Honors students fulfill some of their UNH Discovery requirements with Honors Discovery courses.
Honors Discovery courses...
- are open only to Honors students.
- are smaller and more discussion-based than traditional Discovery courses.
- provide students with opportunities to interact closely with faculty and get to know their peers in an engaged, intellectual community.
The courses offered change every semester so keep a lookout for things that look interesting!
Fall 2024 HONORS DISCOVERY COURSES
Plan Your Honors in Discovery Path
REQUIREMENTS: 16 credits of Honors Discovery Courses.
In almost all cases, these classes can overlap with your general discovery requirements and generally do not add extra course requirements.
Of those 16 credits, at least 8 must be from Honors Seminar courses and no more than 4 can be non-Honors courses that the student designates as Honors.
4 credits: Honors Seminar
4 credits: Honors Seminar
4 credits: Any Honors Discovery Course (including Seminars)
4 credits: Any Honors Discovery Course (including Seminars) OR Designated Honors Discovery Course
Click the menus below to learn more about the different options for Honors in Discovery.
Seminars are small, highly-interactive, and research-oriented. Each semester the Honors Program offers a new group of seminars in which timely special topics cover a wide range of disciplines. When you see one that interests you—take it! It may not come around again.
Seminars are based on collaboration and intellectual community. Students in the Honors Program should aim to take at least one seminar their first year to build their own community of learners.
Some current or recent Symposia include:
HIST 444J: Global Citizenship
MUSI 444: Music and Social Change
GEOG 405: There is No Planet B
Students in the University Honors Program must take 8 credits of Honors Seminars.
Honors students have the option to elevate any course to an Honors level and count it towards their Honors Discovery requirements.
To do this, students make an agreement with their professor to complete Honors-level work within a general course. The goal of this is to enrich the class and foster a mentor-mentee relationship between the student and professor.
This "wildcard" option offers increased choice and flexibility for Honors Students. An “Honors-designated course” does not need to be part of the Discovery program. It may be any course that is offered in person on the normal semester schedule.
Only one Honors-designated course may be used toward the Honors Discovery requirement.
Like all students at UNH, members of the Honors Program need to complete the requirements of the Discovery Program, which is designed to ensure that students from all majors have fundamental knowledge about the most important areas of knowledge. If there is a course that does not carry a Discovery designation, but that fulfills the learning outcomes of a Discovery requirement, Honors students may propose to take that course instead. While using a different course to fulfill a Discovery requirement does not specifically count toward Honors Program requirements, the option provides more flexibility for Honors students to pursue their interests.
Symposia are "supercourses" with linked sections from different departments that each address a common theme from a unique disciplinary perspective. The sections meet together regularly for large group academic experiences ("plenary sessions"). Each course section is capped at 20 students. Honors symposia have the course number 440 and Honors Symposia may count toward the Honors seminar requirement.
Some current or recent Symposia include:
The Copernican Lens
PHYS 440A: Searching for our Place in the Universe
ENGL 440B: Seeing is Believing: How the Copernican Revolution Changed the Way We See Ourselves
PHIL 440C: The Copernican Lens: Finding a Place for Humanity
Engaging Addiction
HIST 440E: Drugs and Addiction in World History
CMN 440A: Communication, Identity and Addiction
HUMA 440A: Hooked: Narratives of Addiction, Recovery, and Redemption
These account for the majority of Honors Discovery courses. They include
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Honors sections: These are Honors versions of classes that are also found in the general curriculum. Sometimes in a given semester these courses will only appear as an Honors course, and in other cases a standard and Honors version can appear the same semester (for example "First Year Writing.") They usually enroll 24-30 students.
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Honors labs/lectures/recitations: Some science courses offer one or more parts of the course as Honors. For example, a biology student may attend a general lecture but have a lab section that is restricted to Honors students.
Can I designate a course that isn't a Discovery course as one of my Honors Discoveries?
Yes, you can designate any course that isn't required for your major as a Discovery course. We call them Honors Discovery courses so it's clear that they don't require extra classes.
If I'm not an Honors student, can I take an Honors course?
If you are interested in a particular Honors course, reach out to the Honors office!
