University Catalog

The Honors Program is designed to provide special educational opportunities for highly motivated students. It is open to well-prepared freshmen, as well as sophomores and upper-division students in all schools and colleges. The Honors Program offers thoughtful advising, close contact with faculty and other honors students, and an opportunity to write an honors thesis. Honors offers over 70 courses per year in a wide variety of areas. Honor courses are limited to an enrollment of approximately 15 students.

Faculty members teaching honors seminars are carefully selected for special interests and enthusiasm, for teaching excellence in small discussion classes, and for insistence on high academic standards. Honors seminars are designed for the student who welcomes challenge, knows that the mind expands only with effort, and actively seeks academic and intellectual challenges. Honors courses encourage students to combine and synthesize concepts and methodologies from other courses and disciplines. Many honors courses are consciously interdisciplinary, but all encourage students to read widely and think critically.

The Honors Council, consisting of faculty from all participating academic departments, is responsible for deciding which students merit the award of the bachelor's degree with honors: cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude. These awards are made on the basis of special honors work and not simply on the basis of grades earned in courses.

Students may graduate with departmental honors or general honors, or both. Departmental honors may require a junior or senior honors seminar, an independent research project, and/or directed readings. All departments require an honors thesis. Each department has information pertaining to its own particular program. Students who pursue general honors must have a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher, have completed 12 credit hours of required honors courses, and have written a thesis on an interdisciplinary topic.

Kittredge Honors Program (KHP) is the optional residential component of the program. KHP, open to a limited number of qualified freshmen and sophomores, consists of small classes offered in the Arnett residence hall as well as opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities. There is an additional charge for the Kittredge Honors Program. See below for more information.

Detailed information concerning the Honors Program may be obtained in the honors office in Norlin Library. Qualified students may register for courses. Course offerings and call numbers can be found on the Honors Program website.

Freshmen are invited to join the Honors Program based on their high school GPA and test scores. Transfer students must have a 3.30 GPA from their previous school. Students currently enrolled are accepted on the basis of academic achievement at CU-Boulder. While honors students are expected to have a GPA of at least 3.30, it should be emphasized that no student who shows ability and promise is excluded from consideration. This is a program of excellence and commitment in which the best teaching faculty is committed to serve the most highly motivated students for the benefit of those students and the larger society.

The Minority Arts and Sciences Program (MASP) is an academic excellence community dedicated to assisting underrepresented scholars in their successful matriculation in and retention and graduation from the College of Arts and Sciences at CU-Boulder. For students interested in science and mathematics, MASP emphasizes study leading to the BA degree in selected fields, including biology, chemistry/biochemistry, integrative physiology, mathematics, physics, and applied mathematics. In the fall of 1999 MASP expanded to support underrepresented students interested in pursuing humanities and social sciences degrees, including history, theatre, fine arts, and other disciplines within the College of Arts and Sciences.

MASP facilitates the often-difficult transition from high school to the college learning environment. It provides a personally supportive community and intense academic instruction, and helps develop a strong sense of group cohesiveness and spirit.

MASP provides scholarships to promising students from underrepresented groups. Grade point average (GPA) and other academic indicators assist in determining scholarship amounts. MASP also provides academic advising and clustering, academic excellence workshops, the PEAC (pronounced "peak") Program for new freshman students, self-management and leadership workshops, and a MASP networking and study center.

For more information, call the MASP office at 303-492-8229.

The Norlin Scholars Program is a special academic and scholarship program designed for students with a strong love of learning. It is open to students in all majors and all colleges and schools. Special courses have been created exclusively for Norlin Scholars; they are broadly synthetic to be appropriate for any student in any major. Special mentoring and opportunities for original research receive emphasis. The program is highly competitive and carries a $3,000/year scholarship. Students may enter as first-year students or as rising juniors. More information and application forms are available at www.colorado.edu/norlinscholars, or Norlin Scholars Program, University of Colorado at Boulder, 365 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0365, or at 303-735-6802.