Santa Clara University

UNIVERSITY HONORS PROGRAM

The University Honors Program provides a learning experience appropriate to students of exceptional academic talent and imagination. The program offers small seminar-style classes, especially in courses fulfilling the University Core Curriculum requirements. Admission to the University Honors Program is by invitation or application and considers the student’s academic record, standardized test scores, recommendations, and any other information the student might provide about interests, goals, or experiences.

The program is organized as two distinct but related levels open to undergraduate students from Arts and Sciences, Business, and Engineering. Level I of the program accepts first-year students for a curriculum organized around courses that satisfy University Core Curriculum requirements applying to students in every field. The University Honors Program requires that all participants maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.3 or higher, and Level I participants must successfully complete a minimum of six program courses within the first six quarters of enrollment. Most participants complete the Level I program during their first year. Unless exempted by the director, Level I participants must fulfill specific Foundations courses in the Core Curriculum—Critical Thinking and Writing, Cultures and Ideas, and Religion, Theology, and Culture—through special class sections arranged by the program. Participants are also strongly urged to satisfy Core Curriculum requirements such as mathematics, ethics, social sciences, natural sciences, advanced writing, and advanced religion, theology, and culture with Honors Program sections.

Participants in Level I normally continue to Level II, in which they complete a minimum of four additional program courses including a senior thesis or project. Students who have completed 32 or more units but not more than 88 units at Santa Clara may apply to enter Level II by contacting the Honors Program Office. Students joining the program at Level II complete six program courses including the thesis or senior project. Some Level II courses, while not limited to program participants, offer academic opportunities especially suitable for them. For both continuing and new participants, the thesis usually grows out of a regular or independent study course taken in conjunction with the participant’s major or Pathway. Successful completion of the program at Level II becomes part of a student’s permanent record and appears on academic transcripts issued by the University.

Honors Program students have the opportunity to participate in the Honors Advisory Council. The University Honors Program is allied with the Office of Student Fellowships, which helps prepare students to compete for nationally competitive graduate fellowships, such as Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, Mitchell, Goldwater, Udall, Jack Kent Cooke, and Gates Cambridge. A competitive annual award permits one Honors Program student to spend his or her junior year at Mansfield College, Oxford University.

Courses offered through the University Honors Program can be found in Chapter 6 under Interdisciplinary Minors and Other Programs of Study.