Wesleyan Scholars Honors Program

Departmental Honors—Wesleyan Scholar

Unless otherwise specified, students are eligible for the Departmental Honors Program and may enter their department's program at any time with the approval of the faculty of the student's major program and a GPA in their major of 3.5.

Students in the Departmental Honors Program must complete at least six (6) hours of honors credit. The content and requirements of the honor's credit are determined by each student's participating academic department or program. Students must complete a minimum of 30 approved credit hours in an academic discipline to be eligible for departmental honors in that discipline.

Biology

Students who meet the requirements for entry into the Honors Program in Biology must complete the following requirements to complete the Honors program in Biology.

All Biology majors must take the following four upper level courses: BIO-3431H, BIO-3470H, BIO-4412H, and BIO-4426H. Students who receive Departmental Honors in Biology must maintain an overall GPA of 3.75 for these four courses. Additionally, students must complete Honors requirements for two of the four required upper level courses. The Honors requirement for the upper level Biology courses is completion of an additional term paper (10-15 pages) that will allow students to explore topics related to the course. Topic choices for the term paper will be determined by the instructor of the specific course.

Additionally, students who receive Departmental Honors in Biology must complete the Honors requirement for the Supervised Research courses within the Biology major (BIO-3352H and BIO-4351H). Students must complete the requirements of these courses and receive a 90% on each assignment in these courses. Students who are pursuing Departmental Honors must also present two primary research articles in each course and receive a 90% or greater for these additional presentations.

All student material that is submitted for fulfilling the Honors requirement will be evaluated by all faculty within the department.

Chemistry

In order to fulfill the 6-hour Advanced Chemistry Honors curriculum, a student must complete two semesters of Chemistry research (CHE-4251H and CHE-4252H), with a minimum of 10-12 hours completed per week (as opposed to 8 for non-Departmental Honors students). The student must also complete a Research Thesis (guidelines to be set by the departmental faculty) and present a 60-minute defense of the Research Thesis to a committee of three faculty (two faculty from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and one faculty member from another department).

Criminal Justice

The Criminal Justice Program at Texas Wesleyan offers enhanced educational opportunities for criminal justice majors through departmental honors.

The Criminal Justice Departmental Honors Program consists of:

Six hours of honors thesis coursework: All honors students must complete a senior honors thesis by enrolling in 6 semester hours, 3 hours in the Fall and 3 hours in the Spring. The student will be required to write a 15-20 page paper in addition to the course requirements. The Senior Thesis will be advised by a tenured or tenure track faculty member in the Criminal Justice Department. In addition to the advisor, at least two additional faculty members will serve on the committee with one member being from outside the department. All students will defend their theses in a public forum such as University College Day or at a local or national conference. The paper requirements are at the discretion and may be modified by the instructor and tailored to meet the specific needs of the class. If a student has already taken a course, he/she is not permitted to retake the course as honors-enriched.

Students must maintain a GPA in their major of 3.5 to graduate with Departmental Honors designated on their diploma.

Education

The Departmental Honors Program in Undergraduate Education provides recognition to education students who have exhibited high levels of success in their coursework, including performing well above the standards established for professional development and scholarly endeavor.

Students may be admitted to Department Honors program upon admittance to the Teacher Education Program if they have a minimum 3.5 GPA in their major. A Departmental Honors Program application is available in the Undergraduate Education Department office.

Students must enroll in and successfully complete 6 hours of the following honors courses in education:

English

Students will be admitted to the Departmental Honors in English if they have at least a 3.5 GPA in English and Departmental approval. In order to fulfill the 6-hour requirement for Honors in English, the student will need to complete ENG-4375H-Senior Portfolio/Honors Seminar in Literature or ENG-4385H-Senior Portfolio/Honors Seminar in Writing AND ENG-4386H-Honors Seminar and Thesis. The content of ENG-4375H and ENG-4385H will be determined by instructors and student interest. The seminars may be taught by one professor or team-taught. Before students can enroll in the second Honors course, they must earn a minimum of a B in the first.

History

In order to complete the 6-hour requirement for Honors in History, the student will need to complete HIS 4391H-History Honors Seminar and HIS 4392H-History Honors Seminar. HIS 4391H is devoted to researching their selected thesis topic. In HIS 4392H, the students will write their Honor Thesis.

These 6 hours of the History Honors Seminar are in addition to the 36 hours required for the history major.

Mass Communication

In order to be considered for departmental honors in Mass Communication, a student majoring in Mass Communication must have a grade point average of at least 3.5 and at least 45 semester hours of college credit prior to enrolling in departmental honors courses. Then the student must complete the 9-hour requirement consisting of departmental courses designated as the Honors version of specially designated departmental courses. Though other courses may be added by the department, the following are so designated:

Mathematics

Students who meet the requirements for entry into the Departmental Honors Program-Wesleyan Scholar and have completed 9 hours of 3000 level or above math courses must complete two of the three-hour courses (6 hours) listed below and make one presentation of an honors paper at University College Day to complete the Honors Program in Mathematics.

Political Science

In order to complete the 9-hour requirement for Departmental Honors in Political Science, the student will need to complete three designated honors version, departmental courses at the 3000 or above level. The courses must represent advanced political science coursework from each of the three field tracks, so that a student will complete three credit hours from the Global Studies track, three credit hours from the Pre-Law track, and three credit hours from the Government and Politics track. Although other courses may be honors designated by the department, the following classes are so designated:

Choose three hours from each track:

Global Studies Track

Government and Politics Track

Pre-Law Track

Religion

In order to be considered for Departmental Honors in Religion, a student majoring in Religion must have a grade point average of at least 3.5 and at least 45 semester hours of college credit prior to enrolling in departmental honors courses. Then the student must complete the 9-hour requirement consisting of Departmental courses designated as the Honors version of specially designated Departmental courses. Though other courses may be added by the department, the following are so designated:

Sociology

Sociology Honors courses consist of both stand-alone seminar courses and upper division courses with a contractual Honors component. In the course of completing their program of study, it is expected that Sociology students will complete at least 6 hours of Honors credit.

Courses that have an Honors component will be Departmental electives taught by a full-time Wesleyan faculty member. The honors component in these courses will generally consist of extra reading and an extra, full-length term paper. Content of the reading would be determined in one of two ways. 1) The Honors student submits a list of readings which is then approved by the Instructor. 2) The instructor selects relevant readings that would be appropriate to the course. In general, the amount of reading is likely to be equivalent to an extra book (less if it is very dense, more if it is easier reading). The Instructor will be available for discussion on the subject during office hours or before and after class time, as the student arranges.

Alternative Honors content will consist of doing professional sociological research, either supervised by the instructor, or in conjunction with an instructor, in which case the student could collect original data, conduct interviews, observe behavior or do content analysis of text and images. Or, the student may perform secondary data analysis, and develop theoretical or conceptual analyses of a sociological issue.

Each student will complete a written copy of their extended term paper, and will also present their project at a Departmental meeting at the end of the semester, at which faculty and students attend. Students will be encouraged to invite parents and/or friends to attend as well.

Sociology courses with Honors component could be taken by a non-Sociology major (in particular, Liberal Studies).

Sociology courses that could include an Honor component are as follows:

Spanish

Students will be admitted to the Departmental Honors in Spanish if they have at least a 3.5 GPA in Spanish and Departmental approval.

In order to fulfill the 6-hour requirement for Honors in Spanish, students will need to enroll in an H-designated version of one of the following courses. The honors portion of the course will be determined by the professor and the student.

University Honors—University Scholar

For admission into the University Honors Program, freshmen must have an SAT score of 1200 (Math and Verbal) or an ACT score of 25 and a high school GPA of 3.5.

Students who have completed or transfer with fewer than 30 hours may be admitted to the University Honors Program if they have the above mentioned SAT or ACT scores and a cumulative GPA of 3.25.

Current Texas Wesleyan students or transfer students with 31-60 hours are eligible if they have a cumulative 3.25 GPA.

The following Honors Courses qualify for General Education Curriculum credit:

WSP 2303 courses meet the Cultural Literacy competency,

WSP 2304 courses meet the Social Literacy competency,

WSP 2340 courses meet the Language Literacy, Integrative Course competency.

Transfer students who have completed Cornerstone Honors or other Community College Honors Program and have a minimum 3.25 GPA.