Nov 21, 2024  
2023-24 College of Liberal Arts 
    
2023-24 College of Liberal Arts [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Honors Degree Program


Rollins offers a highly selective program in the liberal arts for students with exceptional intellectual abilities. The Honors Degree Program creates a community of scholars who are encouraged to seek innovative ways to solve the pressing social challenges of the twenty-first century. Successful completion of the Honors curriculum leads to a distinct and separate undergraduate degree, Artium Baccalaureus Honoris–the Honors Bachelor of Arts Degree.

Honors students complete a core set of five courses designed to provide an integrated understanding of the liberal arts. These seminars, some of them interdisciplinary, introduce students to the different methods of inquiry in various fields and encourage students to take intellectual risks and apply a liberal arts understanding to critical issues of our time. These courses substitute for General Education requirements of the rFLA neighborhood program and are designed (1) to teach students to think and write critically across a broad range of disciplines; (2) to encourage a synthetic interdisciplinary understanding of the liberal arts; and (3) to challenge students to see the world in a new way.

In order to ensure that all Honors Degree Students have a broad exposure to all of the Liberal Arts, each seminar will fulfill one or more of the four divisional requirements: Arts (A), Humanities (H), Social Sciences (C), and Natural Sciences (S).  Students should ensure that in choosing classes, they have met all four divisional requirements at some point before completing their honors thesis. Depending on the disciplines of the faculty involved, seminars may have up to two divisional designations.  All Honors students must have at least one seminar in each of these four areas. In addition, faculty advisors of first year Honors students will also work closely with their advisees to make certain that Honors students undertake the broadest possible exposure to the liberal arts.

To receive the Honors Bachelor of Arts Degree, candidates must satisfy course and credit, as well as grade requirements.  For more information see ABH Honors Degree Requirements.

Candidates for the Honors A.B. Degree must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.33 to continue in the program and complete all degree requirements. They must also earn a grade of “B” or better for HON 498/499. Latin Honors at graduation (Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude) are awarded in the honors program on the basis of cumulative GPA, with the same numerical criteria as in the rest of the College.