Honors Curriculum
Honors students must complete four HN courses with a grade of
"B" or higher before they graduate. We offer HN 100, 200, and 300
courses, described below. Students must take at least one HN 200
course and one HN 300 course among their four HN courses.
HN 100 Honors Freshman Seminars
HN 100 courses are designed to introduce freshmen students to
the Honors experience: the kind of course work, the seriousness as
well as the joys of the enterprise, the community of students and
faculty, cultural events, etc. Offered in the Fall semester only,
HN 100s give first year Honors students an opportunity to get to
know one another and start working together in the spirit of shared
purpose.
HN 200 - 201 Seminars
HN 200 and 201 Seminars examine a great work, thinker, time
period, or artist from various angles: artistic, scientific,
historical, philosophical, religious, and so on. These courses give
practice in honing in on one topic in extreme detail.
HN 300 Colloquia
HN 300 Colloquia focus on a central theme or question and
examine it from a variety of disciplines and approaches. These
courses ask students to approach a broad topic from a variety of
different angles in order to gain their own perspective on the
topic. Since this is usually the last level of the HN curriculum
taken before the student moves on to the thesis-centered half of
the Honors program, we urge the inclusion of some research-related
assignments/projects in these courses.
Incorporating Study Abroad, Semester in D.C., Internships, and
tight schedules
We encourage honors students to take advantage of as many
opportunities as possible while at Butler University. Students who
study abroad or intern in Washington, D.C. may count a pre-approved
course taken abroad as one of their HN 200 or 300 courses.
We also realize that some students are in very structured
majors. We do try to offer honors courses at times that can
accommodate anyone's schedule but we also realize that sometimes
courses may be filled before students can register for the class
they need. The honors office will keep a waitlist of honors
students for each course and will choose up to three additional
students to enroll for honors courses. (For example, Joe Smith
might want to take an honors class offered by his favorite
professor, Dr. Morrel, but there are four other honors courses that
fit his schedule. Sarah Jones, a dancer, has a tight schedule and
can ONLY take Dr. Morrel's class. Sarah gets first dibs on the
course.)
If the above options don't work, students may also register for
an Honors Tutorial. The tutorials offer a chance for independent
study with a professor on a previously taken honors topic, or
another topic of the student's choice that has been approved by the
honors director. See Tutorial How-To for guidelines on
setting up an honors tutorial.