TO: Prospective Members of the University
Honors Program Fall 2009 Entering Class
 FROM:
Stephan Flores, Director
RE: Registration for Fall Semester 2009
On behalf of the University Honors Program, I want to express a warm welcome! I write to advise that you arrange a provisional course schedule for fall semester. To do this you will need to confer with an advisor in your prospective major so that you may register online as early as March 27, 2009. If you plan to attend “Vandal Friday” at the Moscow campus on March 27, you will receive academic advising during that visit, or you may wish to contact an advisor that week or soon thereafter, by phone or E-mail. Please find below a section entitled "Overview of the University Honors Program" and consult the UHP website for a list of honors courses offered this fall. As you prepare to register, review these documents carefully so that you may plan to include at least one honors program class in your fall schedule.
Note that to retain program membership privileges, including priority registration, all UHP students must maintain a University of Idaho 3.3 cumulative/institutional GPA, and complete a minimum of three graded honors credits in the first semester, and three graded honors credits by the end of the second semester, to total at least six graded honors credits completed by the end of the first year; thereafter, students must complete, on average, one honors course every second semester. When you confer with an academic advisor, it is essential that you let them know that you will need to include one or more honors classes in your fall schedule. It also will be important for you to understand the university's core curriculum requirements in general education, including opportunities for honors students to enroll in honors sections of general education core courses. Honors study is an opportunity to enrich your education, and the initiative to enroll in honors courses rests with you.
For those who have already met with an academic advisor or have talked with one over the phone, if you did not include an honors class in your proposed schedule, you may need to contact your advisor again to rearrange your schedule to include an honors class.
If you would like to be advised and to register at one of the UI Centers, please call ahead to arrange an appointment:
UI/Boise Ctr.
322 E. Front St.Boise
ID 83702
888-884-3246
UI/Coeur d'Alene Ctr.
1000 W. Hubbard Ave., Ste. 242
Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814-2277
888-208-2268
UI/Idaho Falls Ctr.
1776 Science Ctr. Drive, Ste. 306
Idaho Falls, ID 83402
208-282-7929
If you have questions or need assistance be sure to use the UI toll-free number, 1-888-884-3246, which will reach the campus operator who can connect you with any campus office. If you wish to contact the honors program office directly, please call 208-885-6147.
We encourage you to consider special housing arrangements for honors students at McCoy Hall Community (for freshmen, on 10th and 11th floors of Theophilus Tower) and Scholars Living Learning Community (suites in LLC complex, primarily for sophomores and above but freshmen may reserve rooms after June 1), designated as priority residence halls for UHP students. Please see the UI Housing site at www.students.uidaho.edu/housing (follow series of links for Future Students/First Year Students/Communities).
If you have decided not to attend the University of Idaho, I would greatly appreciate receiving a note from you to that effect. Please notify me by email at honors@uidaho.edu; it is also useful to copy that note to the UI Admissions Office at admappl@uidaho.edu
Again, welcome to the UI and to the UHP; we are glad that you are preparing to join the honors community here, and look forward to seeing a good many of you in the coming weeks.
Overview of the University Honors Program
The University Honors Program is open to students from all undergraduate colleges and majors, and is designed to offer students a diverse and enriched course of general education. The great majority of students are able to participate in the program without adding to the total number of credits needed for graduation.
Entering freshmen who follow University of Idaho General Requirements for Baccalaureate Degrees must begin to complete at least 33 credits of core curriculum courses, regardless of major (see 2009-10 UI Catalog, Part Three, section J-3). From among a number of these courses, the University Honors Program designates special sections for members of the program. These sections are smaller than average (usually 25-30 students as compared to 60 or more in a non-honors section), and taught by honors program faculty members. An honors course generally requires substantial reading, writing, and discussion, and explores topics and subject matter in depth. Honors faculty work to enhance each student’s intellectual curiosity to create a more personal, dynamic, and broad-based education.
The heart of honors study in the first two years lies in courses chosen from the humanities and social sciences along with a course in science, a writing course (for those who place into English 102), and an elective course in mathematics. Students are advised to enroll in honors sections of courses in the humanities and social sciences (including one of three different CORE Discovery courses designed for entering freshmen), and also a required international course, within the university’s General Core Studies (GCS) curriculum. Further, by taking at least one honors science course, one of the two courses required in the university’s Natural and Applied Science core curriculum is satisfied. Science, engineering, and other technical majors are advised to take Honors Chemistry 111 (fall 2009), or Honors Chemistry 112 (spring 2010). Non-science majors are advised to enroll in the CORS 210 honors integrated science course, offered fall 2009. Students whose test scores placements specify enrollment in English 102, College Writing and Rhetoric (with placement scores of SAT Verbal 570-690, or ACT English 25-30, or Compass 95-99), are directed to enroll in a section of English 102 fall semester, and encouraged to enroll in the honors section of English 102. English 102 is part of the university core curriculum Communication requirement (section J-3-a, UI Catalog).
Honors students will be recognized at graduation who successfully complete an honors core curriculum, totaling 19 credits comprised of at least 16 credits of the required 100, 200, or 300 level honors courses, and an additional three honors credits, with a GPA of at least 3.0 in these courses. These students receive the University Honors Core Award for their achievement, and are recognized at the Honors Certificate and Core Award Ceremony. Students are encouraged to complete a total of 27 credits in honors classes, which, with a GPA of at least 3.0 in these courses, determines that an Honors Certificate will be awarded at graduation. Up to 26 of these credits also satisfy university core curriculum requirements. The remaining credits needed to earn an honors certificate, usually taken in the junior and senior years, are an upper division math elective (Honors Math 315), a selection of special honors seminars and 300-400 level honors courses, and the option of an approved Honors elective. In order to reach the certificate’s required 27 credit total, some students decide to participate in the honors vacation reading course or to complete a different one-credit honors course.
The comprehensive website of the university’s Academic Advising Center is at http://www.students.uidaho.edu/advising; general advising information on the UI Core also can be found at http://www.webs.uidaho.edu/core/; in addition, the online registration menu includes suggested first semester courses for a wide variety of different majors. The UHP website also has additional information on the UI Core curriculum and the honors curriculum: http://www.uidaho.edu/honors_program
Planning Your Schedule
GENERAL INFORMATION: Unlike most high school classes, most University of Idaho courses are only one semester long. Some courses are continuations of others that must be taken first: Chemistry 111 is a prerequisite for Chemistry 112. Some courses need not be taken in sequence: History 101 is not a prerequisite for History 102. If you plan to take both, you may prefer to take History 101 first, but that is not required. In some disciplines, introductory courses are offered at the 200 level: English 257 and English 258 are designed to introduce freshmen to the literature of Western Civilization, and also may be taken in any order.
Under the requirements of the UI Core Curriculum, freshmen entering in fall 2009 who are following degree requirements in General Catalog issue 2004 or later, must complete a Core Discovery sequence during the fall and spring semesters of the 2009-2010 academic year: One course from CORE 103-149 (4 crs, open to freshmen only) and one course from CORE 153-199 (3 crs, open to freshmen and sophomores only). The UHP encourages you to enroll fall 2009 in one of the three honors sections of the Core Discovery sequences (Globalization, The Earth and Our Place on It, or The Monsters We Make): please be advised that completing both semesters in honors sections enables you to make good progress towards core requirements in the humanities and social sciences; students who have not completed a fall semester honors Core Discovery class may be able to enroll in a spring 2010 honors Core class on a space available basis, with the instructor’s permission.
You will have an academic advisor in your major, but ultimately you must take responsibility for attending to your degree requirements and each semester's schedule. Most departments have a four or five year plan for each major, or at least a check-off sheet of required courses. Consult online advising guides www.students.uidaho.edu/advising/ and get to know the university 2009-10 catalog very well. You will need to refer to the Class Schedule (www.uidaho.edu/schedule/) for course listings and locations and for instructions on how to register, and also the Registrar’s site (www.registrar.uidaho.edu/) for placement information.
HONORS INFORMATION: A listing of honors courses for Fall 2009 is available on the UHP website: http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/honors_program/courseinfo.htm Please refer to this listing when you meet with your advisor and plan your schedule for this fall. The fall semester classes open to freshmen are at the 100 and 200 level.
When you confer with your academic advisor, you might begin by determining if an honors CORE Discovery section fits into your schedule with other courses required or suggested for your major, and also determine whether you are placed into English 102 (or English 101, or if you placed out of English 102); then see if you have interest and opportunity to take an honors science course (Chem 111 or Cors 210), social science course (Hist 101, Psych 101), or humanities course (Engl 257, Phil 103), and please consider as well the special one credit course for new freshmen, EDCI 200 Connecting with Honors, designed to assist you with the transition to the UI and UHP by connecting you in a small group with eight other freshmen and with a member of the UHP (typically a senior or junior) who shall serve as your group’s mentor.
Please pay particular attention to the honors science courses. Honors Chemistry 111 is offered during the fall semester and Honors Chemistry 112 is offered in the spring. An honors Integrated Science course (CORS 210 Insects and Human Health), intended primarily for students who are not majoring in the sciences or in engineering, will be offered fall 2009.
In general, you are advised to enroll in honors sections of core curriculum courses so that you do not jeopardize the possibility of earning an Honors Certificate or Core Award by registering in non-honors sections of humanities, social sciences, communication, or science classes. Students who plan to make good initial progress towards earning the Honors Core Award or the Honors Certificate should complete two to three honors courses by the end of their second semester (including a balance among humanities, social science, or science core courses); by the end of the third semester, you are advised to have completed at least four honors courses (total of 12-15 credits).
To maintain your standing in the University Honors Program, including eligibility to register this fall for spring 2010 honors courses, you must enroll in at least one fall 2009 honors course (minimum of three graded credits). Note that many students enroll in two or more honors courses. Students who enroll in at least one honors course their first semester also receive priority registration privileges, enabling them to register first for spring 2010 courses with seniors and graduate students.
You also may be interested to know that UHP students have established a “UI Honors Student Advisory Board ” Facebook group for all members—prospective students admitted to the UHP are welcome to join this group at www.facebook.com (search under Honors Student Advisory Board ).
· Advisor holds must be removed by the advisor/department prior to registration.
· Most [of you] new freshmen have already setup and accessed [your] VandalWeb accounts to view financial aid information, which means [you] have already created [your] own PIN; [you] will need to make sure to use this PIN when registering and not the default.
· If the PIN is forgotten or disabled, [you] should use the Online PIN Reset by clicking on the ONLINE PIN RESET INFORMATION link on the VandalWeb login page. If this does not work, students should come to the Registrar’s Office with ID (or for those not in the local area, call 208-885-6731) for assistance. PINs will only be reset for a student.
· Students should activate their VandalMail, if they have not already done so, in order to receive important communications from the UI. Please be reminded that any notice will ONLY be sent to your VandalMail account so you should check it often.
· Students have been provided information to setup VandalWeb, Student Lab/Blackboard, and VandalMail accounts through www.vandalsetup.uidaho.edu |
