University Honors Program

What is the University Honors Program? It's easiest to begin by describing what the program is not: the program is not a student club, a student committee, a fraternity or sorority, an academic major, or an honor society.

Instead, the University Honors Program is an official academic program of the university, open only to highly academically qualified undergraduate students. The program is pursued over four years as a supplement to a student's chosen academic major. Students in the program pursue a bachelor's degree in the academic major of their choice and, simultaneously, participate in the program during their four years of undergraduate study.

Please note that:

1. there are never any charges, fees, or costs added to a student's tuition for joining the program, or being in the program, or graduating from the program - the program is fee-free;
2. participation in the program adds no additional semesters to a student's completion of their bachelor's degree;
3. the program is open to all academically qualified students in all academic majors; and
4. participation in the program does not prevent students from having a full college experience (many students in the program play a varsity sport, write for or edit the student newspaper, perform in student productions, hold part-time jobs, commute to campus, and so on).

Membership in the University Honors Program will bring you into a community of students like you: smart, hardworking, ambitious, and seeking to get the full intellectual measure of their college experience by taking on the supplemental academic tasks required by the program.

To join the program is to step into an elite group. Over your four years on campus, you will initiate lifelong friendships with classmates who love school, love to learn, and love challenges. You will work with faculty members who will give you extensive tutelage on important (but often baffling) topics such as graduate-school admissions. And, teaming up with a faculty member of your choice, you will complete an Honors Thesis, a document we suspect will remain an auspicious milestone in your lifetime pursuit of knowledge.

To learn more about the University Honors Program, please see the handbook. If you should have any questions, please email Dr. Marianne Cutler (mcutler@esu.edu) who will respond promptly. It would be a privilege to have you join our growing community of talented and enthusiastic undergraduate scholars.