Jenn McNamara, director
Old Main, Room 122
607-753-2250
Email: honors@cortland.edu

Description

The SUNY Cortland Honors Program provides students who have demonstrated academic excellence with the opportunity for continued intellectual challenge in a rigorous, coherent and integrative program.

Honors students participate in courses taught in stimulating, small classroom environments with an emphasis on student-faculty interchange and community building.

The program provides a mechanism for students to distinguish themselves and also enhances the general learning environment for all students and faculty, the university and the community. 

Qualifications for Admission

Admission to the program is open to entering fall freshmen. To be eligible for admission, applicants should have an exceptional academic record based on grades, standardized tests (SAT, ACT), course selection and extracurricular activities. Exceptional students who have already completed course work at Cortland may also apply for admission into the program. A limited number of students transferring from honors programs at other institutions also may be admitted. 

Requirements

To complete the Honors Program, students must take at least 24 credit hours of honors-level courses including:

• INT 290: Honors Sophomore Colloquium: Introduction to Scholarship
• INT 390: Honors Junior Colloquium: Thesis Proposal
• INT 499: Honors Program Thesis

This progression of courses prepares the student to write an honors thesis, a requirement for completing the Honors Program. 

Students fulfill the remaining required credits by taking designated honors courses, or customized contract courses. Students who study abroad (full time, at least 12 credits) may count this experience as three of their honors credit hours. Likewise, students who complete a full time internship (at least 12 credits), or complete 12 credits of student teaching, may count this experience as three of their honors credit hours.

• Specially designated honors courses are offered in a variety of General Education categories, including
  • GENS: Natural Sciences (and Scientific Reasoning)
  • GESS: Social Sciences
  • GEWH: World History and Global Awareness
  • GEHU: Humanities
  • GEAR: The Arts
  • GEDI: Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice
  • GEST: Science, Technology, Values and Society

View General Education Program  

Some of the courses offered through the General Education program are unique to the Honors Program, and others are special honors sections of courses offered to the general student population.

• Contract courses are regular courses that students take for honors credit. The student establishes a contract with the faculty member teaching the course that spells out the additional work the student will do for honors credit. Contract courses must be at the 300 level or higher and taken in the major or minor.  No more than two contract courses may be counted towards the 24 credit hours needed to complete the Honors Program. Guidelines for taking contract courses are available in the Honors Program office.