Honors College

The Honors College at Boise State University provides talented, highly motivated undergraduate students with a challenging curriculum and a variety of co-curricular activities. Open to students from all academic majors, the honors College offers students the personalized attention of a small liberal arts school while drawing upon the resources of a large metropolitan university. The specific benefits of participating in the Honors College include:

• Innovative courses
• Close contact with faculty
• Individualized academic counseling
• Extended Library privileges
• Camaraderie among students with similar interests
• Special social activities
• Recognition at graduation
• Enhanced career opportunities
• Priority Registration

Graduating from the Honors College shows graduate schools and employers that you have achieved academic success in rigorous courses and have worked with some of the best professors at Boise State.

Entrance requirements for incoming freshmen are a high school GPA of at least 3.50 and an ACT composite score of 27 or higher (or SAT total score of 1200 or higher).

Transfer and continuing Boise State students may enter the Honors College if they have completed a minimum of 15 college credits with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.50.

Freshmen must maintain a GPA of at least 3.30. Any student whose GPA after the freshman year falls below 3.50 for two consecutive semesters will be ineligible to do additional honors work until this requirement is met.

In addition to honors sections of university core courses such as English Composition or American History, the college offers three other types of courses: (1) seminars on topical issues like environmental ethics, political terrorism, and censorship in the arts; (2) interdisciplinary colloquia that are often team-taught by two professors from different academic departments who have a shared interest in a particular subject.; and (3) Spring Break or Educational Tour classes for credit.

Students often are concerned about grades and course workloads before they enter the Honors College. Honors courses set high expectations, but most honors students find them stimulating and fulfilling. One of the most important differences between honors courses and regular courses is the approach professors use when teaching the course material; honors courses tend to rely upon more advanced readings, place a premium on writing, and stress student participation. Traditionally, honors students have preferred this type of open, personalized learning environment and have performed very well in such classes.

In addition to the various types of financial aid available to all Boise State students through the Financial Aid Office, honors students are eligible for a variety of honors scholarships. Prospective honors students are especially encouraged to apply for a Brown Honors Scholarship. Brown scholars receive a package of full fees plus room and board that is renewable for four consecutive years by maintaining at least a 3.5 GPA.

Members of the Honors College are eligible to live with other honors students in Driscoll Hall. Centrally located near the library and the Student Union, this coed residence hall also contains the Honors College offices.

There are many advantages to being a part of the honors college:

• It is a prestigious organization. When people know you’re a member of the honors college, they take notice.
• Qualify for extra scholarships, such as the Brown Scholarship.
• It is a whole social and cultural community, giving you a chance to interact with distinguished students like yourself, learning and making lifetime connections
• Extra framed diploma and medallion to wear at graduation
• Transcript will specify you graduated with honors.
• Priority registration for classes. This is a huge boost to organizing your schedule, especially for classes like CHEM 111 that are hard to get into.
• Fee waiver for overload. Normally, taking more than a certain number of credits a semester costs extra money. Not so for the honors college!
• Smaller classes. The difference between a 150 person lecture class and a 15 person interactive class is huge. You will learn more, and get more help when you need it.
• Distinguished professors. Not only will you get more one-on-one time with your professor, you will be getting it with a professor that was selected specifically to be an honors professor. You’ll be learning from the best.

Curriculum

To graduate from the honors college, you need a total of 26 honors credits. But how can you graduate with an engineering degree in four years with so many extra credits? It’s not impossible. In the past it was a tad difficult, but with new policies and more engineering course offerings, it is more than doable.

• First, 15 credits must come from “foundation courses”. This is a fancy way of saying that they’re honors core courses. You will be taking core courses anyways as a university requirement. Now, the only difference is you’ll be taking the honors version of them. Suggested places to take them are highlighted by blue boxes in your honors four-year plan. See honors catalog to see which ones best fit in your class schedule.
• Second are 6 credits of “enrichment courses.” These are interdisciplinary courses that are often team taught, and sometimes eclectic. They are highlighted by a green box in your honors four year plan. See the section on H-option for more details.
• Finally there are 5 credits of required honors courses from the honors college. These are the only courses that should be true extras to your course load, and are marked by brown boxes on your schedule. 5 credits extra isn’t too bad, right? There is a one credit honors seminar your freshmen year, and then four credits for an honors senior project your senior year. See the following section for more information.

The first semester your senior year, you must take the Senior Honors Prospectus, which is a one credit ‘course’ where you explore what you would like to do your senior project on. You form a team with the honors director and a faculty member of your choice. This faculty member should be selected no later than midway through your junior year. Then, during the last semester your junior year, you will take a three credit honors senior project. There is some good news, however. As engineers, we are almost certainly already doing some sort of senior project anyway to graduate. It is perfectly acceptable, even encouraged, to roll your honors senior project into your engineering senior project. You will discuss with your advisors what extra work you will accomplish to make it an honors project. It can be discouraging to look at a 20 credit spring senior semester, but just remember: if you combine senior projects, it is not that much more difficult than your original 17 credit semester.

What is the H-option? How do I use it?

The H-option’s function is to turn a normal course into an honors course when there are none available that fit your schedule. However, this should be a rare occasion. Therefore, try to use the H-option as a last resort, rather than a crutch. For one thing, you’ll miss out on the interaction with other honors students, as well as honors faculty. There are engineering courses set aside to fill your colloquium requirements, which are marked with a green box in your four-year course plans. Some of these courses are Intro to Materials Science, Biomaterials, Engineering Statics, and Semiconductor Devices. The colloquium courses the honors college offers (HONORS 392) don’t fill any additional requirements for engineers, and are thus tough to integrate into your four year plan. Stick with the engineering colloquium, unless you have talked it over thoroughly with your honors advisor.

As an honors student, you should never have to take English 101 or 102. There are honors sections of English 111 and English 112 that not only fulfill more requirements, but also have smaller class sizes typical of honors classes. But what if you tested out of one or both English courses with AP credit, ACT scores, or some other means? You have one of two options. First, you could take a core course in its place to get it out of the way. This would free up time in other semesters to take one less class. Or, you could take fewer classes your freshmen year. This is the option I would recommend because it gives you time to get into the groove of college, freeing up time to study more and perhaps get involved in a club or two.

This is a difficult matter. All ‘graduate in four’ year plans start with classes that have MATH 147 as a prerequisite. This means that starting at MATH 147 makes it virtually impossible to graduate in four years without summer classes. Also, many engineering classes are offered in either the fall or the spring only. That means that if a student is delayed a semester, he will most likely be delayed a whole year. I would stress doing everything possible to start your math classes at MATH 170 (Calculus I). Try to start a relationship with your honors advisor early in the summer and discuss ways to upgrade your math placement, such as taking the ACT/SAT again.

The honors requirements state that a cumulative GPA of at least 3.3 must be maintained during your freshmen year, and at least 3.5 during subsequent years. Also, they state that if you fall below the GPA requirements two semesters in a row will be dropped from the honors college. Don’t be intimidated! Many students’ GPA drops below these, especially during the freshman year when making the adjustment from high school to college. Engineering, physics, and math courses are tough, and there are bound to be semesters that just don’t seem to go right. My best advice is: don’t get discouraged! If you have good reasons, the honors college will be glad to extend your grace period, giving you time to bring your GPA back up. Just take a deep breath, focus on your classes, and your GPA will be back in the green zone in no time.

Summer reading is a great way to get honors credit when you just can’t seem to fit it into those tough engineering semesters. All you do is select an area of interest and a faculty member from that area. Then, you coordinate with the honors director and your faculty member to set up the deliverables you’ll present once you complete your reading, typically a written and oral report delivered before October 15th of the following semester.