/Institutions/Messiah-College/json/2019-2020/Undergraduate-Catalog-local.json

/Institutions/Messiah-College/json/2019-2020/Undergraduate-Catalog.json

Academic Honors

College Honors Program. The College Honors Program exemplifies Messiah College’s commitment to promoting academic excellence and fostering an intellectually rigorous Christian worldview, with the goal of equipping young men and women for lives of leadership and service.

The College Honors Program is designed for students who demonstrate high scholarly ability early in their academic career. The program curriculum is composed of three general education honors courses and a senior honors project or seminar. In addition to the credit-bearing curriculum, students meet outside of the classroom at Honors Congress activities to discuss timely issues and interact with special campus guests. Throughout the academic year, students also have opportunities to participate in on- and off-campus academic and cultural activities. Upon graduating from the program, students receive special recognition at Commencement, on their diploma, and on their College transcript.

Students from all of the College’s applied and liberal arts majors are eligible to participate. Moreover, in keeping with the College’s commitment to educating the whole person, students in the College Honors Program are encouraged to participate in the College’s many cocurricular opportunities.

The College Honors Program is open to first-year students. To be considered for admission, students must have a high school GPA of 3.9 or above and a score of at least 1360 on the SAT, 30 on the ACT, or 91 on the CLT. No special application is required. As part of the regular admission process, students who meet the eligibility requirements are evaluated for the program. From the eligible pool of candidates, students are selected for on-campus interviews. After the on-campus interview and evaluation of all other application materials, approximately 100 students are selected to enter the program in the fall. Most students selected for the College Honors Program receive either full or partial tuition scholarships. See our website for more information: www.messiah.edu/CHP.

College Honors Curricular Requirements.

• IDFY 102 First Year Seminar, honors section (First year, Fall)
• IDCR 151 Created and Called for Community, honors section (First year, Spring)

• One honors interdisciplinary QuEST course in one of the following interdisciplinary (or ID) categories: Ethics, Pluralism, World Views; Non-Western; or Science, Technology, and the World (sophomore or junior year)

• A second ID QuESTcourse from a different category which does not need to be an honors section. Depending on the major, this second requirement may be waived. If the student’s major has one or two waivers for ID categories, the student must take their honors section from a non-waived category. If the student has waivers for all three ID categories, the student can choose the ID category in which they take their honors section. Honors ID course credit requirements can only be met at the Mechanicsburg campus or through a Messiah College HONORS J-term/May-term study abroad course.

• Senior Honors Experience (junior or senior year). The requirement can be met in one of the following ways:

  • Senior Honors Project, which can be taken either within the student’s department or within the CHP (HONR 498/499) for 4-6 credit hours.
  • Senior Honors Seminar (HONR 497) for 3 credit hours.
• Honors Congress. This is a non-credit bearing requirement which cultural enrichment opportunities and helps cultivate the intellectual climate on campus. CHP students must attend at least three Honors Congress activities in three different semesters. CHP students must complete the Honors Congress requirement in the fall of their first year.

Eligibility Requirements for the College Honors Program

Participation in the College Honors Program requires that all participants meet the grade point average (GPA) requirement for either the Trustees’, President’s or Faculty Scholarship. For President’s and Faculty Scholarship recipients, renewal of these scholarships is contingent on maintaining a 3.2 GPA as a first year student and a 3.4 GPA each subsequent year. For Trustees’ Scholarship recipients, renewal is contingent on maintaining a 3.3 GPA as a first year student and a 3.6 GPA each subsequent year. Participation in the College Honors Program is also required for scholarship renewal. If a student is removed from the College Honors Program, he or she cannot be readmitted. All College Honors Program participants must meet the preceding GPA requirements upon completion of all course work in order to be certified, at the time of graduation, as a College Honors Program graduate.

Dean’s List. Students achieving a semester grade point average of 3.6 or higher for 12 or more graded credits are placed on the Dean’s List at the end of each semester.

Department Honors. To encourage scholarly initiative and in-depth investigation within a limited area of study, Messiah College provides able students with an opportunity to pursue honors courses within their major. Students may qualify for an honors course by (1) earning a GPA of 3.50 for all courses completed at the College to the middle of their junior year and (2) meeting all other requirements as prescribed by the department (e.g. GPA for major courses).

Each department offering an honors course prescribes the nature of the work, the point at which it shall begin, and whether the credit in whole or in part may be counted toward fulfillment of a student’s major requirements. The department must also approve a student’s work for a given semester before permission can be given to proceed with the next semester’s work.

Department Honors consists of four to six credits completed over two semesters, at the rate of one to four credits per semester. Only the grades A and B will carry credit. If the honors work is of such high quality as to merit the grade A, the student will graduate with honors in his/her major field. Students participating in the College Honors Program may meet their senior honors project requirement through an approved Department Honors course.

Graduation with honors in a discipline is recognized at Commencement and is noted on the student’s diploma. Only senior students may participate in Department Honors courses.

Graduation Honors. The College awards three levels of honors according to a graduating senior’s cumulative grade point average (GPA): summa cum laude (3.90 GPA or above), magna cum laude (3.60–3.89 GPA), cum laude (3.30–3.59 GPA).

The following guidelines are used in determining the eligibility and level of honors granted:

• Only credit for courses taken at Messiah College and approved off-campus study programs are calculated in the grade point average.
• A minimum of 60 graded credit hours must be taken at Messiah College.
• Honors published in the Commencement bulletin will be based on the student’s cumulative grade point average at the conclusion of the preceding fall semester.
• Final honors as noted on the student’s diploma and transcript will be based on all credits earned at Messiah College.

Honor Societies. The College is affiliated with several national honor societies in selected academic disciplines. Students who excel in their academic major may be invited to join the respective society. Nominations are made during the junior and senior years.

Honors Smith Scholar Interns. The Smith Scholar Intern Program allows highly qualified upper-class students to work in apprentice relationships with faculty members and to participate in a significant research project. Junior and senior students may participate. Additional information is available from the Office of Faculty Development.