Honors Program

More information about the Honors Program can be found on the Morris Web site.

The Honors Program is an opportunity for UMM students to pursue an interdisciplinary and interdivisional curriculum and work toward graduation with honors. All UMM students are eligible to participate in the Honors Program. Students normally apply to the program in the spring semester of their freshman year and begin coursework in their sophomore year. While everyone may apply, academic success in the fall semester, faculty recommendations, and a short essay may be used to limit the number of students to those with the proven motivation and likely ability to succeed in the program. Applications are available at the Academic Center for Enrichment, 5 Student Center. Students wishing to register for an honors course must be enrolled in the Honors Program. If spaces remain in an honors course at the end of registration, non-honors students may enroll with the permission of the instructor.

To graduate with honors, participants must 1) complete IS 2001H—Honors: Traditions in Human Thought, usually in the fall of their sophomore year; 2) complete at least four other honors courses at UMM; 3) successfully complete a multidisciplinary senior honors project; and 4) earn a UMM GPA of 3.50 or higher.

Honors courses are limited to a class size of 20. The elective courses examine a particular topic from an interdisciplinary perspective. The courses are often team-taught by faculty from different UMM academic divisions and concern subjects of special interest to the faculty who design them.

The senior honors project is a substantial scholarly or creative work that shows students’ intellectual engagement and their ability to articulate and defend their choices regarding methodology and subject matter to a panel of three faculty University of Minnesota Morris 2009–11 Catalog 45 from different disciplines, including the project’s adviser. It is the responsibility of the student to secure a project adviser, identify two other faculty panelists in consultation with the project adviser, and register for at least two credits of IS 4994—Senior Honors Project. Students should submit the completed project to the Honors Program director and panel members by April 1 and arrange for the defense.