Honors Program participation can be a bit confusing – and unfortunately some students do not consider participating in Honors because they do not understand what it entails, or are concerned that the benefits might not be worth the cost in terms of time and effort required. Here is a quick primer to help you understand how the Honors Program works, what the requirements are, and why it may be beneficial to you.
First, there are two types of ‘honors program’ available to psychology majors, and most student find it very easy to work on both at the same time – the requirements overlap very nicely. There is an IUPUI Honors Program (which is on the cusp of evolving into a full-fledged Honors College) that offers the ‘General Honors Notation’ – see http://uc.iupui.edu/honors/acad_graduating.asp. In a nutshell, students need to do three things to earn the General Honors Notation:
1) Complete 18 hours of honors credits:

• 9 hours must be completed in regular honors course work.
• The other 9 hours may be completed with some combination of course work, independent research, cultural studies, capstone experiences, etc.

2) Maintain the following grade requirements:

• A GPA of 3.3 must be obtained in all university course work completed.
• A GPA of 3.3 must be obtained in all honors course work completed.
• A grade of B or better must be obtained in a course to count for credit toward the honors notation (i.e., courses in which a grade of B– or lower is received will not count toward the 18 hour credit requirement).

3) Submit an application for General Honors Notation by the second week of the semester in which the student will graduate.

Here in the department of psychology, we also offer departmental honors – which again, dovetails nicely with the general honors notation requrements. We require that you take 24 credit hours of honors work (which can include the 18 credits required for the General Honors Notation). You need to earn a minimum honors GPA of 3.5 in your honors coursework to earn departmental honors. At least 3 hours of this credit must be for B499 – Honors Research. Any research credits (B492, B499) also can count as honors work, as can your capstone courses. Did you know that you can even take a graduate seminar in psychology and earn Honors credit? This is a great opportunity to experience what graduate school is like, at an ‘undergraduate tuition rate.’ See http://www.psych.iupui.edu/Undergraduate/Honors/ and http://www.psych.iupui.edu/Undergraduate/Involved/ungradResearchOpportunities.html for more information.
Why might Departmental Honors be a good career move? If you’re planning on applying to PhD programs in psychology, it’s really advantageous to complete an honors thesis prior to applying to graduate school. This conveys to selection committees that you understand how to complete a research project independently, and that you’ll be able to handle the process of completing a masters thesis and/or dissertation project. Our own B499 curriculum also requires that you seek out funding to support your work through the UROP program – again, writing a grant proposal conveys that you know the ropes and are potentially going to be able to seek out external funding while in graduate school. It’s the icing on the cake for otherwise rather typical applications that sport good grades and solid GRE scores. For more information on whether departmental honors might be for you, please contact Dr. Kathy Johnson, 274-4930).