Contract Course Option

Contract Course Option

Honors credit may be received for regular courses by following these steps:

Step 1: Meet with professor

Student will approach a professor about making regular course into Honors Contract Course. The professor needs to agree to, along with student, design a separate component to course (generally a research component but does not have to be), above and beyond what other students are doing, for which student will receive Honors credit. If a paper is the culmination of the "contract" component of the course, the paper must be at least 10 pages (at least 3000 words) in length. Professor agrees to work with and monitor the student during course of project.

Examples of Honors contract components are:

  • Research culminating in 10+ page paper
  • Research culminating in one or more class presentations
  • Creation, execution, and analysis of experiment or survey for population culminating in a paper
  • Creation of lesson plans for an education course
  • Creative expression project culminating in dance, musical or theatrical performance

Step 2: Submit contract course proposal and form

The proposal is written up by the student and sent to University Honors for approval along with the completed Honors Contract Course Form. Forms are due by the end of the second week of the semester. 

Step 3: Complete contract component of course

Once approved by University Honors, student and professor can begin contract component of course. At end of course, professor evaluates project and gives student a separate letter grade for project, apart from regular grade in course. Professor emails honors program coordinator with a summary of what was done and includes the letter grade for the University Honors component. Note: student must receive B grade or higher for "contract" component of class in order to receive Honors credit.

Step 4: Receive honors credit

Once University Honors has received email evaluation and grade from professor, assuming grade is B or higher, student will receive Honors credit for course.

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