Follow these four steps:
1. Attend a fall or winter information session.
During the first 10 days of the term, attend one information session about conversions. The time and place of each session will be announced on the Honors conversions Canvas site and in This Week in Honors. Info sessions will include:
- A presentation about the goals and ideals for Honors conversions
- Examples of previous Honors conversions & brainstorming new ideas
- Information about the online application process for both you to use and to take to your instructor.
POLICY CHANGE: Students need to attend one information session per academic year in order to convert a course in that academic year. This is a change from the previous policy of attending one session per semester.
2. Devise an appropriate project with your professor.
In the first week or two of the term, arrange a meeting with your instructor (office hours are a good time for this) to discuss a conversion project. A good conversion project should allow you to engage with the material being taught in the course at a greater depth and involve at least some independent work that results in an intellectual dialogue between you and your instructor. Honor conversions have three central components:
- expansion or enrichment of the current course curriculum,
- regular contact with the instructor for feedback, guidance, and discussion of your project,
- a culminating project or experience that pulls your semester’s work together. The format of this culminating experience should be designed to fit your individual project, and may vary from one conversion to another. Leading a class discussion, designing a study guide for your class, presenting your project in class, writing up your results in a final paper, reflection piece, or lab report, creating a multi-media presentation of your material, directing a dramatic performance, writing a musical, curating a display: all of these (and more) are possible.
Honors Advisors are available to help brainstorm possible projects.
3. Complete the online application process.
- Fill out the online application: one for each course each semester.
- Once you have submitted an application form, an automated email will be sent to the instructor you specified in the form. Your instructor will be asked to give their approval on your proposed conversion. In order for Honors staff to approve your conversion, your instructor needs to verify they discussed and agree with your proposal.
- Submit the online application no later than the term drop/add deadline. You may turn the application in before that date, but late applications will not be accepted. We will still accept applications that receive instructor approval after the drop/add deadline if the student submitted their portion prior to the deadline.
4. Complete the project.
Work with your instructor to complete your project over the course of the term. The exact due date for the project is up to you and your instructor to determine. After the end of the term, your instructor will receive an email from the Honors Program office asking if you have completed the project successfully; we then pass that information on to the Office of the Registrar. It usually takes between four and six weeks for the Honors notation to post to your transcript.
An Honors conversion does not count toward your grade for the course, but you must earn at least a "C" to have the Honors designation put on your transcript.
