In the Honors Program at Western New England College, you can explore subjects in greater depth, interact with honors students from other majors, and study topics that cross disciplines. Small class size, faculty mentoring, and the inspiration and encouragement of your peers make the Honors Program the ideal environment in which to succeed academically.
Is This Challenge for You?
If you excelled academically in high school or in your first year of college, your education will be enriched by participation in the Honors Program.
Student involvement in the program is extensive and includes representation on three governing committees: admissions, activities, and curriculum. All honors students are members of the Honors Student Union. The Freshman Honors Council provides recommendations on course selection and organizes social and cultural activities.
Program Structure
Honors students generally take one honors course per semester for their first three years, and work on a senior honors project in their fourth year. Classes tend to be small, discussion-based seminars; many are team-taught by pairs of professors from different disciplines.
Who Is Eligible?
Entering freshmen—Students with a minimum high school GPA of 3.5 and SAT scores of 1100 (or an ACT score of 24) are invited to apply to the Honors Program prior to Summer Orientation and Registration (SOAR).
Second semester freshmen—Current freshmen with a minimum 3.5 fall semester GPA are invited to apply to the Honors Program during the spring of their freshman year. If admitted, these students will enter the Honors Program in the fall of their sophomore year.
Transfer students—Transfer students accepted for admission as sophomores may also apply for admission to the Honors Program if they maintained a 3.5 GPA during their first year in college.
Students who do no meet the criteria, but still wish to be considered for acceptance into the program because of special circumstances, are also encouraged to apply.
Admission to the Program
Students who meet the qualifications automatically receive an official Honors Program application and invitation to apply. Application forms are also available from the Chair of the Honors Admissions Committee, Dr. John Baick (413-782-1571, jbaick@wnec.edu). Completed applications, including essays, are reviewed by the Honors Program Admissions Committee. In some cases the committee may also request an interview with the candidate.
Maintaining Honors Status
Honors students must maintain a 3.3 overall GPA to continue in the program. Any students whose cumulative grade point average falls below 3.3 are given two semesters during which to restore their cumulative GPA to 3.3 or better. Students whose GPA remains below 3.3 for a third semester are dismissed from the program.
Curricular Offerings
Honors at Western New England College is not a major in itself, but is open to students in almost any major.
- The Honors Program is available to qualified students in the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Business.
- The program requires a total of 21 credit hours.
- Several courses are team-taught.
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All courses are approved by a faculty/student committee.
The course work is divided into three stages:
Gateway Honors Courses
Students entering the Honors Program in their freshman year take a two-course sequence designed to introduce them to the program. These two courses also satisfy the History and English Composition II components of the College curriculum required of all students. Students transferring into the program as they begin their sophomore year must take one Gateway course that fall.
Upper Division Honors Courses
Honors students take 12 credit hours of 200-level and 300-level honors courses in their sophomore and junior years, usually taking one course per semester. (Students transferring into the program as sophomores, who have taken only one Gateway course, must take 15 credit hours of Upper Division honors courses).
Courses in the past have included the following:
- Religion, Science, and Philosophy
- The Meaning of Work
- The Age of Pilgrimage: Chaucer’s England
- Art in Nature, Nature in Art
- Millennium: Utopia and Dystopia
- Religion, Law, and Morality
Students also have the options of taking honors tutorials, up to three one-credit add-ons to existing non-honors courses that are created by agreement between the course instructor and two or more honors students.
Senior Honors Project
Each senior honors student works closely with a faculty advisor to plan and execute a final project of his or her choice. This project can take the form of a research paper, a play, laboratory research, creative writing, a computer program, a video production, business analysis, engineering project, or an art exhibit. This project may be the same as one required by the student’s major and is generally worth three credits.
Honors: A Mark of Distinction
This distinction on your academic record is an ideal way to show graduate schools and potential employers that you are a person who takes the extra step to learn and to excel. You will be regarded as a mature individual who sought and accomplished a long-term challenge, and who graduated with distinction.
