University Honors Program
The University Honors Program (UHP) is an all-university program, enrolling undergraduate students from the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, Communication, Education, Engineering, Health Sciences and Nursing, with a focus on experiential and interdisciplinary learning, undergraduate research and a broad and rigorous core curriculum shaped by Jesuit humanist ideals.
The UHP Curriculum is divided into two parts: Core Honors and Disciplinary Honors. Students who complete Core Honors plus either at least one Disciplinary Honors program or an Honors Project within the University Honors Program earn Comprehensive Honors.
Core Honors
Students apply to and are admitted to Core Honors before they enter Marquette. Core Honors consists of eight Core Honors courses, the majority of which are completed in students’ first two years. Core Honors courses are either courses created specifically for the UHP, or Honors versions of departmental courses also offered to non-Honors students. Almost all Core Honors courses meet requirements in the Marquette Core Curriculum (MCC) taken by all undergraduate students at Marquette.
Core Honors Courses
Core Honors students are required to take five specific Core Honors courses, plus three more Core Honors courses chosen from several course options (at least 24 credits total).
Required Core Honors courses (15 credit hours):
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| CORE 1929H | Honors Foundations in Methods of Inquiry 1 | 3 |
| HOPR 1955H | Core Honors First-Year Seminar 1 | 3 |
| THEO 1001H | Honors Foundations in Theology: Finding God in all Things | 3 |
| HOPR 2956H | Honors Engaging Social Systems and Values 1: Engaging the City 2 | 3 |
| CORE 4929H | Honors Service of Faith and Promotion of Justice 3 | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 15 | |
| 1 | Taken either fall or spring of the freshman year. Satisfies the MCC Foundations in Rhetoric requirement for those students who need it. |
| 2 | Taken fall or spring of the sophomore year. |
| 3 | Taken either term of the last undergraduate year. |
The remaining three required Core Honors courses are chosen from the following (9 credit hours):
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| BIOL 1001H | Honors General Biology 1 | 3 |
| BIOL 1002H | Honors General Biology 2 | 3 |
| CHEM 1001H | Honors General Chemistry 1 | 4 |
| CHEM 1002H | Honors General Chemistry 2 | 4 |
| CHEM 1013H | Honors General Chemistry 1 for Majors | 4 |
| CHEM 1014H | Honors General Chemistry 2 for Majors | 4 |
| ECON 1103H | Honors Principles of Microeconomics | 3 |
| ECON 1104H | Honors Principles of Macroeconomics | 3 |
| HEAL 1025H | Honors Culture and Health | 3 |
| HEAL 4901H | Honors Interdisciplinary Palliative Care | 3 |
| HIST 4255H | Honors The British Empire | 3 |
| HIST 4271H | Honors Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union | 3 |
| MATH 1700H & PSYC 1700H | Honors Modern Elementary Statistics and Honors Psychology Introductory Statistics Lab 1 | 4 |
| MUSI 1120H | Liturgical Choir | 0-1 |
| PHIL 1001H | Honors Foundations in Philosophy | 3 |
| PHYS 1003H | Honors General Physics with Introductory Calculus 1 | 4 |
| PHYS 1004H | Honors General Physics with Introductory Calculus 2 | 4 |
| PHYS 1013H | Honors Classical and Modern Physics with Calculus 1 | 4 |
| PHYS 1014H | Honors Classical and Modern Physics with Calculus 2 | 4 |
| POSC 2201H | Honors American Politics | 3 |
| POSC 2401H | Honors Comparative Politics | 3 |
| POSC 2801H | Honors Justice and Power | 3 |
| PSYC 2050H | Honors Research Methods and Designs in Psychology | 4 |
| SOCI 2060H | Honors Social Statistics 1 | 4 |
| THEO 2200H | Honors The Bible Through the Ages | 3 |
| THEO 2400H | Honors Christian Discipleship | 3 |
| THEO 3100H | Honors A Faith Worth Dying For? Martyrs, Saints, and Theology | 3 |
| THEO 3230H | Honors Theology in the Writings of C.S. Lewis | 3 |
| THEO 3530H | Honors Theology and Economics | 3 |
| 1 | MATH 1700H Honors Modern Elementary Statistics and PSYC 1700H Honors Psychology Introductory Statistics Lab or SOCI 2060H Honors Social Statistics may satisfy the Core Honors requirement. Only one of these courses may be taken to fulfill the requirement. |
Disciplinary Honors
Disciplinary Honors programs, in which students do honors work in their majors, are administered by departments, programs or colleges for their undergraduate majors. Students are admitted to a Disciplinary Honors program by the department, program or college administering the program according to the program’s rules and requirements. Admitted students are not required to be pursuing or to have completed Core Honors. All Disciplinary Honors programs require at least six credits of course work and completion of a disciplinarily appropriate project (thesis; creative, research or professional project) which may be completed as part of the six credits of course work. Students with multiple majors who are admitted to multiple Disciplinary Honors programs may double-count no more than three credits toward more than one Disciplinary Honors program.
The College of Nursing, the majors of Biomedical Sciences and Exercise Physiology in the College of Health Sciences, and the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, English, Languages, History, Philosophy, Physics, Psychology and Theology in the College of Arts and Sciences each offer Disciplinary Honors programs for their majors.
Comprehensive Honors
Students earn Comprehensive Honors by completing Core Honors, plus one of the following:
- At least one Disciplinary Honors program.
Students whose major departments or colleges offer a Disciplinary Honors program are in most cases not eligible to propose Honors Projects, with rare exceptions for academic and/or professional reasons that must be approved by the department chair, faculty mentor and UHP director. - An Honors Project comprising at least six credits of course work (which may include laboratory research or thesis-writing for credit) in the student’s major department or college. Students may earn those 6 credits through thesis and/or research courses in their department and/or through enrolling in HOPR 4999H Honors Senior Thesis.
Students intending to pursue an Honors Project must secure faculty mentors in their discipline and submit prospectuses for their Honors Project to both their home department and the UHP the term before commencing work on their projects. All prospectuses are subject to approval by both the home department and the UHP director in consultation. All completed Honors Project must be assessed and approved by both the home department (at minimum, faculty mentor, with approval by department chair) and the UHP director.
Grade Point Average Requirements
Students must achieve a 2.000 cumulative grade point average to graduate with a Core Honors and therefore with a Comprehensive Honors Degree. All Disciplinary Honors programs require at least a 2.000 cumulative GPA at the time of entry, and at least a 2.000 major grade point average for graduation with Disciplinary Honors. Individual Disciplinary Honors programs may set higher GPA requirements for entry and/or graduation with Disciplinary Honors. Students must earn a grade of C or better in a graded course in order for it to count toward the Core Honors, Disciplinary Honors, and Comprehensive Honors degrees.
Study Abroad
Up to two courses taken in an Honors-preferred, Marquette-approved, study-abroad program and one course taken in a non-Honors-preferred, Marquette-approved study-abroad program may be counted toward Core Honors, at the discretion of the UHP director. See the Honors Program website for the list of Honors-preferred study-abroad programs.
Les Aspin Program
Up to 3 credits of coursework taken as part of Marquette’s Les Aspin Program may count toward the Honors elective requirement.