- What is the purpose of the Honors & Scholars Program?
- Why would I want to be in the program?
- What are the requirements?
- How do I apply for the Honors & Scholars Program?
- How do I challenge a course for Honors?
What is the purpose of the Honors & Scholars Program?
The primary goal of the Honors & Scholars Program is to ensure that our best students have an intellectually enriching and challenging experience as undergraduates, and to reward academic excellence. To do this, the program offers special honors courses open only to Honors & Scholars participants, special sections of some other courses, and opportunities for cultural and recreational activities such as free opera and museum tickets, trips to Busch Gardens and Colonial Williamsburg, banquets, etc.
The Program allows honors students to go beyond the usual disciplinary boundaries of a subject, to develop individualized approaches to existing classes, and to increase one-on-one interaction with professors.
The Honors & Scholars Program also benefits the VWC community as a whole, by creating a greater awareness of scholarly achievement on campus, providing a model of honor within the community, sponsoring programs that raise the level of intellectual engagement and discourse on campus, and offering professors the chance to develop courses that will excite them as much as they do the students.
Why would I want to be in the program?
Aside from the highfalutin’ talk of intellectual enrichment above, there are many mundane (if still important) reasons to be in the Honors & Scholars Program:
- Early registration -Honors and Scholars are able to pre-register for classes before any other students, including seniors.
- Honors Hall Eligibility - Honors and Scholars have the opportunity to live in the Honors Hall, two wings of one of the best dormitories on campus. Features include an improved studying environment and funds available for activities and for improving the common areas.
- Activities - Each semester the Honors & Scholars group plans social events, enjoys a catered banquet, performs public service projects, invites prestigious guest speakers, and more. Past activities have included dolphin watching excursions and trips to Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens.
- Financial Aid - Students holding the top Wesleyan Scholarships are required to maintain membership in the program as a condition of continuing to hold their scholarships.
- Résumés - Graduating as a Wesleyan or Presidential Scholar (see below for the distinction) is noted on your permanent transcript, and looks great to future graduate schools and employers.
What are the requirements?
The Honors and Scholars Program is an excellent way to enrich one’s college experience and have some fun along the way. What is required of the student? One can choose to graduate as either a Wesleyan or a Presidential Scholar. Each level has separate requirements.
All students in the Honors & Scholars Program must:
- Regularly (weekly, minimum) check your VWC e-mail account, since all communications will be by e-mail.
- Report to Dr. Easter in the fall of each year a list of all honors courses taken, and your plans for honors courses during the current year.
- Perform community service. Check on what activities will count as community service with Mrs. Diane Hotaling, Director of Community Service, 455-3216. Students should go to the community service web page, (VWC Homepage, Campus Life, Community Service) and click on the volunteer service log online. There they can indicate that they are part of H&S and record what service they've performed. Students are now required to register to record their activities on-line. Upon registering with the Community Service Office online, you will receive updates about upcoming opportunities and activities. For questions about what counts as community service and suggestions about what students might enjoy doing, contact Diane Hotaling or Dr. Easter.
All students in the Program are designated as either Wesleyan or Presidential Scholars. Here’s the difference:
Students intending to graduate as Wesleyan Scholars must:
- Complete 6 honors courses (or honors sections of courses), excluding the honors section of First Year Seminar. No more than 3 of these courses may be from a single academic division*.
- Maintain a 3.50 GPA.
- Perform 40 hours of community service over the span of their time as undergraduates at VWC.
Students intending to graduate as Presidential Scholars must:
- Complete 3 honors courses (or sections of honors courses), excluding the honors section of First Year Seminar, from at least two different academic divisions*.
- Maintain a 3.40 GPA.
- Perform 20 hours of community service over the span of their time as undergraduates at VWC.
* VWC's academic program is administered through the Division of Humanities, the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and the Division of Social Sciences. The disciplines included in each of the divisions are found in the Academic Catalog (p 21 in the 2007-08 catalog). Interdisciplinary Studies courses (INST xxx) do not fall within the traditional divisional structure.
How do I apply for the Honors & Scholars Program?
There are 2 ways to get in to the Honors and Scholars Program:
- Some entering freshmen are automatically included by virtue of the scholarship they hold. If you hold a Wesleyan, Batten, Wilson, or Trustee Scholarship, you are already part of the program (and, in fact, our top scholarship students must remain in the program to keep their full scholarships). Incoming Wesleyan Scholars are typically placed in special sections of First Year Seminar.
- Some incoming freshmen and transfer students are invited to join the program based on their previous academic performance.
- Any student who has earned the minimum GPA is invited to apply to the program. You must have a 3.4 GPA and have two faculty members support your application. The faculty can sign your application form or send a brief email to Dr. Easter stating their support for your applciation. Students can apply to the program as soon as they have grades from courses taken at VWC on their transcript (so, at the earliest, at the end of your first semester here, or as soon as your GPA is high enough). If your GPA is a 3.5 or higher you may enter the program with the intention of graduating as a Wesleyan Scholar.
How do I challenge a course for Honors?
Each semester several special honors courses, or honors sections of existing courses, will be listed in the Course Schedule under a special Honors & Scholars section. In addition, students may opt to challenge for honors credit any 300- or 400-level class of 3 credits or greater. Permission must be attained from the Honors & Scholars director to challenge a 100- or 200- level class. To challenge a course for Honors credit, the student must request an Honors Course Proposal form from Dr. Easter, to be filled out in conjunction with the professor teaching the course to be challenged. The form is a kind of contract in which the professor and student agree on what work will be performed in addition to what other students in the class are doing, but more importantly how this work creates a higher intellectual challenge for the student. Often students will challenge a course for honors as a way of pursuing individual research projects in their major. Course proposals are due at the end of the second week of classes in the given semester so that the committee may review all proposals in a timely fashion.