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Pforzheimer Honors College

Types of Honors Courses

We have attempted to create as much flexibility with the types of Honors courses that are offered each semester to meet the needs of our Honors students. The following are the variations of Honors Courses offered each semester and ways in which students can earn honors credit for other courses:

Exclusive Honors Courses

These are classes offered every semester that are only open to Honors students.

Non-Exclusive Honors Courses

These are courses in which a specified number of seats are held open for Honors students. The rest of the seats are open to non-Honors students. Courses which are listed as Non-Exclusive Honors are usually upper level courses taught by Pace faculty which the Honors Director and Faculty Advisor have determined to be challenging enough to warrant an Honors course designation.

Honors Option Courses

This means getting Honors credit for a traditionally non-Honors course. This applies to any course that the Honors College is not already offering an Honors section for and must be 200-level or above. Students may submit an honors option form via SYSNOTES - the Honors online forms system. Students need permission from the faculty member and agree to submit extra work for the course. The form is then reviewed by the Honors College. If approved, at the end of the semester, the faculty member will need to sign back into the SYSNOTES system to note whether or not the work was completed. In order to receive credit, the student must receive a B- or better in the class and on the additional assignment. Students who enter the Honors College as a freshman can do two Honors Option courses in their academic careers at Pace; transfer students are allowed to do one Honors Option course. The application needs to be submitted within the first two weeks of the semester.

Senior Thesis

All Honors students must complete an Honors Thesis which is generally due in the student's last semester, but can be completed earlier if the student choses to do so. Students will defend their thesis to their faculty advisor and the Honors thesis advisor in a brief presentation upon its completion. The thesis is to be original and good enough to submit to a graduate school in the student's field as a sample of their best scholarly work. The thesis must be a minimum of 25 pages unless an exception is granted by the Honors thesis advisor. The thesis may be completed in any field but is most commonly in the student's major. Examples of acceptable topics include those that involve laboratory research (sciences); critical analysis of works of literature, philosophy or art (humanities); research using original sources or field work (social sciences, marketing); original programming (computer science); analysis of business practices, laws or standards (accounting, finance, management); or a creative piece of work (art, poetry, theatre). The thesis must be completed under the supervision of a faculty mentor in that field.

Internships

Any Honors student may receive honors credit for successfully completing an internship either during a semester or the summer break. Students who wish to receive Honors credit for an internship must submit an internship form online via SYSNOTES - the Honors online forms system. The application must be filled out and have approval from the Honors College at the beginning of the internship. For the application process, the student must get a letter from the internship provider/supervisor and upload it to the online application. At the end of the internship, the student must have the internship supervisor submit the Internship Grade Form verifying that the student completed all the requirements of the internship, and write an 8-10 page essay on an academic topic which grows out of the internship experience.

Travel Abroad/Study Abroad Course

The Honors College encourages Honors students to take a travel course or study abroad during their careers here at Pace. Students can receive Honors course credit for either a Pace approved travel course or study abroad. Honors students can apply for a study abroad scholarship up to $1,000. For more information, please contact the Director of the Honors College, Jaclyn Kopel jkopel@pace.edu.

Research Credit

Many students in the Honors College conduct research with professors outside of the classroom. This can take up time a lot of time and may be chosen over or in place of an internship opportunity. Parameters and instructions on how to earn an Honors research credit are below:

To count for an Honors credit, the research experience must meet the following criteria:

  • Last for at least one semester.
  • Must be conducted with a Pace faculty member and in some cases a staff member.
  • There must be a work product that is produced (i.e. article submission, presentation, conference paper, report, documentary).
  • Cannot be research you are doing for your thesis, so you cannot double count this.
  • The bulk of the research needs to happen outside of a class (the idea may have formed in a class, but the research needs to be separate from the work done in the class).

Rules:

  • Only one research experience can count for credit. You cannot apply for this credit multiple times.
  • You must print and complete the Research Credit Application (PDF). If you are unable to print this PDF document please stop by the office to pick up an application.
  • When the research has finished, you must complete the Research Credit Completion Form (PDF) and return this to the Honors College. If this is not done the research credit will not be applied.
  • The application needs to be submitted within the first three weeks of the semester.