Honors Program Curriculum

Students who participate in study abroad or domestic study away programs may be allowed to count some coursework at other institutions toward Honors Program requirements.

First-Year Seminar

All new first-year honors students at Mars Hill University register for the honors section of the First-Year Seminar. A faculty member of the Honors Council, with assistance from an upper-level honors student, teaches this section. The course introduces students to the university experience at Mars Hill, to concepts fundamental to a liberal arts education, to the skills necessary for success in college, to disciplinary perspectives, and to the Honors Program Curriculum.

Honors Seminars

Students in the Honors Program participate in an annual seminar each year beginning in the spring of their sophomore year. The sophomore HON 200 course and the junior HON 300 course are taught concurrently in the spring. HON 490 is taught each fall. All Honors Seminars are offered for S/U credit only.

Honors seminars are based around experiential learning. HON 490 focuses on professional development by facilitating student-faculty interactions in each student’s major field of study. HON 200/300 is based around a service project utilizing an interdisciplinary approach. Students are challenged to work as a team to as they conduct research and implement an action plan.

Honors Mini-Courses

Mini-courses are the hallmark component of the MHU Honors Program. During every fifteen-week semester, three five-week, one-credit courses are offered consecutively in three different disciplines. Students who have completed their first semester in the program may register for as many or as few of the mini-courses in a term as they wish, but they must satisfactorily complete a minimum of six mini-courses to meet the Honors Program. We encourage students to stretch themselves intellectually by taking mini-courses outside of their academic discipline.

Because mini-courses run on 5-week schedule rather than the traditional 15-week semester, the deadlines to drop a mini-course without a transcript entry, withdraw from a mini-course with a transcript entry of W, or choose to take a mini-course S/U have been modified as follows. A student can drop a mini-course without a transcript entry up to the
end of the first week of the course, withdraw from a mini-course with a W up to the end of the second week of the course, and a student can opt for the S/U option up to the end of the third week of the mini-course. Honors students can take up to 3 credit hours of Honors Programming (Mini-Courses and/or Contracts) S/U rather than having traditional letter grades assigned.

Honors Contracts

During their junior and senior years, students in the Honors Program work with faculty in their major or minor fields of study to develop honors contracts (HON 456, 457, 458, 459, and 460) consisting of additional responsibilities or research projects associated with regularly offered courses. To complete the Honors Program, students must satisfactorily complete at least two contracts. Each student’s honors contract must complement a separate upper- division course (200-level or higher and not part of the capstone requirement) in a student’s major or minor. Students in the Honors Program may fulfill one Honors Contract by working in an academic support service—as a Supplemental Instruction Fellow or a Writing-in-the-Disciplines Fellow, for example. As is the case with all Contracts, this form of Contract requires additional responsibilities or research, as well as the approval of the Honors Program Director and a faculty mentor. Students cannot be paid when completing this form of Contract.