Honors College

The Honors College liberally educates the next generation of intellectually gifted Christian leaders, helping them develop the moral and intellectual virtue, the right habits of the heart and of the mind, to become global leaders.

Today’s top-performing students are tomorrow’s leaders. The Honors College telos—its aim, purpose, end—is to liberally educate the next generation of high-achieving, academically motivated Christian leaders, helping them develop the moral and intellectual virtue, the right habits of the heart and of the mind, to become global leaders.

The Honors College is for students who:

  • Enjoy spirited conversation and debate
  • Want to think deeply about important issues
  • Desire to love God with their mind as well as their heart and soul
  • Seek to grow in faith, virtue, and leadership
  • Love to read and write
  • Aspire to stir the hearts and minds of their generation

The Honors College is an opportunity to:

  • Engage life’s big questions in discussion-based, intellectually stimulating colloquies
  • Read classics about leadership, virtue, and faith
  • Grow academically in a close-knit community of engaged, intellectual peers
  • Learn without exams, textbooks, or busywork
  • Complete two majors in four years
  • Enjoy writing-intensive courses with writing support groups
  • Benefit from “high-impact educational practices”
  • Experience an Oxford-style tutorial
  • Apply to study away in Oxford 
  • Reserve classes with priority registration
  • Receive a $1,000-per-year Honors scholarship

Mission

The Honors College offers an innovative, enriching, and challenging Christian liberal education, emphasizing good leadership, moral and intellectual virtue, and the Christian tradition, to high-achieving, academically motivated undergraduate students.

Application to the Honors College

Students may apply to the Honors College as incoming first-year students, transfer students, or as second-year APU students.

In addition to completing the application form for admission to the university, a candidate must submit written responses to an essay prompt and three letters of recommendation. Applicants are considered on the basis of academic performance, demonstrated leadership ability, and exemplary character.

Admission to the Honors College is selective. Among those accepted and enrolled in the Honors College, the mean high school weighted GPA is 4.2 with an SAT score of 1320, ACT score of 29, or CLT score of 86.

Recipients of a Trustees’, President’s, Multi-Ethnic Leadership (MEL), or Haggard International scholarship are encouraged to apply for admission. Transfer and second-year APU students may apply for admission and will be considered if space is available.

Program Overview

Curriculum

The Honors College curriculum starts with the premise that good leadership requires the cultivation of moral and intellectual virtue—the habits of the heart and mind that enable one to determine what ought to be done and how best to do it. Such habits define one’s character. The content of a leader’s character is shaped, in part, by his or her answers to life’s most important questions: Who are we? Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we headed? Who is God, and what is our relationship with Him? What are our responsibilities to others? What is good? What is true? What is beautiful?

The classic works read in the Honors College curriculum perceptively address such questions. Their authors are cartographers, unveiling the lay of the land, providing ways to think and talk about life’s big questions.

The small, discussion-based, intellectually stimulating seminars are reading and writing intensive. The courses do not require secondary textbooks or traditional examinations. The selected texts nurture a deep understanding of the Christian faith, foster moral and intellectual virtue, and grapple with life’s most important questions. Wrestling with the ideas and arguments in those texts cultivates cognitive, expressive, and civic capacities (critical inquiry, analytical reasoning, problem solving, close reading, textual interpretation, attentive listening, effective language usage as a speaker and writer, and participating in and leading small groups/teams).

In this vein, the Honors College intends to produce scholarly disciples, equipped and worthy to assume positions of leadership, having grown in wisdom, virtue, faith, and eloquence.

There are 9-10 courses in the Honors curriculum (48 units). Completion of all 9-10 courses leads to an honors humanities major. The honors humanities major is not a stand-alone major; Honors Scholars are required to complete an additional major in another field of study.

The honors humanities major satisfies all requirements in the university’s General Education program. Students pursuing the honors humanities major are generally exempt from all assessment or placement exams associated with General Education. The honors humanities minor satisfies only a portion of the university’s General Education requirements.

The Honors College offers four ways of participating in the curriculum:

Study Away Opportunities

Study away is a uniquely enriching experience. To encourage Honors students to pursue study away, the Honors College has adopted the following practices:

  • Honors students are encouraged to consider the Oxford Semester as a recommended study away option. In that program, it is possible to arrange to read texts similar to those in the Honors curriculum.
  • Honors students who study away may substitute courses completed during a semester studying away for up to 6 units of Honors course requirements. The following requirements may be substituted only with the dean’s approval: HON 101, HON 340, HON 440, HON 450, and HON 460.
  • Honors Humanities majors may utilize the study away course substitution above for up to two semesters, and Honors Humanities minors may substitute study away courses for one required Honors course (6 units).

Career Opportunities

The honors humanities major and minor are not designed as preparation for a specific career, but rather as preparation for life. Nonetheless, the ability to combine the major/minor with a second major while graduating in four years creates many career opportunities. The program provides a competitive edge for those seeking a great graduate school and produces top candidates for employers who seek deep thinkers and articulate communicators with strong moral character. It also cultivates key skills useful in every field of endeavor: critical thinking, teamwork, oral communication, and written communication.

Faculty

Dean

David L. Weeks, PhD

Professors

Mark Bernier, PhD

Robert Duke, PhD

Diana Pavlac Glyer, PhD

Rico Vitz, PhD

Associate Professors

Marcia S. Berry, PhD

Christine Kern, PhD

Faculty Fellows

Joseph Bentz, PhD, Professor, Department of English

Emily Griesinger, PhD, Professor, Department of English; Program Director, MA in English

Kevin Sheng-Lin Huang, PhD, Professor, Department of Biology and Chemistry

Louise Ko Huang, PhD, Vice Provost for Academic Services; Director, Center for Research in Science

Carole Lambert, PhD, Professor, Department of English

Bradley McCoy, PhD, Chair and Professor, Department of Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics

Bala Musa, PhD, Professor, Department of Communication Studies

Christopher Noble, PhD, Professor, Honors College and Department of English

Daniel Palm, PhD, Chair and Professor, Department of History and Political Science

Windy Counsell Petrie, PhD, Chair and Professor, Department of English

Ethan Schrum, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of History and Political Science

Abbylin H. Sellers, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of History and Political Science

Caleb D. Spencer, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of English

Adjunct Faculty

Mihretu Guta, PhD

Alain Leon, MA

George Haraksin, MA

Matthew Rothaus Moser, PhD

Roger White, EdD

Jennifer Wolfe, MA

Faculty Emeriti

Christopher Flannery, PhD