Junior-Senior Honors Program
The purpose of the Honors Program at Blue Mountain Christian University is to give outstanding junior and senior level students who demonstrate intellectual integrity, academic excellence, and Christian character the opportunity for in-depth exploration of their major discipline(s) and to engage in direct intellectual exchange and dialogue with experts in their fields.
The Honors Council is composed of faculty representatives from the various academic departments of the University. The Council plans and administers the Honors Program for students with special academic aptitudes and achievements. The program is structured so that qualified students may be enrolled in some portion of the honors work during the junior and senior years of enrollment.
Junior-year students with a minimum 3.00 cumulative grade point average and a 3.50 average in their major are eligible for participation in the Honors Program upon the recommendation of their department chair and approval of the Honors Council appointed by the President of the University. To be eligible, students must have completed a minimum of nine semester hours of work in the major discipline by the time of their admission to the Program. This is a program of independent reading and research under the guidance of a faculty director. Six semester hours of credit may be earned in the field in which the student is working.
The Honors Program is comprised of three semesters of approved, supervised 1-, 2-, and 3-semester hour units of study and culminates in an honors project to be submitted to the Honors Council by the end of the third semester.
Based upon criteria established by the Honors Council, a temporary grade of S (satisfactory) or U (unsatisfactory) will be recorded on the student’s permanent record for the honors courses at the end of the first two semesters that the student is in the Honors Program. While the student will be charged for the courses each semester, no credit hours will be given until the final semester is completed.
Upon the student’s completion of the essay (or approved equivalent), a final grade will be assigned by the Honors Council. At the successful completion of the essay, six semester hours of credit will be applied to the student’s transcript, and the corresponding quality points will be added to the student’s cumulative quality points, thus altering the cumulative grade point average (CGPA). Students will be graduated with honors in their major discipline.
A student may voluntarily withdraw from candidacy for honors at the end of any one of the three semesters of participation. A withdrawal (W) will be indicated on the student’s transcript, and no credit will be earned for any of the honors courses. Candidacy may be involuntarily terminated at any time upon the recommendation of the faculty director along with the approval of the Honors Council. One who completes the essay (or approved equivalent) but does not maintain the required grade point average may receive credit for the courses but will not be eligible to graduate with honors.
Graduation in the Honors Program. In the Honors Program, juniors and seniors with high academic averages may complete a program of independent research leading to an honors thesis or project. Graduation with Honors requires a satisfactory essay (or approved equivalent), a cumulative average of 3.25, and an average of 3.5 in the major field; graduation with High Honors requires a superior paper (or approved equivalent), a cumulative average of 3.5, and an average of 3.75 in the major field.
Director: Dr. Stewart Bennett