is interdisciplinary in emphasis is submitted
with prior approval from faculty from the most relevant disciplines.
2. GPA
Students must meet the following requirements to be eligible:
- Junior status
- Cumulative grade point average of 3.25 in the field of the distinction project
- Overall grade point average of 3.0
3. Coursework
If the student’s proposal is accepted, the student must take Advanced Academic Writing
(English 345) as a part of the project, typically during the first semester of the student’s senior
year. The course instructor may exempt a student from this requirement at his or her discretion.
4. Project writing or creation
It is important that the student write the project in the summer between junior and senior
year
Extensive resources are available on the Blackboard Departmental Honors Project website. They
include detailed schedules and guides for writing a distinction proposal and project. Faculty
mentors will also find many resources there to help them guide their student to a successful
completion.
5. Public presentation
Once the final draft is approved, in the spring of the student’s senior year, the student
will be required to give a public presentation on his or her project.
Most honors students display their projects or discuss them at Dominican’s URSCI Expo, held
each April on campus.
For more information, visit the Honors Department Site
Honors Through Coursework
Students must maintain good standing in the honors program and
take an honors seminar each year they are in the honors program.
In addition, students who choose the honors through coursework path must complete two courses
that have been designated as honors courses in different departments outside their major. Students
may use an approved
study abroad program in place of one of the
requisite honors courses.
Students will also do an integrative project as part of their honors through coursework
degree.
Students choosing the honors through coursework path must demonstrate proficiency equivalent
to two years of a foreign language among those taught at Dominican. The language can also be
approved by the honors committee if the university does not currently offer it (e.g., Arabic or New
Testament Greek).
Foreign nationals educated abroad at the high school level in a non-English-speaking country
are exempt from this requirement.
This option is well suited for students who join the honors program after entering Dominican.
For more information, visit the Honors Department Site
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