Honors Program Courses

Right from the start our honors curriculum focuses your energy on advanced skills, not just introductory work, in your chosen major. The core curriculum is more intently focused on methods of discovery and research, as well as exceptional writing, reading and discussion skills.

The aim is to help students truly compete once they graduate and to improve upon an already impressive track record of student success. Recent graduates have gone to medical school, law school and other advanced degree programs. They’re working in fields including politics, international affairs, financial services, software development, academia and the arts.

How it Works
  •  Big Questions courses focused on reading, writing and discussion of complex texts.
  •  Explorations and Investigations courses emphasizing research techniques.
  • Time is built in for internships, study abroad and signature research projects.
  • You’ll compile a stand-out portfolio of your best work.
  • You’ll have access to pre-eminent scholars and thinkers, including the Lund-Gill chair
2023–2024

First-year Honors Seminars: Thoughts and Passions

  • HNSM 142 Faith and Freedom
  • HNSM 148 Family and Society
  • HNSM 155 Justice as Virtue
  • HNSM 161 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt?
  • HNSM 173 Finding Our Way Through Good and Evil
  • HNSM 180 Family in Faith and Doubt
  • HNSM 181 "We fools, we holy fools."
  • HNSM 182 Personal Identity and Moral Responsibility

Honors: Big Questions

  • HNBQ 218 Hispanic Social Mystics of the Dominican Order
  • HNBQ 266 Happiness

Honors Explorations and Investigations

  • HNEI 224 Where Cultures Collide: The Questioning of the Other in the New World
  • HNEI 246 Shakespeare’s Women: Gender, Language, and Power in a Cultural Revolution
  • HNEI 260 To See Again the Stars: Dante and Discovery
  • HNEI 363 Science and Responsibility: Human Being and Natural Being
  • HNEI 366 Darwinian Thinking Across Disciplines
  • HNEI 382 Contemporary Issues: Science and Technology

Senior Honors Seminars: Wisdom and Power

  • HNSM 453 The Wisdom and Power of This World Only?
  • HNSM 464 Personal Transformation
  • HNSM 465 Against Our Will
  • HNSM 466 Making Sense of Suffering: Wisdom and Power
  • HNSM 470 Learning the Hard Way: Know Yourself to Know the World

Visit the University Bulletin for course descriptions.