The Honors College curriculum is integrated into a student's course of study so as not to conflict with or add additional credits to their school/major requirements. In order to graduate as an Honors College Scholar, all of the courses below must be completed with a grade of B or C or better, depending on a student's school of enrollment.
Honors College Forum
The Honors College Forum is the mission course of the college, providing first-year Honors College students with a common academic experience. Bringing all Honors College Scholars together to utilize project-based learning leading to a social impact idea that tackles one or more United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs), the course introduces students to the importance and challenges of global problem-solving in local contexts. The students investigate some of the essential questions defining human existence in the 21st century in the process of developing their own teams' social impact solutions to address global challenges. The Forum brings in distinguished guest speakers and also features small breakout sections that emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration among the entire Honors College cohort, as students representing the breadth of schools and disciplines work together on finding solutions to 21st-century challenges. The Forum is thus designed to lead to convergence, which is the integration of knowledge, techniques, and expertise from multiple fields to address moral, social, and cultural questions and scientific and economic challenges. Through this course, our primary task is to engage all our first-year Honors College students to develop traits and noncognitive skills--such as critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, social skills, persistence, creativity, and introspection--that allow them to contribute meaningfully to society and to succeed in their public lives, workplaces, homes, and other societal contexts. All Honors College students are required to take the Honors College Forum in either their first or second semester.
Cross Cultural Competency
Cross-Cultural Competency (CCC) teaches students to unpack issues such as racism and inequality, evaluate their role in knocking down barriers to belonging, and engage with peers collaboratively to create a final project reflecting on ways that could advance the principles of diversity, inclusion, and equity. CCC embodies three units: Identity, Interaction, and Interdependence, or, simply put Me, You, and We.
Interdisciplinary Honors Seminar
Interdisciplinary Honors Seminars are offered as joint initiatives between the School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) Honors Program and the Honors College, and the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS) Honors Program and the Honors College. All Honors College students, regardless of their school of enrollment, must take at least one Interdisciplinary Honors Seminar within their first six semesters. In some cases, additional Interdisciplinary Seminars can be taken to fulfill honors credit requirements. These seminars provide students an opportunity to work closely with a faculty member and think about complex problems and issues across disciplinary boundaries or outside of traditional disciplinary trajectories. Interdisciplinary Seminars have an enrollment of no more than 18 students. All seminars involve extensive written work, readings, discussion, and independent work, and they often include research as well as fieldwork opportunities. Most Interdisciplinary Seminars offered through SAS can be used to meet the SAS, SEBS, and Rutgers Business School: Undergraduate-New Brunswick Core requirement for Writing and Communication (code WCd).
Capstone Project
All Honors College students must complete an independent capstone project during their senior year. Because of the wide range of majors in the Honors College--from the humanities, social sciences, and arts to business, engineering, and the life and physical sciences--a variety of different kinds of projects can fulfill the capstone requirement. Working with an Honors College adviser and with support from a departmental faculty capstone supervisor, students propose and gain approval for their capstone project by the end of their junior year. Work on the project can begin, in some cases, during the junior year and will comprise at least 6 academic credits.
