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Commonwealth College / Honors Program Contact: Linda Nolan Office: 504 Goodell Phone: 545-2483 Interim Dean: Linda Nolan; Assistant Director for Advising: Denise Pols; Assistant Director for Program Development and Administration: Meredith Lind; Learning Communities Coordinator: Melissa Beesley; Office of National Scholarship Advisement Faculty Coordinator: Susan Whitbourne. The Honors Program is being replaced by the new Commonwealth College. This honors college offers a variety of educational, service, social, and advising opportunities to support its 2,000 academically talented students. Honors students experience both the advantages of a small college and the wide-ranging opportunities of a nationally recognized research university. The honors curriculum includes interdisciplinary seminars, enriched honors courses, colloquia, independent study, service learning, and an honors thesis, project, or activity. A distance-learning component is available with classes taught by teams of faculty from across the Commonwealth; these combine small-group discussions with on-site professors, teleconferencing with faculty at other campuses, video pre-sentations by experts in the field, and Internet resources. The Citizen Scholars Program offers scholarships and leadership training for students engaged in challenging work linking academics and community outreach. Commonwealth College also sponsors a lecture series that brings distinguished visitors to the campus to speak on selected national issues. Commonwealth College offers a variety of resources and academic support services. The College provides individual counseling from faculty, professional, and peer advisers. Graduating honors students may request a letter of recommendation for graduate school or employment. This detailed personal letter is based on the student's accumulated portfolio of written evaluations by honors professors. The College's Office of National Scholarship Advisement assists eligible students applying for national fellowships such as the Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, and Truman Scholarships. Commonwealth College is a campuswide program; students from all majors in every college are eligible to join the honors college. They represent over twenty U.S. states and territories, as well as other countries. Honors students have a variety of academic and social interests but share a desire to explore and excel.
There are three ways to enter Commonwealth College: 1) Admission Based on College Performance Students may apply if they have a 3.2 overall cumulative average and a 3.2 in their most recent semester.
2) Admission Based on High School Performance Entering first-year students are admitted by invitation. Each student's application to the University is evaluated on the basis of academic achievement in high school, test scores, an essay by the student, and evidence of leadership and community service. Average first-year honors students entering in Fall 1999 ranked in the top six percent of their high school class, attained a 3.9 high school GPA in their academic coursework, and scored 1314 on their SATs. 3) Transfer Admission Transfer students with a 3.2 or better cumulative average must provide a complete transfer transcript and a letter of introduction, and apply either during transfer summer orientation in July or within the first four weeks of their initial semester. Note: Petitions for exceptions to the residency requirement specified above may be made to the Dean of Commonwealth College. The Courses Several kinds of honors courses are offered as follows: Enriched honors courses are separate sections of departmental courses that are limited to 25 students. These courses are designated with an H following the course number (Psychology 100H) and may carry 3 or 4 credits. Honors Colloquia are 1-credit honors sections appended to regular 3-credit courses. They of-ten develop topics in greater depth than in the cognate course; however, it is not unusual for colloquia to introduce totally new material or experiences. Colloquia are designated H0 following the course number (Anthropology 317/H01), and are limited to 25 students. Content may be predetermined by the instructor, or spontaneously generated by students and instructor during the early classes of the semester. 196, 296, 396, 496 Honors Independent Study involves frequent interaction between instructor and student. The student and the sponsoring instructor must fill out a contract which is available at the Commonwealth College office. Qualitative and quantitative enrichment must be evident on the proposed contract before consent is given to undertake the study. 192, 292, 392, 492 Honors Interdisciplinary Seminars are directly sponsored by the Commonwealth College, and publicized prior to each semsester. Classes are highly interactive in nature and feature distinguished guest professors from several fields. Some of these courses carry General Education credit. Examples include American Portraits (ID), and The American Family (I). 198, 298, 398, 498 Honors Practica are 1- or 2-credit Pass/Fail skill-oriented courses which allow honors students to work together in small groups: for example, Student Initiated Seminars and Peer Advising Practica. These practica cannot be used to meet honors academic course requirements. 499Y Honors Research (3 cr) should be initiated in the junior year. It is followed by 499P Honors Project (3 cr) or 499T Honors Thesis (3 cr), which results in the formal completion and presentation of the project or thesis. This 6-credit research component is the equivalent of two academic honors courses, and is excellent preparation for graduate or professional school. 499Z Honors Senior Activity is a 1-credit research option, done in addition to honors course requirements. It is a broad-based non-thesis option that allows students to come to closure on their honors experience and earn magna or summa cum laude. It is usually completed during the student's final semester and must be defended before a faculty committee.
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