Fulfilling the General Honors Core requirements

The General Honors Core must be fulfilled by students who plan to write or are writing a General Honors thesis. If you are writing a thesis within a major (Departmental Honors), you do not have to fulfill the General Honors Core.

There are four areas of the General Honors Core: Humanities, Social Science, Natural Science and the Senior Seminar. To be eligible to write a General Honors thesis, students must complete at least 4 classes/12 credits of Honors Program/Honors RAP courses with a grade of A or B. This coursework must include one course from each area of the General Honors Core.

How to track your progress:

  • Visit the Office of the Registrar's Transcripts page for instructions on how to print your unofficial transcript.
  • Print the General Honors Eligibility Worksheet.
  • Match the Honors Program/Honors RAP classes on your transcript to their categories in the General Honors Core, and fill out the chart on the General Honors Eligibility Worksheet. Bring this worksheet and your unofficial transcript with you when you meet with the Director of the Honors Program for project approval.

How to know which courses count toward the General Honors Core:

  • On transcripts, Honors Program/Honors RAP courses are marked "Arts & Sciences Honors Course." Courses without this marking are not Honors Program/Honors RAP courses and cannot be used to fulfill the General Honors Core.
  • On the BuffPortal, Honors Program/Honors RAP courses will have the section numbers 880-889/888-890R. Courses without these section numbers are not Honors Program/Honors RAP courses and cannot be used to fulfill the General Honors Core.
  • Honors courses offered by departments do not fulfill the General Honors Core.
  • Honors courses taken at another university do not fulfill the General Honors Core.

The Honors Program uses the University Course Catalog Core and GenEd requirements to determine which Honors Program/Honors RAP courses fulfill General Honors Core areas. For example, if a class qualifies as a GenEd Natural Sciences course in the catalog, then it will count towards the Natural Science General Honors Core.  Any 3000 or 4000-level class offered by the Honors Program or Honors RAP counts towards the Senior Seminar requirement. Still have questions? Email honors@colorado.edu; we're happy to help.