More than 300 courses are available through the Honors College annually, and many of these courses are special seminars specifically designed to meet the interests and goals of its students. Pre-med students may be interested in taking Medical Anthropology or Clinical Nutrition. Film Studies majors have the option of taking History of Film in South Carolina. The Honors College also offers several courses with study abroad components. Recently, students could choose to investigate the history and politics of Morocco, examine the Holocaust in Poland, or read English literature—in London. And, two of the most popular electives in the college appeal to students of all majors: Echoes in Blues and Super Bowl Commercials.
Unlike many honors programs that focus on lower division education, the University of South Carolina Honors College provides curricular and research opportunities across all four years.
The Honors College provides its students greater depth in their majors—with honors courses in all majors—and greater breadth across the curriculum by providing a rich set of small honors seminars covering a very wide variety of topics. With our new "Honors Beyond the Classroom" requirement, the Honors College is taking the lead in developing a liberal arts curriculum for the 21st Century. Graduation with a degree with Honors from the South Carolina Honors College requires 45 honors credits including courses across the liberal arts curriculum, and a culminating senior thesis or project. Students who complete this significant program of study, in addition to their major and other requirements, leave the University with a strong grounding in a 21st Century liberal arts curriculum that prepares them to be leaders in their future careers and communities.
The Honors College is open to all majors. In addition, the Honors College gives students the opportunity to design their own major through the Baccalaureus Artium et Scientiae degree. Students interested in law may want to pursue the 6-year joint BA/BS/law degree. Your personal advisor will help guide you through fulfilling Honors College curriculum requirements.
The Honors College offers pre-professional guidance for those aspiring to attend medical school, dental school, pharmacy school, veterinary school, and law school. Specialized courses, including those such as "The Art of Lawmaking" and "Spanish for Healthcare Professionals" are also available to help prepare students for professional schooling.
To encourage learning outside the classroom, the Honors College requires students to have at least three credit hours of honors educational experience outside of the traditional classroom setting. A student will be able to satisfy this requirement through undergraduate research credit, internship credit, service learning credit, or study away credit--typically through study abroad, but this can also include National Student Exchange or the Washington Semester Program.
Students admitted to the College are expected to maintain a B+ average. In order to graduate “with honors from the South Carolina Honors College,” a student must complete at least 45 hours of honors course credits (in some cases, credits from AP/IB and dual-enrollment may be "honorized"), including courses in English, History of Civilization, Natural Science, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Beyond the Classroom categories. In addition, a student is required to complete a senior honors project or thesis. Approximately 70% of the college’s students graduate with honors.
More information on graduation with Honors can be found in the Student Handbook.