The Honors Program

The College Honors Program is an extraordinarily versatile sequence of courses designed to optimize the Oneonta undergraduate college experience.  Honors students generally share a demonstrated excellence in academic ability, a solid desire to succeed, and a willingness to seek out new challenges and experiences.  They are highly-motivated, display a love of learning, and have demonstrated a commitment to academic excellence. Designed for our most academically talented students, admission for entering freshmen is only available by invitation and faculty review. Admission of current students is by application and faculty review.

 Honors classes are enriched academic experiences which stress critical thinking and analysis.  They are often discussion-based allowing students a greater depth of understanding and a greater opportunity to interact with peers and professors.  Depending upon their interests and schedules, students may participate in as few as one or as many as all three of the stages of the Program.  This provides maximum flexibility for interested students from any undergraduate major.

 The first two stages consist of nine semester hours each for an enhanced General Education experience during the freshman and sophomore years.  The third stage of nine semester hours incorporates an extraordinary capstone opportunity in the junior/senior years.  Students can engage in creative activities, scholarship, travel abroad, and/or research.  Completion of the full Honors Program entails twenty-seven semester hours of Honors level work.