Honors program
The SUNY Oswego Honors Program consists of a core of courses designed to stimulate your intellectual growth and develop your analytical abilities. Unlike traditional courses, which present material from a single field of study, Honors Program courses draw ideas and information from many fields, addressing concerns common to all disciplines and recognizing no boundaries exist to thought and inquiry. See our program requirements for more information on the variety of courses available to you.
Honors Program courses examine the historical and intellectual origins, growth and development of today's issues, connections among them and consequences for tomorrow. The program emphasizes small classes and the lively exchange of ideas in the classroom. The Honors Program seeks out faculty demonstrating excellence in teaching, special skills in their fields, interest in thinking across disciplines and commitment to working with students in a variety of formal and informal settings. Honors Program students are advised by the Honors Director and faculty members in participants' major field of study. Students enjoy a close relationship with honors faculty and with each other in a network of academic and personal support.
Honors Program students have access to all of SUNY Oswego's facilities. While students enjoy the advantages of a small, challenging program, they have access to all the resources of a major university, including an internationally respected faculty, an expansive library, fully equipped computer labs and a wide range of student services.
Students in the Honors Program can major in any area the college offers and take the same number of credits for graduation as every other SUNY Oswego student. Honors Program students take 18 hours in the Honors Core (Western Intellectual Heritage, American Intellectual Heritage, Introduction to the Social Sciences, Introduction to Literature and the Arts, Natural Science in the Human Context, In Search of Meaning), as well as courses in a language, lab science, English and math. (Note that, if an Advanced Placement course covers the same material as an Honors Program course, the AP course will fulfill the Honors requirement. For example, a student with AP credit in calculus or a lab science already will have met those particular requirements.) In addition, students in the Honors Program explore a subject of their choice in depth with a faculty advisor (usually within their major) by writing an honors thesis.
To graduate from the Honors Program, students must have a 3.0 GPA overall, a 3.3 GPA in their major, and a 3.3 in the Honors Core (Honors 140, 141, 200, 201, 300, and 301). We note successful completion of the Honors Program requirements at graduation and in your transcript.
Freshmen are selected each May for the Honors Program on the basis of high school average and additional factors, such as ACT or SAT scores, if test scores were provided.