Honors Program

Incoming First-Year Students: ApplyCurrent & Transfer Students: Apply

The College of Engineering participates in the University of Arkansas Honors Program, which challenges superior students with a more in-depth academic program and research experience. The Honors program provides a structure for working more closely with faculty members and other students in a team environment. Participation in the Engineering Honors Program is highly recommended for individuals planning academic or research-related careers that require considerable critical and original independent thinking, but it is also quite useful for students wishing to explore career potential in a number of areas.

Why Honors? Current Honors Students

 

College Requirements and Departmental Honors Courses

College of Engineering

Complete a minimum of 12 hours of honors courses taken at the University of Arkansas.

A minimum of 6 of these 12 hours must be in honors at the 200H0 level or greater across the programs within the College of Engineering; the available honors courses are found across the departmental and program listing of courses.  Students may take up to 3 hours of graduate credit in any program within the College of Engineering, which can count towards the 6 hours of honors within the College of Engineering.

For the honors courses outside of engineering, there are many options that will count toward your engineering degree requirements; students should work with the academic advisers in the First-Year Engineering Program (FEP), Engineering One Stop or the assigned departmental advisor on honors course selections.

Honors students are required to submit the Honors Advising Form once enrolled in a cumulative total of 90 student credits hours.  This form details the tentative plan for honors courses and shows that the student is on track with honors and getting the honors thesis project started.  Students not completing this form will be placed on probation in the honors program that semester and then removed from the honors program if the form is not completed by the end of that semester.

Honors students will participate in a creative, design, internship, and or research experience, and these experiences culminate in a written undergraduate honors thesis.  At least one credit hour of honors thesis is required to document:

  • the written report submitted to the student’s honors thesis committee including at least two faculty from within the program;
  • oral and or poster presentation of the honors thesis to the student’s honors thesis committee or oral and or poster presentation at a conference, workshop, symposium and or seminar; and
  • the submission of the written report to ScholarWorks following the instructions provided below, unless the thesis is published elsewhere or needs to be embargoed for proprietary information.

The honors thesis defense and submission to ScholarWorks@UARK must be completed prior to reading day of the student’s graduating semester to graduate with honors and Latin designation at graduation.

The administrative last step is students complete the Honors Graduation Certification Form, which details the student’s courses used to fulfill the honors requirements and that the honors thesis has been successfully presented to the committee and or at a workshop, seminar or conference.

Fulfill any departmental requirements to graduate from each program.

Requirements to Graduate with Honors

Students who have demonstrated exceptional academic performance in baccalaureate degree programs will be recognized at graduation by the honors designation of cum laude, magna cum laude or summa cum laude. To earn this distinction, the student must meet the following criteria:

  1. Must have at least a 3.50 GPA on University of Arkansas coursework, computed at graduation
  2. Must successfully complete the Engineering Honors Program, which includes a minimum of 12 hours of Honors courses (at least 6 of these hours in engineering), an undergraduate research/design experience and thesis, and any additional departmental requirements
  3. Research and thesis material shall be evaluated by each department
  4. For the student to earn the designation cum laude, the student must achieve a GPA of 3.50 or higher
  5. For the student to earn the designation magna cum laude, the student must achieve a GPA of 3.75 or higher
  6. For the student to earn the designation summa cum laude, the student must achieve a GPA of 3.90 or higher.

The criteria may be evaluated and changed periodically by the College of Engineering.

Requirements to Graduate with Distinction

Students who have not completed the Engineering Honors Program but have demonstrated excellent academic performance in baccalaureate degree programs will be recognized at graduation by the designation of “with distinction,” “with high distinction,” or “with highest distinction.” To earn these designations, the student must meet the following criteria on his or her University of Arkansas course work

  1. For the student to earn the designation “with distinction,” the student must achieve a GPA of 3.60 or higher
  2. For the student to earn the designation “with high distinction,” the student must achieve a GPA of 3.75 or higher
  3. For the student to earn the designation “with highest distinction,” the student must achieve a GPA of 3.90 or higher.

The criteria may be evaluated and changed periodically by the College of Engineering.

Honors Advisors

Honors Advisors
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