https://www.marshall.edu/honors
honorscollege@marshall.edu
The Honors College allows eligible students in any undergraduate major at Marshall University to add value to their degree by joining the mission of honors education. Honors students pursue their degree in one of the other colleges and make the Honors College another academic home where they receive various forms of support that enhance their experiences at Marshall. We offer students in the Honors College a multitude of benefits, including things like priority registration. That said, we believe that honors education must be defined by more than privileges. It must support inclusive excellence and expect honorable actions that contribute to a greater good.
Mission of the College
The Honors College at Marshall University provides an environment for innovative teaching and learning within an interdisciplinary curriculum motivated by creative, critical inquiry and respect for a multiplicity of thoughts, experiences, and identities. The Honors College collaborates with university and public partners to foster inclusive academic excellence in a diverse and supportive community of scholars dedicated to becoming socially conscious, responsible leaders and lifelong learners engaged in the acquisition and application of knowledge for a greater good.
To this end, students participating in the Honors College will:
- Make connections while adapting and applying skills and learning among varied disciplines, domains of thinking, experiences, and situations.
- Outline divergent solutions to a problem, develop and explore potentially controversial proposals, and synthesize ideas or expertise to generate original plans and approaches.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of their own work, reflect on strengths and weakness of their knowledge and skills in defined areas, and devise ways to make improvements.
- Produce cohesive oral, written, and visual communications capable of connecting effectively with specific audiences.
- Appraise how cultural beliefs and practices affect inter-group communication, how specific approaches to global issues may affect communities differently, and how varying economic, religious, social, or geographical interests can result in conflict.
- Demonstrate principles of ethical citizenship and socially responsible leadership through collaborative partnerships.
- Evaluate how academic theories and public policy inform one another to support civic well-being.
Programs
University Honors Curriculum
- Entering first-year students register for FYS 100H First Year Seminar-Honors.
- All second-year students will take HON 200 Second Year Seminar, in leadership, ethics and civic engagement.
- Each semester several interdisciplinary seminars are taught as sections of HON 480 Special Topics. Seminars enable students to study in depth a special topic outside and beyond the regular curriculum. Honors seminar credits may fulfill department major or college general education requirements with the approval of a student’s primary college dean. Course offerings vary each semester. Seminar titles appear in the official Schedule of Courses published each semester by the Registrar’s Office under the HON prefix. HON 480 seminars require permission for enrollment, which can be obtained during an Honors advising appointment in the college prior to the priority registration period.
- Individual departments offer honors sections of regular courses that can be used to earn honors credits while also fulfilling many different general education requirements. These courses are identified in this catalog and the semester course schedule by an H following the course number.
- Experiential Learning
The Honors College encourages students to consider studying abroad as undergraduates. The college will waive up to 6 of the required general Honors credits for international engagement experiences for which the student receives academic credit through Marshall. Students must request the waiver by submitting the Study Abroad Substitution form available on the Honors College website.
- The Honors Option allows an honors student enrolled in a non-honors course to receive honors credit. The honors student must develop an Honors Contract Proposal with the course instructor who acts as a faculty mentor, no later than the end of the second week of the semester in which the course is offered, to perform work of a different quality (not merely quantity) than others in the class. Assignments for the H-option should involve higher-level cognitive processes and products, service, and extra engagement with the faculty mentor. H-option instructions and forms are available on the Honors College website.
The Honors College provides faculty-mentored as well as student-organized and led courses that are based in a fundamental need for team-based work and that contribute to the welfare of particular communities. Participation on the staff of the Honors student newsletter (HON 484 Honors College Newsletter) or on the Steering Committee of the Honors College Student Association (HON 488 Student Assoc Steering Comm) earns honors credit as collaborative learning experiences.
- For incoming students, general Honors credit may be waived by college credit with a grade of A or B, AP credit, or IB credit earned in high school according to the following scale:
- 15 – 30 credits: 3 credit honors waiver
- 31+ credits: 6 credit honors waiver
To receive Honors credit, students must petition the dean by the end of their first semester using the form found on the Honors College website.
Additional opportunities for earning honors credits can be found on the college website.
Yeager Scholars Program
The Yeager Scholars Program is named for United States Air Force Brigadier General Charles E. “Chuck’’ Yeager, a West Virginia native and the first person to break the sound barrier in his historic 1947 flight of the Bell-X-1 aircraft. The Yeager Scholars Program offers an enhanced educational experience, providing the scholars with opportunities to expand their intellectual abilities, to develop leadership potential, to become effective communicators, and to gain the skills and knowledge necessary for successful careers. Through the generosity of many donors, especially the Society of Yeager Scholars, students in the Yeager program receive tuition, fees, room and board, a textbook allowance, a personal computer, a stipend, and education-related study abroad expenses. For additional information, see https://www.marshall.edu/yeager.
Admission Requirements
Incoming First-Year Students
Incoming first-year students who have been accepted to Marshall University have two pathways to admission in the Honors College.
Admission by Invitation
Incoming first-year students who have been accepted to Marshall University and have a composite ACT score at least 26 (1230 SAT composite or higher) and a high school GPA of at least 3.5 are invited to join the Honors College. There is no separate application for admission to the college via this pathway to admission. The stated test scores and GPA must be achieved and reported to the university before the college’s stated deadline, typically May 1.
Admission by Holistic Review
Students admitted to Marshall who do not meet the minimum test score that would lead an automatic invitation to be admitted to the Honors College but do have at least a 3.5 high school GPA may still apply for admission to the Honors College. Students may request and be provided with a separate application for admission to the Honors College. Requests for admission in the Fall semester will be reviewed on a rolling basis through April 15 each year.
Current, Transfer and Late-Admitted (Spring Semester) Students
All requests for admission (Admission by Invitation pathway) or applications for admission (Admission by Holistic Review pathway) must be made before the end of the 7th week of the semester.
Fall Semester
Admission by Invitation
Current students admitted to Marshall to begin their degree requirements in the Fall semester who are NOT classified as transfer students (students who began their baccalaureate degree elsewhere before coming to Marshall) and who have not yet earned a GPA at Marshall but have at least a 3.5 high school GPA and at least a 26 ACT or 1230 SAT composite score, can request to be considered for a late “Admission by Invitation,” which does not require an application. This pathway to admission is only available in the Fall semester for current students.
Admission by Holistic Review
Current students (continuing at Marshall from an earlier semester) and qualified transfer students (students who began their baccalaureate degree elsewhere before coming to Marshall) with at least a 3.5 college GPA (earned at Marshall for current students) in at least 12 completed credit hours, who will have no more than 30 earned credit-hours at the end of the Fall semester, may petition for admission by requesting to submit an application to the college. At the time of application, both current and transfer students may request a waiver of up to 6 hours of general Honors credits toward completion of the required Honors curriculum.
Spring Semester
Admission by Invitation for Late-Admitted, Spring Semester Students
Students admitted to Marshall to begin their degree requirements in the Spring semester who are NOT classified as transfer students (students who began their baccalaureate degree elsewhere before coming to Marshall) and who have not yet earned a GPA at Marshall but have at least a 3.5 high school GPA and at least a 26 ACT or 1230 SAT composite score, can request to be considered for late “Admission by Invitation,” which does not require an application. This pathway to admission is only available in the Spring semester for late-admitted students.
Admission by Holistic Review
Current students (continuing at Marshall from an earlier semester), incoming students admitted late (to start in Spring semester), and qualified transfer students (students who began their baccalaureate degree elsewhere before coming to Marshall) with at least a 3.5 college GPA (earned at Marshall for current students) in at least 12 completed credit hours, who will have no more than 30 earned credit-hours at the end of the Spring semester, may petition for admission by requesting to submit an application to the college. At the time of application, both current and transfer students may request a waiver of up to 6 hours of general Honors credits toward completion of the required Honors curriculum.
Academic Policies
To remain in good standing with the college, students must maintain an overall GPA of 3.30. Additional good standing and satisfactory progress policies are in the college policy handbook on the Honors College website.
Graduation in Honors
Students who wish to graduate from the Honors College must complete 24 credits of honors experiences. The 24 credits must include:
- FYS 100H First Year Seminar-Honors, 3 credits
- HON 200 Second Year Seminar, 3 credits
- At least two interdisciplinary HON 480 Special Topics seminars, 3 credits each
- An accepted combination of honors-designated departmental courses, and other approved honors experiences.
Students must earn a C or better in a course to receive honors credit. The official transcript of students successfully fulfilling the requirements of the college curriculum will state that the student has graduated with University Honors through the Honors College.
Faculty
Dr. Brian A. Hoey, Interim Dean
