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Honors Advising

Welcome to the Honors advising page. Here you can find information about graduation requirements, Good Standing requirements, and course registration. If you have further questions, contact auhonorsadvising@american.edu - we're happy to help!

Course Registration

Honors students receive the benefit of priority registration. Course registration times are assigned based on the number of credits students have completed.
To give Honors students priority, fifteen "ghost" credits are temporarily added to the number of credits Honors students have already completed. This helps students register as if they have completed an extra semester of credits. Ghost credits are added after a student's first semester in the Honors program. 
Note: Priority registration does not change students' position on a course wait list, nor does it guarantee an Honors student will have a seat in a non-Honors course.

Students are expected to register themselves for all Honors courses.

Challenge Course and Honors Supplements have additional steps before students can register. Those steps can be found under the course titles below.

 

The AU Honors Challenge Course (HNRS-398) is a 3-credit group research project for AU Honors students. The Honors Challenge Course is meant to enable a student-led, multi-disciplinary effort to grapple with a significant problem or issue by drawing on more than one tradition of inquiry. The course functions much like an independent study in that each group will meet with a faculty mentor and the course has no centrally scheduled class meeting time or location.

At the Challenge Course Ideas Forum in November, you will be added to the Challenge Course Canvas page. This page will provide a basic timeline for Challenge Course deliverables with links for registering, finding a faculty mentor, requesting funding, and more.

How Registration Works:
  1. Form a group and find a faculty mentor
  2. Complete the Group Registration form (located on the Canvas page)
  3. Honors Staff will register each group for their own section of HNRS-398.

Honors students take 2 Honors Colloquium courses if they join Freshman year, and 3 if they join Sophomore year.

3 credits must be either HNRS-400 Advanced Honors Colloquium OR another upper-division Honors offering, such as an Honors in the Major course.

How to register:

  1. for HNRS-400, course offerings vary per semester. Register for HRNS-400 as you would a normal course.
  2. for an Honors in the Major course, register for the course as normal, then complete the Honors in the Major course completion form.

The remaining credits can be another of the above OR an Honors Supplement affixed to an upper-division course on campus or abroad. This supplement can take the form of an extra project, paper, presentation, or other work to make it count for the Honors Colloquium requirement.

Supplements do not change the credit value of the course. They will appear on Eagle Service as HRNS-050.

How to register for a supplement:

  1. Register for a regular 300 or 400 level course.
  2. Discuss the Honors Supplement with the registered faculty member for the course.
  3. Submit the HNRS-050 Supplement - Qualtrics Registration Form.

 

Students should regsiter for their Capstone one of two ways:

  1. Reigster for your major capstone course as usual and complete the Honors Capstone Planning Form.
  2. Register for HNRS-498 as an independent study.

More information on the Honors Capstone Requirement is available on the Honors Curriculum page.

Graduation Requirements

Students must complete the following requirements in order to receive the Honors notation on their transcript:  

  • Complete the entire Honors Curriculum 
  • Earn a "C" grade or better in all Honors courses
  • Minimum 3.00 GPA in AU Honors coursework
  • Minimum 3.50 cumulative GPA at graduation

First-Year Advising

All first-year AU students receive a first-year advisor based on intened major who also teaches their AUx1 course.