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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):

CORE 1929HHonors Foundations in Methods of Inquiry 13
HOPR 1955HCore Honors First-Year Seminar 13
THEO 1001HHonors Foundations in Theology: Finding God in all Things3
HOPR 2956HHonors Engaging Social Systems and Values 1: Engaging the City 23
CORE 4929HHonors Service of Faith and Promotion of Justice 33
Total Credit Hours:15

The remaining three required Core Honors courses are chosen from the following (9 credit hours): 

BIOL 1001HHonors General Biology 13
BIOL 1002HHonors General Biology 23
CHEM 1001HHonors General Chemistry 14
CHEM 1002HHonors General Chemistry 24
CHEM 1013HHonors General Chemistry 1 for Majors4
CHEM 1014HHonors General Chemistry 2 for Majors4
ECON 1103HHonors Principles of Microeconomics3
ECON 1104HHonors Principles of Macroeconomics3
HEAL 1025HHonors Culture and Health3
HEAL 4901HHonors Interdisciplinary Palliative Care3
HIST 4255HHonors The British Empire3
HIST 4271HHonors Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union3
MATH 1700H
PSYC 1700H
Honors Modern Elementary Statistics
and Honors Psychology Introductory Statistics Lab 1
4
MUSI 1120HLiturgical Choir0-1
PHIL 1001HHonors Foundations in Philosophy3
PHYS 1003HHonors General Physics with Introductory Calculus 14
PHYS 1004HHonors General Physics with Introductory Calculus 24
PHYS 1013HHonors Classical and Modern Physics with Calculus 14
PHYS 1014HHonors Classical and Modern Physics with Calculus 24
POSC 2201HHonors American Politics3
POSC 2401HHonors Comparative Politics3
POSC 2801HHonors Justice and Power3
PSYC 2050HHonors Research Methods and Designs in Psychology4
SOCI 2060HHonors Social Statistics 14
THEO 2200HHonors The Bible Through the Ages3
THEO 2400HHonors Christian Discipleship3
THEO 3100HHonors A Faith Worth Dying For? Martyrs, Saints, and Theology3
THEO 3230HHonors Theology in the Writings of C.S. Lewis3
THEO 3530HHonors Theology and Economics3

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:

  1. 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. 
  2. 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.