Students in the University Honors Program take 16 credits of Honors Discovery Courses.
These credits are composed of 1) 8 credits of seminar-style Honors coursework (usually 2 courses); and 2) 8 additional credits of Honors Discovery coursework of your choosing.
8 credits: Honors Seminar Requirement
Honors Students must take 8 credits of seminar-style Honors coursework.
- 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.
- In order to develop a strong sense of UNH as a community of learners, we strongly encourage you to take your Honors seminar during your first year.
- Many Honors Seminars have the course number 444 or 440. "444" courses are Inquiry Seminars, intended to examine an issue through open-ended questions and multiple perspectives. "440" courses are often part of Honors Symposia, clusters of courses in which faculty collaborate to help students compare how different disciplines approach a topic. See our Seminar list here.
8 credits: Other Honors Discovery Courses
Honors sections: Honors versions of classes that are also found in the general curriculum, such as First-Year Writing or Intro to Psychology. They usually enroll 24-30 students.
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.
Honors-designated courses: Only one Honors-designated course may be used toward the Honors Discovery requirement. Students may make an agreement with their professor to complete Honors-level work within a general course. This "wildcard" option offers increased choice and flexibility for Honors Students. An “Honors-designated course” need not be part of the Discovery program. It may be any course that is offered in person on the normal semester schedule.
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. Click to learn more
