Students complete the Honors Program by earning the equivalent of 15 credits of honors work, and a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 by the time they graduate, in addition to annual complementary learning requirements. However, we use the word "points" instead of "credits" because there are ways to do honors-level work outside the classroom (see below). Please make a note that we expect at least 1 point of Honors work each year. Honors Achievements A and B are set in place for you and must be completed in a certain way. However, you have another 9 Points worth of Honors Achievements that can be filled in a combination of different options as is noted below:
- Honors Achievement A: General Education (3 points)
- Completion of the First-Year Honors Seminar or internal admission waiver
- Honors Achievement B: Honors in the Discipline (3 points)
Students in the Honors Program develop an extra layer of depth in their chosen fields by doing honors-level work in their home programs, accelerating themselves toward the frontiers of knowledge, culture, and technology while engaging in positive, collegial relationships with faculty mentors. This should be completed in your final two years in the Honors Program.
Students can fulfill this requirement in several ways:
- Research in your discipline, supervised by a faculty mentor
- Complete a graduate course in your discipline
- Such a course must carry at least 3 credits, and cannot be on the list of excluded courses.
- Complete an upper-division Honors Course in your program (3 or more credits)
- Complete an Honors Option in an upper-division course in your program
- Such a course must carry at least 3 credits and must be at the 300-level or above
- You must give a public presentation or exhibition of your work, and produce a high-quality written report about it, approved by your faculty mentor as demonstrating the substance and quality expected of undergraduate, honors-level work in the discipline. Written reports that are otherwise unpublished will be posted at RIT Scholar Works.
- Additional Honors Achievements (9 points)
Students can complete the rest of their Honors points in a number of ways. Students can complete any number of these options, provided that they earn a total of 9 Points from some combination of the below options. For more information, please click on the following links which contain information about the options:
- Honors Courses
- Honors Options (add-ons to standard courses)
- Professional Experiences
- Non-Required Co-ops & Internships
- International Experiences
- Research (once your Honors in Discipline has been completed)
