Honors Advisors
This page is for staff and faculty who advise honors students at various stages of their progress in the University Honors curriculum of 12 s.h. of honors coursework + 12 credits in experiential learning.
Thank you for looking out for your honors advisees! Although the Honors Program offers supplemental advising and peer mentoring, we rely on our advising partners to support honors student success!
Honors in the Major
Honors students are advised to explore departmental honors requirements (honors in the major) as a form of experiential learning.
Honors in the major requirements are set and supervised by departments and colleges rather than the Honors Program. Honors in the major is optional for students to receive University Honors. Likewise, students need not be in the Honors Program to pursue honors in the major. Completion of honors in the major counts as 12 credits in experiential learning for University Honors.
For transfer students and students who have reported significant amounts of experiential learning (6 credits or more), the Honors Program will apply departmental honors coursework to the honors coursework requirement on a case-by-case basis and by request.
Summer Orientation/New Honors Student Checklist
- Honors Primetime HONR:1100 -- pre-semester workshop
- recommended to all first-year honors students entering from high school in fall semester,
- counts as 1 experiential credit
- HONR:1000 Intro to Honors will be added automatically with Honors Primetime
- Direct students with a pre-semester engagement in marching band, athletics, Iowa Edge, or other schedule conflict to Introduction to Honors HONR:1000
- Intro to Honors HONR:1000 -- asynchronous and online, offered fall and spring
- counts as 1 s.h. honors coursework
- Expected for every honors student in their first semester in the program
- At least one honors course (1 or more s.h. credits) in their first semester in the program
- An honors first-year seminar is required for all first-year, fall semester students
- Students who have a different required first-year seminar, e.g. nursing and public health, are exempt from the honors first-year seminar requirement
- This requirement will be in effect for engineering majors starting Fall Semester 2024.
- Courses frequently offered as honors or with honors sections are general education and core courses such as CHEM:1110, CLSA:1200, ECON:1100, EES:1400, PHIL:1861, RHET:1030, SOC:1010
- All students, especially transfer students and students who have completed general education requirements, are advised to take in-person HONR 2000-level classes, which are taught by Honors Program staff and faculty
- HONR:2050:0001 Honors Contract Project (1s.h.) is recommended to honors students who are taking or have recently taken PSY:1001 Elementary Psychology (3 s.h.) or an equivalent introductory psychology class.
- HONR:2900 Honors Publications: From Pitch to Print may be taken for 1 or 2 credits
- HONR:2992 Classic Cult Cinema (3 s.h.) and HONR:2991 Honors Students and Wellness (3s.h.) are offered alternate semesters
- HONR2994 Poetics (Taylor’s Version) (3 s.h.)
For Ongoing Advising
Prioritize selection of honors courses and sections during an honors student’s first four semesters.
- Each semester, check for honors options for general education courses and elective courses
- Instruct advisees in how to search for honors courses in MyUI and
- how to prioritize a specific honors course when using Schedule Builder [insert handout]
- For ongoing connection with the program and with other engaged honors students, consider in-person HONR courses taught by program staff and faculty such as HONR:2900, HONR:2992 (alternates with HONR:2991); and for those taking Elementary Psychology, HONR:2050
- Recommend honors contracts to students for courses in a major, minor, or certificate.
- First-year students should generally be taking honors classes rather than contracting
- In general, honors does not permit contracting for courses for which an honors section is offered unless expressly offered and prompted by the course instructor
- HONR:2990 Study Smarter: Meaning, Motivation, & Experiential Learning is expected for second- or third-year honors students.
- Students who show significant progress in honors experiential learning (six or more credits recorded on their University Honors degree audit) are exempted.
Advising for Experiential Learning
Students can begin experiential learning any time.
- Direct students to honors peer mentors, the Honors Program portal in ICON, honors-explearning@uiowa.edu, or to honors.uiowa.edu for further exploration of their options.
- Direct students to the University Honors Degree Audit to self-assess their progress.
CLAS, Community-Engaged, and Tippie RISE courses approved for honors experiential learning count automatically on the University Honors degree audit and do not require a reflection process. Experiential coursework options are listed on the honors program website at https://honors.uiowa.edu/experiential-coursework.
Most types of experiential learning require the honors reflection process to receive credit. The three-part reflection process comprises a pre-experience questionnaire, a post-experience questionnaire and a narrative reflection, found in the Honors Program Portal on ICON.
- Completion of the pre-experience questionnaire beforehand or early in an experience is a best practice to document goals and assess achievement, but students can also report experiences retroactively, drawing on memory to complete the pre-experience questionnaire.
- Annual completion of reflection assignments to document and improve learning is a best practice.
- A second or third post- and narrative reflection may be submitted the following year(s) for additional credit if an experience continues.
- High quality reflections on experiences encompassing multiple years will also be counted.
- To ensure that credit is counted in time for University Honors recognition at graduation, students are encouraged to submit their final reflections before or early (within the first five weeks of) their final semester.