Honors Courses
To complete an Honors Course Contract or Honors Independent Study request, log in to the LAUNCH Portal. Click "Honors Course Contracts." On the following page, click the link for “Academic Course.”
Please note that not all classes are available for contract. Some reasons why the course may not show up as available for a contract in the LAUNCH Portal include:
- The course is already offered as an Honors section.
- There is not an instructor assigned to the course in Howdy. If this is the case, please contact the department offering the course to ask that Howdy be updated.
- The course is excluded by request of the department. Excluded courses include HIST 280, HIST 481, any MATH course 324 or below, or any course offered by the College of Engineering.
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Engineering courses are not available for contract. The process to request a stacked Honors section varies by department. Students should contact the advising office for the department offering the course to inquire about their process. We recommend reaching out during pre-registration to inquire about this possibility.
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Honors Course Contracts are open between preregistration and the 20th class day of the semester in which you are intend to earn Honors credit. When you login, the workflow will automatically populate with any courses eligible to be contracted for Honors credit.
Select the course you want to contract (one at a time) from the drop-down list. Check the box if you plan to graduate this semester.
The next question helps us determine how your experience will differ from the non-honors version of the course. Honors experiences should be measurably broader, deeper, or more complex.
Because expectations are different for an Honors experience than for the non-Honors version of the course, you should understand if/how these different expectations translate to your grade.
Once your application is complete, push submit to route the request to your professor for approval. The workflow will automatically email the approval request to the instructor of record for the course you selected. A course without an instructor listed will not be eligible for an Honors Contract.
1. To find which courses are being offered for Honors credit, first log into Howdy (students) and find the "Registration" channel on the "My Record" tab. Click "Search Class Schedule."
The public can also search the class schedule by finding the "Course Schedules & Syllabus, Faculty CV" link at the bottom of the Texas A&M homepage.
2. Next, in the Look up Classes section, select the term that you want to search for Honors courses. In the student view you will need to click the link for "Advanced Search."
3. Next, in the Class Schedule Search section, select the subjects you want to search. You can use control+click to select several subjects that are not near one another, or you can use shift+click to select a range (including all subjects).
4. Select "Honors" from the Attribute Types field and click the search button.
Applying
Incoming freshman students are admitted to the Honors Academy Minor on a competitive basis. To be eligible to apply to the Honors Academy, you must be a current freshman applicant and have submitted an admission application for entry the following Fall semester. You will first create a profile with Admissions and then receive a follow-up email with instructions for completing the application.
Incoming freshmen apply to our program between August 1 and December 15 each year. Prospective students can indicate their interest by checking the appropriate box in the ApplyTexas or Common App application. This action will generate an email with a link to our application.
Continuing students, those who are already enrolled at TAMU, can apply to the University Honors Program between December 1 and February 1 each year.
See Apply to Honors for details on both application processes.
Honors Academy works closely with Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi, which are interdisciplinary fairly universally recognized and are generally recommended to students. Invitations to these programs are held in such regard that your college may have funds available to help you with membership fees, if needed.
If you are not familiar with the organization that has sent you an invitation, you may want to see what information the American College Honor Society National Clearinghouse has to offer.
Finally, check out what kind of activities the honor society has locally and if those activities would be personally meaningful to you and your goals.
Some benefits are the same for Honors Students participating in any of the university, college, or departmental Honors programs. These benefits include:
- Being part of an intellectually-curious and motivated peer group.
- Receiving priority assignment for course registration
- The opportunity to earn Honors course credit through course contracts, independent study, or graduate courses.
- Priority access to specialized advising for Honors.
- The ability to graduate with a transcript distinction.
In addition to these benefits, Honors Academy offers these specific benefits:
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Values-Focus: the Honors Academy minor is centered on the Aggie Core Values, and challenges students to think about what their values are, where those come from, and how they are a guide to the kind of difference they want to make in the world. Our minor is designed to work well with college and departmental Honors distinctions, and only requires 5 hrs in addition to a student’s degree requirements.
- Broad engagement: There are opportunities for students to be engaged and pursue leadership roles within Honors with the Honors Housing Community, Honors Student Council, and Pan-Honors Freshman Leadership Organization, but it is not an isolated community. We encourage and celebrate our students who are pursuing leadership roles across campus, including in Student Government, RHA, MSC, and other student organizations
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Real-World Preparation: Honors classes require students to be prepared for class discussion and make broad connections, go deeper into the material, and understand more complex ideas. These are durable skills that will apply in every field. Additionally, the values focus in the minor seminars, combined with students’ annual professional development reflections and application of knowledge, skills, and abilities in their culminating experience means that they will be prepared for their next step after graduation, whether that is grad school, professional school, or industry.
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Mentorship: The relationship with faculty is vital in helping Honors students achieve their full potential. We work with colleges to offer Honors sections in high-demand courses so that students get the benefit of mentorship from these outstanding faculty who can help students connect their interests and abilities with opportunities that they might not have envisioned otherwise. These relationships also translate into great letters of recommendation as our students apply for nationally-competitive scholarships like Truman, Rhodes, and Fulbright, or to prestigious graduate and professional schools.
“Being in honors classes and living in the honors dorm helped me to find and connect with other students who valued learning the way I did in a way I might otherwise have missed on such a large campus.”
Critical Thinking & Writing-Intensive Courses“The honors experience gave me a great foundation in critical thinking and writing skills far beyond just the subject-matter knowledge I gained from studying the course material.”
Enhanced Networking/Collaborative Skills“In hindsight, my Honors experience is something that I utilize on a regular basis in my career and in interactions with people both professionally and personally.”
Critical Thinking & Life-Long Learning“The honors classes encouraged a deeper understanding via discussion and practical experience. This differentiation in learning styles (I have reached for the honors class approach when learning a topic in my life after school) has allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of anything that I desire to learn about.”
Undergraduate Research“Doing undergraduate research provided me the experience of really doing science. I was able to observe and participate in all aspects of scientific research, including writing proposals, designing experiments, writing and publishing results. The experience prepared me for graduate studies and for my career as an academic researcher.”
“I pursued research at the graduate level because of my positive experience in the Research Fellows program. I currently find myself providing support for a developing Honors program for college students because I know participation in such a program can be a defining experience in a student’s intellectual and personal maturation.”
Common Intellectual Experience“I value the fact that I had the opportunity to take Honors engineering courses as well as sociology courses that were entirely outside my major.”
You may be invited to join an honor society based on your GPR or other accomplishments. Honor societies are typically student organizations; some are affiliated with academic colleges or departments. An honor society may require you to pay a membership fee in order to join and does not require Honors coursework. While many honor societies are legitimate and may be worth your time, scams do exist. We encourage you to investigate any invitations you receive to ensure that they are from real and significant organizations. Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi are the only two honor societies associated with our office.
Honors programs are coordinated by Honors Academy or academic colleges or departments. They require completion of Honors coursework and result in graduation distinctions officially recognized by Texas A&M. Some of these programs require an application to join, but you will not be charged for joining them.
Honors Academy is open to students of all majors, while college and departmental Honors programs are more narrowly designed for those specific academic fields. Honors Academy is a great fit for students interested in an interdisciplinary academic experience and who would like to interact with Honors students from many majors.
College and departmental Honors programs typically require 18-21 hours of Honors coursework and usually require that those courses be taken within one department or college. While Honors Academy provides the option for a first-year living-learning experience in the Honors Housing Community, there are not similar offerings from college or departmental Honors programs. Some students find that an Honors program more specifically tailored to their major is a better fit for them than Honors Academy.
The primary differences between the Honors Academy and any of the college or departmental Honors programs are focus and rigor. Because the Honors Academy is open to students from all different majors, our minor must be flexible enough to accommodate any degree plan. That means that you customize the way in which you meet requirements, so the focus is on you and your interests. College and departmental Honors programs have a narrower focus on their particular discipline, so the course work required is typically restricted to the discipline. The two approaches are complementary, and can be layered for your benefit.
Honors Academy does not handle admissions or academic requirements for college or departmental Honors programs. You should contact an advisor or program coordinator within your college or department. You can find a list of college and departmental Honors options.
Graduating with Honors
No, Honors courses from other schools will not count for distinction requirements, but the courses may transfer to meet degree requirements. Prospective students should check with an advisor in the department they are applying to for help on how transferred work will meet degree requirements.
Latin honors are graduation distinctions based only on your final GPR. You do not need to participate in University Honors or any other Honors program to receive Latin honors at graduation. The GPR cutoffs for Latin honors are:
3.50 - 3.69 GPA = Cum Laude
3.70 - 3.89 GPA = Magna Cum Laude
3.90 - 4.00 GPA = Summa Cum Laude
Program Requirements
Any changes to your Honors program membership should be made no later than the 12th class day of the Fall or Spring semester in order to be taken into account for Honors Priority Registration assignments.
First, check core.tamu.edu for a full list of core and ICD/CD courses. You may be surprised to find that you have remaining coursework that is included! Any of these courses taken for Honors credit will count toward Breadth.
For example, many engineering majors must take ENGR 482, Ethics and Engineering, which is in the core. Other core curriculum categories that students typically have not earned credit for through AP/IB testing include Creative Arts and Language, Philosophy and Culture. Your International and Cultural Diversity (ICD) courses required for graduation may also be taken for Honors credit to meet this distribution requirement.
If you still are not able to find core courses you can take, you need to submit an appeal to count a non-core course toward the core curriculum requirement. Discuss the appeal process with an Honors Advisor. To appeal, you will submit an online form describing how the Honors course you are taking or have taken addresses the educational goals of the core curriculum. You can find descriptions of the core categories in the undergraduate course catalog.
When your cumulative TAMU GPR falls below 3.5, you are no longer eligible to register yourself for any Honors classes. You may remain in any Honors sections for which you are already registered, but cannot add more or change into different Honors sections.
Honors Academy Students who fall below 3.5 GPR are given a semester of probation (see University Honors Program Policy Guide 2.f) to meet requirements. While on probation, you will not be assigned Honors Priority Registration, but you can work toward distinction requirements using Honors Course Contracts. If you do not meet requirements after a semester of probation, you are removed from the program.
Honors Priority Registration is a privilege reserved for students actively pursuing an Honors distinction at the university, college, or department level. This privilege is granted to help students arrange the rest of their courses around the relatively limited Honors course offerings.
Students who are meeting requirements (not on probation) with all of their Honors program(s) are automatically given an Honors pre-registration assignment. This assignment will show up in the registration channel in the Howdy portal.