I write to welcome you to the John Carroll University Honors Program and to give some essential information about Honors Program privileges and requirements and orientation sessions this summer.
First, the privileges that apply to all Honors Program students in good standing:
- Priority Registration. Starting with registration for the Spring 2009 semester, you will be able to register for classes the day before general registration starts. All other JCU students are assigned registration times on the basis of credit hours earned.
- Core Exemptions and Self-Designed Majors. You may ask for exemption from 3-12 hours of Core courses (with good cause) and you may create your own interdisciplinary major, subject to the approval of the director of the Honors Program and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
- Library Privileges. You will be able to check books out of Grasselli Library for the full semester (they are subject to being recalled by other others in case of need).
- Cultural Events. You will receive notices of off-campus cultural events for which you will be eligible for free or reduced-price tickets. You are also eligible to receive up to $25 a semester in reimbursements for cultural events attended on your own.
- Eligibility for Honors Housing, a designated housing area for Honors Program students and their roommates. For further information, contact Residence Life at (216) 397-4408 or jcureslife@jcu.edu, or see http://www.jcu.edu/campuslife/reslife/firstyear/specialty.htm
- Honors Program-Sponsored Trips. In the upcoming year, the Honors Program will be sponsoring a study trip to Mérida in the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico (January), and service trips to Guatemala (May) and Tijuana, Mexico (August). Honors Program students are given first notice of these trips. There are also annual national Honors conferences (this year in San Antonio, Texasn(October) and Santa Clara, California (February) to which we generally send student representatives.
Second, Honors Program requirements:
- HP 101, Honors Colloquium, a team-taught, interdisciplinary class, focused on a special topic, usually taken in the spring semester of the freshman year. This is the only class limited to students enrolled in the Honors program. Topics in the Spring 2009 semester will be Business & Environmental Ethics, Political Comedy from the Greeks to the Daily Show, and Cultivating Community, a field-based course using community resources in Cleveland.
- Six Honors-designated courses, representing three divisions of the core, and at least two at the 200-level or above. Generally these courses also satisfy university core or major requirements. The fifth or sixth may be an Honors Option with any course approved by a faculty member and the director of the Honors Program.
- Completion of an additional competency beyond the major program, which may be met through a year of language at the advanced level, a year of calculus, a minor, an interdisciplinary concentration, or a semester’s study abroad in an approved program.
- A Senior Honors Project, independently done with a faculty advisor of your choice, generally in the major.
- A 3.5 grade point average on graduation.
Note that you will be maintained in good standing in the program as long you are making reasonable progress towards meeting program requirements.
Finally, I’d like to give you some information on what to expect in terms of academic advising and course registration when you come for New Student Orientation this summer. In most cases, you will be assigned to an academic advisor from the Honors Committee. In the afternoon of your first day on campus, your advisor will first meet with parents and then with students in a group. Generally all the students in your advising group will be incoming Honors Program students. This will be an opportunity to talk broadly about expectations, university core and major requirements, opportunities for extracurricular activities, as well as the Honors Program. After the group session, you’ll have dinner with your advisor and parents. Dinner is a chance to ask any specific questions that may not have been addressed in the group meeting, especially about scheduling courses. The following morning you will be given a time to register with your advisor. Parents are not allowed to attend that session. You will be making your course choices in consultation with you advisor. When you finish that morning, you will have your fall schedule.
You can see what courses are available, including times and number of seats available, by going to
https://web4.jcu.edu:4459/PJCU/szqrterm.P_DispClassChoice?term=200830 Note that you can view all Honors-designated classes as well as classes by departments. Some general guidelines for thinking about classes:
- All incoming first-year students are required to take First Year Seminar. All sections meet on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 12:00-12:50. You will be receiving more information on thematic choices that you will be able to make.
- English composition is almost always a part of the first semester schedule. There are three levels of first semester composition (103/111/114). Your level will be determined by a placement test you’ll take on the first day of orientation.
- The JCU language requirement is one year of college-level credit at any level. If you’re planning to continue a foreign language, it’s generally a good idea to do so your first semester. Your placement will be determined the first day of orientation. If you intend to start a new language, there’s no imperative to do so right away.
- Students interested in pre-med should plan on both Biology 155/157 and Chemistry 141/143. Some students may wish to take Math 135 (calculus) rather than English composition or foreign language.
- Students interested in a business major should take Math 167 and Economics 201 in the fall, as well as 1-credit courses in Microsoft Office use (BI 107/108/109) in either the fall or spring semesters.
- Students interested in Education should take ED 100 or ED 186.
Beyond these guidelines, take courses that interest you or that allow you to explore potential majors. Your advisor will have more information about the particular requirements of majors as well as general university requirements.
The normal course load is 15-18 hours. Most courses are 3 credit hours—usually 5 or 6 courses, although students taking a heavy science schedule may have only 4 courses. I generally recommend that you take 15 or 16 hours your first semester. You’ll be able to talk about your own particular interests and situation with your advisor at orientation.
Many incoming Honors Program students have credit from Advanced Placement tests or college-level courses taken in high school. If this is the case, be sure to make it known to your advisor. AP tests taken this year have not been scored yet, so you may have to be ‘overscheduled’ to accommodate your needs whether or not you get AP credit. For example, if AP credit in English is possible, but you don’t yet know your score, you can be scheduled for the normal English composition course plus a literature course that requires English comp as a prerequisite. If you get the AP credit, you would be dropped from the comp course. If you don’t get the AP credit, you’d be dropped from the literature class.
You should look at
https://web4.jcu.edu:4459/PJCU/szqrterm.P_DispCorClas?v_saved_attr_code=H&term=200830 to see what Honors-designated courses are available when you register. There is no requirement to take an Honors-designated class your first semester, but you should complete at least one (in addition to HP 101 in the spring) your first year in order to remain in good standing in the Honors Program. You should avoid taking too many non-Honors designated classes that usually have Honors-designated sections (such as AH 101, PL 101, PO 101, PS 101, RL 101, SC 101). If you do so, you may have difficulty filling your requirement of six Honors-designated courses.
That’s probably more than enough for now! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at
rkolesar@jcu.edu. I will not be at most of the summer orientation sessions, as I will be out of the country from June 4-August 23, but I will remain in touch by email and phone. If I don’t see you this summer, and if I haven’t met you already, I look forward to meeting you in the fall. For those of you I have met, I look forward to seeing you again!
(Pictured above: Tina Lattouf, Megan McGunnity, Laurie Wanninger)
