UL Lafayette: Department: Main Page

Who can join Honors?

First Time Freshmen

Freshmen with an ACT composite score of 26 or better, or SAT of 1180 composite, who had the results sent to UL Lafayette will be invited to join our program.

Continuing Students

Students with a 3.2 GPA can seek admission by scheduling an appointment with the Director. Call (337)482-6700, or email honors@louisiana.edu. The office is located in Judice-Rickels Hall room 205.

The University Honors Program, which had its beginning on a small scale in 1970, now serves over 900 students from all majors. It participates actively in the Louisiana, Southern Regional and National Honors Councils.

The Honors Program provides serious and highly motivated students with a set of intellectual and educational opportunities, so that those students who seek added dimension, enrichment, and challenge in their studies may find full realization of their potential. Students in any academic major may participate in the program. Those entering as freshmen with an ACT composite of 26 or SAT composite of 1180 are invited to join the program. Others are considered by an individual interview.

Many departments offer special Honors versions of their most popular freshman and sophomore courses. These courses (in biology, business, chemistry, communications, computer science, economics, education, English, engineering, geology, history, humanities, mathematics, philosophy, political science, psychology, and renewable resources with others in the planning stage) are characterized by both small size and a close relationship between faculty and students. The reduced size of these classes (10-20 students usually) encourages an intimate, intensive, and stimulating learning experience where students from different backgrounds and committed to various majors can interact effectively with one another and with distinguished faculty members.

A few unique interdisciplinary courses in the Honors Department have been developed in order to encourage both a more mature approach to scholarship and continued contact among excellent students of all disciplines. These courses range from five-day/week discussion courses to special one-semester only topical seminars.

Honors Seminar provides a weekly exposure to a wide variety of intellectual notions in the company of a large group of faculty and students. This student-oriented event utilizes the best talent on the campus, in the community, or from around the state to explore and examine questions of direct and current interest to students. Students are actively involved in planning these Seminars.

The requirements for remaining in good standing are as follows: freshmen must take Honors Seminar both semesters and are honor-bound to take it every subsequent semester that it can be fitted into their class schedule; freshmen must maintain a 3.0 GPA and students with more than 30 hours must maintain a 3.2 GPA; students must schedule one Honors course each academic year until 12 hours have been taken (not including Honors Seminar).

The Honors Baccalaureate Degree is the natural culmination of four years of involvement with the Honors Program. This special degree is awarded after completion of a number of specific requirements including maintenance of at least a 3.5 cumulative grade-point average, and preparation of suitable senior thesis. Not all honors students elect to pursue this degree.

The Honors Board, a committee of twelve students elected by their peers, advises the director, assists in Honors Program activities and takes a leading role in planning Honors Seminar programs, workshops, and trips.

In addition to the above, students in the Honors Program benefit from a number of special scholarships and awards, an honors lounge, special honors computer facilities, honors dormitory areas, Honors advisors in many departments, and scheduling priority during registration.

NOTE: The Honors Program no longer offers Summer Early Admission or Concurrent Early Admission. The new program is called High School Dual Enrollment. For more information, contact University College at (337) 482-6729.

Highly-qualified high school students may enter the university as full-time students prior to high school graduation through this program. These students obtain their high school diplomas after completion of the freshman year of college (24 credits). To enter this program, a student mush have an ACT composite of 29 or greater or an SAT of 1300 or greater, a high school average of at least a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale, and must have completed a minimum of 17 units of high school ( 3 English, 2 mathematics, 2 social studies, 2 science). Applications are available through the Honors Program or the University College Dual Enrollment Program. For more information, contact University College at (337) 482-6729, email universitycollege@louisiana.edu, or visit the University College web site .

The University Honors Program was begun in 1970 with nothing but an idea in the mind of Dr. Charles Cain, then Director of the Freshman Division.

Dr. Cain appointed a committee of three: Dr. Duane Blumberg of the Department of Mathematics (now Dean of the College of Sciences), Dr. Matt Dakin of the Department of Biology (now retired), and Dr. Patricia Rickels of the Department of English (now Director of the Honors Program). He asked these three to work out a plan to "provide opportunities for intellectual and cultural enrichment for gifted students." They tackled the assignment with gusto and, with no budget, no personnel, no office, and no Honors courses except English 115. Target students were identified by ACT scores and a plan was worked out to gather them together once a week in a meeting called Honors Seminar. The Mathematics Department allowed us to designate this seminar on the master schedule as Math 000, cr. 0, Th 11:00, VLW 101. We started with about fifty students.

Today there are almost 900 students in the Honors Program, thirty departmental Honors courses in seventeen academic departments, and twelve interdisciplinary courses in the Honors Department. The Honors Seminar, still a central element in the program, now fills the Union Forum on Tuesday at 11:00 as well as Thursday. It now carries one CR/NC credit, and requires the reading of the "Honors Book" each semester and submission of a final essay. The original plan of having students lead the discussions in Seminar is now fully implemented, with students choosing discussion topics in a vote and then leading the discussions.

Much of the development of the Honors Program, including the Honors Department, was the work of the first Director, Dr. Ronald J. White, 1975-1981, chemist, mathematician , biologist, and Renaissance man. Under his leadership the Honors Baccalaureate Degree program was approved, with the first degrees awarded in 1979. To date, 113 students, representing all colleges in the university, have earned this degree's requirements for which include a GPA of 3.5 and a thesis, defended in an oral examination open to all members of the university community.

Thanks again to the kindness of the Department of Mathematics, the Honors Program occupied three rooms in Maxim D.Doucet Hall, offices for the Director, a secretary, two graduate assistants, four student workers; and a lounge and reading room for Honors students until June, 2001. Judice-Rickels Hall, located across from Dupre Library, is the home of the Honors Program. The first floor consists of a quiet and active lounge for studying and visiting. The Director and office personnel are located on the second floor. Also on this floor are two classrooms and a computer lab.

We also have men's and women's Honors residence halls, and special scholarships designated for Honors students.

In 1990, when our program was twenty years old, a visiting SACS consultant said we should be very proud. "Honors Programs," he said, "come and go like will-of the-wisps in the night. They start in a grandiose manner and fizzle out. You have done the opposite: built slowly, from nothing, a program that will last." He was right. Thanks to continuing support from the President, Vice-President for Academic Affairs, and the faculty, the program is strong.