Honors Program students will apply their cultural knowledge and learning skills to their chosen area of academic specialization.
Many Citadel Honors Program courses replace other Core Curriculum requirements. Thus, students take most of these classes freshman and sophomore year. The other Honors courses will take the place of General Electives. In some cases, individual departments may accept them as Departmental Electives. The emphasis in Honors Program courses will not primarily be acceleration, but enrichment. They will go into extra depth, examining more closely the significance and implications of the material studied, or presenting that material in a broader cultural context.
In general, Honors courses will employ discussion in order to establish habits of rigorous inquiry and intellectual independence. The plan behind the curriculum creates an environment of learning in which the students’ intellectual habits form. The curriculum teaches the patterns and processes of intellectual and scholarly inquiry – not merely the results of others’ research.
Many Honors courses will have a tutorial foundation. Individual students, or sometimes small groups, will meet with their instructors frequently–usually, once every week. During this time, they will discuss and develop ongoing writing, research, and laboratory projects.
Honors Program students may follow one of two tracks: Gold Seal or Certificate
Upon completing the requirements for a Gold Seal, students receive an Honors certificate, a lovely Honors gold seal on their diploma, and a notation on their transcript highlighting the completion of the uppermost program and its requirements.
Students who complete the Honors Certificate requirements receive an Honors certificate. A notation on their transcript highlighting the completion of the lower program and its requirements.
A note about transfer credits…
The Citadel Registrar will evaluate Advanced Placement (AP), Dual Enrollment (DE), and courses taken at other colleges to determine what credits transfer. Transfer courses are usually credited as electives. The structure of The Citadel’s General Education requirements stipulate that they are taken at the college.
The Honors Program offers Honors Program versions of these General Education requirements. This gives Honors Program students the opportunity to satisfy the college’s requirements. It also allows students to participate in engaging Honors Program courses with other academically-focused students and dynamic instructors. Note that Honors courses require students to meet with their instructor individually (or sometimes in a group of two or three) on a regular basis for a tutorial. You will work together on one of the goals of the course, usually a writing assignment or a project.
Additionally, our Honors courses are significantly different from both the non-Honors courses they take the place of in The Citadel curriculum in terms of class size, course structure and topics, and student interaction. We believe that this ensures that the Honors Program courses will be significantly different from the transfer courses that high school students experienced–and may have erroneously thought would serve to satisfy college requirements.