Advantages of being an Honors Student
Individual Attention
The Heltzer Honors Program provides students with many of the experiences of being at a small, a liberal arts college while benefitting from the advantages of a larger institution. Honors classes are smaller and interactive, with participation generally capped at twenty students or less. But the larger university provides access to majors, courses, and co-curricular activities not typically available at a small college.
The Heltzer Honors Program in particular offers a unique community for students that provides a challenging academic environment that combines outstanding courses with tailored academic advising and mentoring through our Honors-only advising staff and faculty. The Heltzer Honors Program offers students a unique community that
provides some classes and all of the academic mentoring in East Hall.
Honors students in Grand Central Station
during their classes' trip to New York.
Faculty
Most Honors courses are taught by tenured professors who engage students in discussions rather than didactic lectures. Honors courses are usually interdisciplinary and are often team-taught. Honors students also have many opportunities to work with their senior colleagues (faculty) and other Honors students through field trips, service and creative projects, cultural events, and original scholarship.
Instructors in Honors are volunteers or are chosen by their departments because of their excellent teaching reputations. Many are senior professors; all have demonstrated a special dedication to the philosophy of Honors instruction. Honors faculty members hold doctoral or terminal degrees in their fields. Honors faculty members often host classes in their homes, take students on field trips, and supervise honors theses/projects and other undergraduate research projects.
Graduating with Honors
Most Honors students go on to graduate or professional programs of study, such as medical, dental, and law schools, teaching programs, MBA programs, and Ph.D. programs. Students who graduate with University Honors from the Heltzer Honors Program will stand out from other students when they apply for postgraduate studies; the Honors distinction as described by the National Collegiate Honors Council is now a nationally recognized imprimatur of excellence. The distinction of Honors denotes a wider academic experience beyond a degree in a major; it indicates that the student has engaged in the epistemology for a discipline more typical of a graduate education.
Living with Honors Students
Honors students have the opportunity to live in the Honors living-learning community in East Residence Hall. Unlike all other residence halls, accommodation in East Hall is controlled by the Honors Program and is the only residence hall that can offer students with competitive GPAs housing all four of their academic years. East Hall has some of the largest two-person rooms on campus; each room has a sink, and two-thirds of the rooms have walk-in closets. For more information about housing and East Residence Hall, click here.
