Frequently Asked Questions

Are Honors students required to take a special Honors core (where every class is filled by an Honors class) in place of the regular SU core?

No, they are not.  Honors students are only required to fill certain cores with Honors classes.  Beyond that, Honors students are required to take two 300-level seminar classes.  Many of these 300-level seminars count as equivalencies to parts of the University core, and Honors students have the option of fulfilling a core in this way.

Which SU core requirements must Honors students fill with Honors classes?

Honors students must fill the Intellectual Skills core with Thought, the Heritage: Literature core with Thought and Civilization, and either the Society and the Individual core with Thought and the Social Sciences or the Science and Technology core with Thought and the Natural Sciences.

Which SU core requirements do Honors students have the option of filling with the same classes as non-Honors students?

Honors students may fulfill either the Society and the Individual core or the Science and Technology core (whichever they did not fulfill with an Honors Thought and… class) with a regular core class.  Also, Honors students may fulfill the Fine Arts core, the History core, and the Values core with the same classes as non-Honors students.  Sometimes the 300-level seminar classes that Honors students take also fulfill one of these core classes but not always.

Do Thought and Social Sciences and Thought and Natural Sciences fulfill the same university core?

No, they do not.  They are under the same general core heading of Perspectives on the World, but they fulfill two different university core classes.  However, a student may choose to take the Honors equivalent of a core she has already taken in order to fulfill the Honors Program requirement covered by either Thought and the Social  Sciences or Thought and the Natural Sciences.

 Are Honors students who choose to take Thought and Social Sciences still required to fulfill the Science and Technology core?

Yes, they are.  They must take a lab science that the university has listed as a core equivalent for all Susquehanna students.

Do Honors students receive any credits from the Honors Program for their senior projects (Independent Research, Senior Recital, Senior Thesis, etc.)?

No, they do not receive any credits from the Honors Program.  Honors Students must enroll in Senior Honors Research their senior year, but this course does not give any additional credits.

If an Honors student's major department does not offer senior projects, how can this student fulfill the Senior Honors Research requirement for the Honors Program?

The student can pursue an independent study (research, internship, etc.) for 2 or more credits in her department.           

Will any upper-level class which a professor requests to cross-list with the Honors Program automatically qualify as an Honors 300-level elective?

Yes.

 What specifically is required of an upper-level course for it to qualify for Honors Program cross-listing?

If a faculty member requests that a class be cross-listed with the Honors Program, the Honors Program will cross-list it.  Usually, these classes are 300-level within the department, although some are 200- or 400-level. 

 What specifically is required of an upper-level course for it to qualify as core equivalency for Honors students?

The department chair reviews all courses submitted by his department for cross-listing with the Honors Program.  He looks over the proposed course material and compares it with the core requirement which it would potentially fulfill.  If the course fulfills the requirements set for the particular core, then the department chair can choose to qualify it as core equivalency for Honors students.

Are Honors classes kept to a strict limit in terms of class size, in order to facilitate “seminar-style” learning? 

The Honors Program in admitting students into classes, does try to limit the size of classes, especially in Thought and Thought and Civilization.  Usually, it caps Thought classes at 15 people (as opposed to 18 people in Writing and Thinking) and Thought and Civilization classes at 20 people (as opposed to 30 people in Literature and Culture). 

 Under what conditions are Honors classes allowed to exceed a typical size for a “seminar-style” class?

Sometimes, scheduling necessitates that the Honors Program admit into a class one person over the usual limit.  In order to go over the limit, the Registrar has to make a special request to the Honors Program, and the Honors Program has to approve the extra student.

Are Honors students required to take Senior Capstone Seminar in order to graduate with Honors, or is the class now offered as an elective?

            Honors students are required to take the class in order to graduate.

Under special circumstances, such as student teaching during the spring semester of senior year, can a junior take Senior Capstone Seminar?

Only two groups of students may take Senior Capstone Seminar in their junior year.  The first is Education majors, who will be student teaching in the spring of their senior year.  The Honors Program highly encourages Education majors to enroll for the class in their junior year in order to make their student teaching experiences less stressful.  The second group who may take Senior Capstone Seminar in their junior year is students who will be graduating in December of their senior year and will not have a spring semester in which to take the class.