Honors Program
The College Honors Program provides academically motivated students with intellectual stimulation and rich experiences for personal and professional growth by offering courses that prepare them to produce exemplary, creative, and challenging work. As an option for meeting the College's liberal arts requirements, it provides an alternative to the Integrative Studies Program and involves both residential and classroom opportunities. In addition to working closely with fellow students and professors to engage in creative and critical inquiry, Honors students integrate and expand on what they are learning in Honors courses by participating in enrichment activities and events both on and off campus.
Residential Honors students may choose to be housed in a Living and Learning Community (LLC) in a College residence hall for their first year and may choose to continue in Living and Learning Communities in later years. The director of the College Honors Program serves as the LLC faculty advisor.
A distinctive feature of the College Honors Program is the requirement that students study abroad. Each year travel study courses led by Keene State College faculty will be made available to sophomore Honors students. See HNRS-301 Global Engagement for details. Honors course requirements cannot be met with Advanced Placement credits or with credits from other institutions.
Program Requirements
(24 credits)
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Required Courses | ||
| HNRSTW-101 | Honors Thinking & Writing | 4 |
| Select three of the following Honors Courses in the Arts and Sciences taken from three areas: 1 | 12 | |
| Honors Arts | ||
| Honors Humanities | ||
| Honors Natural Science | ||
| Honors Social Sciences | ||
| HNRS-301 | Global Engagement | 4 |
| Select one of the following: | 4 | |
| Interdisciplinary Senior Seminar | ||
| Honors Thesis | ||
| Special Project | ||
| Total Credits | 24 | |
- 1
These Honors courses meet Integrative Studies Program Outcomes and Honors Program outcomes appropriate to the area.
College Honors Program students must earn a “BC” or higher in all Honors courses and maintain a minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA in order to graduate with the designation “College Honors Program.” Students who fail to meet these requirements at the end of each semester will be placed on Honors Program Probation. Students who fail to meet these requirements for two consecutive semesters will be dismissed from the Program.
Admission to the College Honors Program
Students who apply to Keene State College are invited to join the College Honors Program if they have a high school GPA of 3.75 or above. Spaces are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Details of the submission process can be found at keene.edu/academics/honors/.
First year non-Honors students who have completed between 16 and 28 credits and who have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 will be invited to apply for admission effective in the fall semester. Admission is competitive. Students admitted after their first semester need not take an “Honors Thinking and Writing” course, but will be expected to complete other College Honors Program requirements and meet the Program’s academic standards.
College Honors Program students must maintain a semester grade point average of 3.25 during their first semester. At the end of their second semester, they must have a cumulative GPA of 3.50 in both Honors and non-Honors courses and maintain that in all subsequent semesters in order to graduate with the designation College Honors Program. Students whose GPA falls below 3.25 at the end of the first semester or 3.50 at the end of the second semester will be on Honors probation for the following semester. Those whose semester GPA remains below the standard for two consecutive semesters will be dropped from the Honors Program and will lose Honors scholarship funds. Students have a maximum of two non-consecutive semesters of probation before being dropped from the program.