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The Merrimack College Honors Program offers students with strong academic credentials, class standing, and leadership qualities the opportunity to study, live, and thrive with other exceptional students who are similarly motivated. Inspired by Augustine’s philosophy of teaching and learning, the program is dedicated to active learning in community with others leading to transformative experience. The Honors Program is not a separate major, but an innovative and exciting approach to fulfilling the College’s general education requirements, to earning Honors credit in advanced courses, to extending and deepening individual research opportunities with the College’s most impressive faculty, and to enriching the overall academic experience of the most motivated students. Honors program students also have access to exclusive Honors programming and extracurricular events designed to ensure career-preparedness, support personal growth, and build a talented, driven community of scholars.
Students in the Honors Program must take at least eight honors courses by the time they graduate. Each semester, the program offers special Honors sections designed to satisfy the requirements of the College’s Liberal Studies and General Education core (for example, Honors Introduction to College Writing). In addition to these Honors sections of college-wide requirements, we offer a variety of additional elective Honors courses from each of the College’s schools, typically taught by Honors Faculty Scholars. Upperclass students also have the option to add an Honors contract to advanced courses in their majors and minors, which foster a deeper understanding of course material and encourage students to hone disciplinary research skills that will be beneficial in post-graduate life. A final Honors capstone project is undertaken in the student’s senior year.
Students in the Honors Program must satisfy the same institutional and divisional requirements as any other Merrimack student, and must have the same number of credits to graduate. Students must maintain a minimum 3.40 GPA their first year and a 3.50 thereafter. Cumulative GPAs are reviewed at the end of each semester, and students whose GPAs fall below the required threshold will be asked to meet with the director of the program and will be given one semester to raise their cumulative GPAs. An ‘A’ in an Honors course earns the same qualitative points as an ‘A’ in any other course. Honors courses will be listed as such on a student’s transcript, regardless of whether a student remains in the program through graduation.
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