Forms

What is an honors credit by contract?

An honors contract is a mechanism for adding an “honors dimension” to a course that is not already an honors class. The contract project should add an academic dimension to the course by introducing new material or by allowing the student to go into greater depth than normally required in some aspect of the course. A member of the faculty must supervise the contract.

How are honors contracts related to grades?

The honors contract will not affect the student’s grade in the class. To receive honors credit, however, the students must receive a grade of A or B in the course, in addition to completing the contract.

How much work should an honors contract involve?

The honors contract project should be one that can be finished with 20 to 25 hours of work. If a student is invited to participate in a professor’s research project in a way that will involve substantially greater amounts of time, a separate course for honors credit—such as Honors Directed/Supervised Research—is appropriate in place of an honors contract.

Examples of honors contract projects include:

Class presentations of research undertaken for the honors contract project
Limited participation in faculty research, followed by a summary report (oral or written)
Original computer program or project
Report on a biography of a famous person in the academic field
Review of additional readings (articles, books) related to course subject matter
Original musical composition, sculpture, theatrical script, or other work of art
Additional laboratory experiments or mathematical problems, followed by a written report
Research paper (8-12 pages) based on interviews or library resources on a topic related to the course
Review of work of a foreign language author (written in that language)
Enrolling in a 500-level course for your undergraduate degree program, in which you are graded by the same standards as graduate students

Are all honors students eligible?

To qualify for honors credit by contract, an honors student should have completed a minimum of seven units of honors courses.

How many contracts are possible in a semester?

One honors contract is permitted in a given semester. Additional requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

What are the procedures and deadlines?

Student obtains an honors contract form and instruction sheet from the Honors Program office.
Student and professor for the course agree to the terms of the contract.
Student develops contract proposal and submits to professor for review.
Student obtains proposal approval from the chair of the department or dean of the school in which the course will be completed.
Student submits the contract form to the Honors Program office. Below are the submission deadlines:
- Fall semester: March 15
- Spring semester: November 15
- Summer semester: March 15
Honors Council reviews the contract for approval. Student is notified of deliberations by 14^th week of the semester prior to when coursework will be completed.
Honors contract work must be completed by the end of the semester in which the course is taken.
A copy of the completed honors work must be submitted to the Honors Program office by the end of the 14^th week of classes of the semester in which the work was completed.
Contracts submitted after the above due dates will not be reviewed or approved.

Students who are not among those admitted to the program may submit a petition to enroll in an honors course on a space available basis.

The request should be made prior to registering for the course. There is no guarantee the request will be granted, and if a student enrolls in the course and the request is denied, they will be required to drop the course from their schedule.

The petition must be approved by the course faculty prior to submission to the Honors Program office. Students should clearly indicate on the form why they are interested in taking an honors course.

Students should have a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher to petition to be in an honors course. In addition, the student may not have previously failed the course they are now requesting to enroll in.