The Bucks faculty was enthusiastic to present an information session on the new and upcoming Honors @ Bucks program that is now being offered to its students, giving them a greater chance of admittance into their pick of a four year college as well as attaining a promising career.
Stephen doCarmo, English professor and coordinator of the honors program, informed attendees that the “real hope is to have these honors courses turn into money for students to go to these expensive schools.”
Danielle Anzalone, assistant director of admissions, confirms that one goal is to, “eventually be able to start offering scholarship money for honor students.”
The Honors @ Bucks program will give graduates a competitive edge whether they transfer to a four-year institution, or applying for a job. This program will give students honors designations on their transcripts in addition to a degree awarded with Honors.
The honors classes will challenge students academically by focusing on critical thinking, scholarly research, and experiential learning. The college and its professors do not want to bury its honor students with work, but it wants to be able to send them onto upstanding four-year colleges or universities.
Anzalone said it’s “not necessarily more work, it’s just emphasizing a higher level of critical thinking.” Just because the courses will be more challenging does not mean you will be graded on a higher scale.
“Challenge is built into the course and not the grading system,” said Charlie Groth, associate professor of language and literature who serves on the program committee.
The Honors @ Bucks program has been long awaited and is finally accessible to new, existing, and returning students. The application process is very simple and the requirements to earn your associate degree with honors aren’t elaborate. You must complete a minimum of six honor courses, keep an overall average GPA of 3.25, and obtain an average of 3.0 in honor classes.
Your six honor courses will consist of three designated courses and three courses that will be formed “by contract.” The “by contract” concept is a new idea, but is fairly simple. The college will help you arrange to change any of your courses into a “by contract” honors course.
The college will provide four honors designated courses in areas that almost every major will need. In the spring semester, Bucks will offer honors courses in English Composition I and II (COMP 110 and 111), Effective Speaking (COMM 110), and Introduction to Psychology (PSCY 110).
The honors designated classes are anticipated to be approximately 5-6 students. This will allow students to get specialized individual attention from their instructors. The “by contract” honors classes are regular classes that professors will modify, but not in a way that is too time consuming for the student.
The college is working vigorously on honors-to-honors transfer agreements with a number of four-year institutions. The college has already admitted approximately 50 students to the program. Deadline for students applying to Honors @ Bucks for the spring semester is Dec. 15.
If you are interested in applying for this uniquely crafted program, you can get an application online at www.bucks.edu/academics/honors. For any questions, contact Stephen doCarmo at (215) 968-8267 or Danielle Anzalone at (215) 968-8119.