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Curriculum

Program Requirements

The Honors School curriculum consists of 26 honors credits. 

  • A maximum of 12 credits may be at the lower level (100-200 level)
    • These are honors courses or sections which often fulfil University-required general education courses
  • A maximum of 9 credits must be at the upper level (300-400 level)
    • These are fulfilled by honors sections or via honors learning contracts 
  • An additional 5 credits are earned over three semesters in preparing and writing the honors thesis/capstone 
    • HO 296: Honors Thesis/Capstone Prep (1 Credit)
      • Course objective is to prepare students for their thesis/capstone journey through in-class meetings that cover research, readers, and literature review creation 
    • HO 396: Honors Thesis/Capstone Proposal (2 Credits)
      • Research-intensive course run as an independent study with student-selected professor 
    • HO 496: Honors Thesis/Capstone Completion (2 Credits)
      • Project completion course run as an independent study with student-selected professor 

How does this affect your Monmouth degree requirements?

  • 21 credits of honors course work fulfill already existing requirements within your major and for general education University requirements. 
    • For example: If a student takes honors English 101 (EN 101), this counts for your Monmouth requirement and since its honors it also counts towards your Honors degree.
    • There are no extra classes required. 
    • These 21 credits are built into your Monmouth degree. 
      • University classes have credit values attached to them. 
      • Most classes are valued at three (3) credits. 
  • 5 credits of honors thesis coursework fulfill electives.
    • Most University degrees have “free electives” that can be fulfilled by any course. 
    • The Honors thesis courses fulfill electives & your Honors requirements. 
    • If your degree does not have free electives, you can still complete the honors thesis/capstone. 

The honors curriculum is delivered via a combination of approaches. Students choose a combination that best meets their individual needs and interests:

  • Honors courses (designated HO),
  • Honors sections of regular courses (designated by an H preceding the course’s section number),
  • Honors credit by contract in regular courses, an honors learning contract in addition to a regular course’s requirements, and
  • Waiver of Honors requirement via portfolio submission, which reduces the number of honors credits based on documented learning experiences that occur outside of classroom settings, such as study abroad and peer-reviewed scholarship.

The honors curriculum has integrative, collaborative, and individual elements, resulting in a personalized honors learning experience for each student.

  • Collaborative Integration. Most first-year honors students fulfill their General Education requirements in honors sections of regular courses that integrate two disciplines in a themed cluster. The same group of no more than twenty honors students is enrolled in both courses in a cluster. Often, these students live in honors housing together, study together, and collaborate on classroom projects.

    For example, the cluster “Cross-Cultural and Psychological Perspectives on the Human-Animal Relationship” integrated Anthropology and Psychology courses. The cluster “Performing Music, Performing Identity: The Evolving Role of Music in Culture” integrated English and Music courses. Honors students in clusters are encouraged to use their cluster projects as a basis for proposing presentations at national and regional honors conferences, for which the Honors School provides generous support.

  • Individual Integration. All honors students complete a three-semester thesis process, HO 296 Thesis/Capstone Preparation, HO 396 Thesis/Capstone Proposal and HO 496 Thesis/Capstone Completion. Students choose their own thesis topic, and with the guidance of faculty members, develop it in one of five thesis tracks: case study, content analysis, creative portfolio, laboratory research, or survey research. The resulting thesis is used by some students as a writing sample in graduate-school applications and by others in peer-reviewed conference presentations or as academic journal submissions.

    In general, Honors School theses tend to be disciplinary (solidly within a major field) or interdisciplinary (combining major fields). A disciplinary thesis may apply some current method or approach to some new subject matter, or may apply a recent method or approach to old subject matter. An interdisciplinary thesis may apply one discipline’s method or approach to subject matter thought of as being in another discipline, or may integrate methods or approaches from two or more disciplines and apply them to subject matter that may be thought of from the perspective of both disciplines.

To graduate from the Honors School and to have that status noted on the transcript and diploma, a student must:

  • Be a member of the Honors School,
  • Complete the 26-credit honors curriculum, and
  • Have a final overall cumulative GPA of at least 3.3.