SC Honors Program

The SC Honors program offers the opportunity to qualified students to enhance, broaden, and deepen their learning through interdisciplinary study grounded in the traditional liberal arts and sciences. Through this program, students will be able to participate in a wide variety of Honors-designated courses and co-curricular opportunities to study special topics in interdisciplinary and innovative ways. Based on this training, students will also complete a senior capstone interdisciplinary SC Honors project on a topic of their own interest and choosing. In opting to participate in this program, students will be able to combine their abilities to work in genuinely unique ways to demonstrate the influence of the liberal arts and sciences in their lives and future professions by applying their lessons and insights to contemporary issues.

In order to graduate from the SC Honors Program, in addition to being admitted to the program and maintaining good academic standing (3.3 cumulative GPA or higher), students must complete a total of 20 Honors credits with a grade of a B- or better in each of the courses taken to fulfill the credits. In all, students will complete about 20% of their total course work in the Honors Education program.

The required elements for Simpson College Honors consist of:

• Honors Foundations I and Foundations II OR one/two additional Honors course(s) if Foundations are not taken (equivalent to 8 credits).
• A combination of four-credit and/or two-credit honors courses (equivalent to 12 credits).
• If students complete at least 16 credits of study in the same language, they will receive credit for one honors course equivalent to 4 credits of Honors coursework. Study abroad experiences that are language immersive and approved by the Honors Council will count towards world language credit in the Honors program.
• An Interdisciplinary Honors Capstone

Note: Honors courses are open to both current and prospective Honors students. A student who is not part of the honors program has the opportunity to take one honors course during their time as an undergrad at Simpson College. Please direct questions to the Director of Honors Education for more details about the honors course enrollment policy.