Honors Student Body

Honors Student Body

Academically talented students at James Madison University may participate in three honors programs: the Honors Scholars Program, Subject-Area Honors and the Senior Honors Project. All are designed to prepare students for graduate or professional school, enhance students' opportunities for rewarding careers and expand students' knowledge of themselves, others and the world. 

 

Honors Scholars

Approximately 200 high-achieving entering first-year students are admitted as honors scholars each year. Honors scholars participate in four years of honors study in a bachelor's degree program in any major. They take a core of general education courses designated honors, elect additional honors courses, honors seminars and honors-option courses and complete a senior honors project. Honors scholars are required to complete 27 credit hours of honors work and maintain a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.25. 

Students who successfully complete this program graduate with distinction.  They receive the special Honors Scholars Award and are designated Honors Scholar on their transcripts and diplomas, in recognition of their distinguished four-year program of excellence. 

Subject-Area Honors

The Subject-Area Honors Program gives talented, highly motivated students who have achieved as undergraduates a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.25 an opportunity to enter an honors program in their second, third, or fourth semester. These students have the freedom to design their own undergraduate honors curriculum in conjunction with their major field of study. Subject-Area Honors students complete at least 24 semester hours of honors work, including honors seminars and a senior honors project. The program is flexible and affords students the opportunity, regardless of major, to participate in honors work. 

Students who successfully complete the program graduate with distinction and are designated Subject-Area Honors on their transcripts and diplomas. They receive a special Subject-Area Honors Award in recognition of their program of excellence.

Senior Honors Project Students

Juniors with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.25 are offered the opportunity to pursue independent research leading to the completion of an honors project during their senior year. The final product will normally be a thesis reflecting substantial scholarship or creative work that demonstrates originality and craftsmanship. The senior honors project allows students with initiative, originality and intellectual maturity to synthesize information they have learned in courses with their independent study of a topic of their choice. Students have the rare opportunity of working in close association with an advising professor who becomes a mentor in the finest sense of the word and with other professors who read and evaluate the project at all stages of its development. 

A degree with distinction in the major field is awarded to students completing this project with a grade of B or better.