Honors Program
For high-achieving students, there are two options in the Honors Program: the Departmental Honors Program and the Four Year Scholars program.
If you have a 3.25 or above GPA both in your art courses as well as overall, you qualify for admission to the Departmental Honors program. People usually enter the program in their sophomore or junior year. Once in the program, you must maintain a 3.25 GPA, both overall and within the Art Department, complete and defend an honors thesis, and take 12 hours of honors course work (which may include 6 hours devoted to the thesis, leaving 6 hours of class work. If you meet the grade requirements, you may join the program by filling out a departmental recommendation card, signed by an Art Dept. faculty member.
The Four Year Scholars students enter the University as Honors students, with an ACT score above 28 and a GPA above 3.5. They take an Honors core curriculum as well as completing a thesis project. If you are a Four Year Honors student pursuing the BFA degree, your general education requirements will be different from, and more rigorous than the normal BFA general education requirements.
The Art Department offers Honors sections of most Art History courses. Departmental Honors students are also welcome to take any other Honors courses, including Colloquia.
The Honors Thesis project is a semester or year long independent project done by the student in their area of concentration, which is then defended before a committee of four faculty members, two from the Art Department and two from outside.
See the Honors Coordinator, Kristin Musgnug, for more details.