Earning the HSP Certificate

To earn honors, students must complete 15 credit hours of honors-level work with CU Denver and maintain a 3.25 or better.

Students may do so in a variety of ways, including by completing:

• an honors/majors section of a course, offered by a department, a list is provided on the HSP website
• a 5000-level course (by permission of instructor or BA/BS to MA/MS courses)
• departmental thesis credit
• an honors contract negotiated with faculty to extend assignments in existing courses
• an independent study (up to 6 credits)
• CU Denver study abroad classes taken for credit (up to 6 credits)
• internships taken for credit (up to 6 credits)
• Co-curricular and extra-curricular credit (3 credits)

* All courses must be taken for a letter grade (no Pass/Fail).
* All courses must be B- or higher for the courses to count towards the certificate.
* UNHL courses can be counted up to 6 credits and can be counted for UHL and HSP.

The following courses are pre-approved and do not require Honors Contract

HSP List of Pre-Approved Courses

Students may replace 3 credit hours of coursework with extra-curricular activities that may include but are not limited to:

• Undergraduate (EUReCA!) research grants or other mentored research conferences, colloquia, or seminar presentations
• Research and Creative Activities Symposium (RaCAS)
• Performances
• Exhibitions
• Leadership activities
• Community service and engagement
• Uncredited Study abroad
• Uncredited Internships

Submit extra-curricular credit via the Canvas shell.

CU Denver Honors Contracts for Non-Honors Designated Courses 

The primary purpose of the Honors Contract is to give students and instructors the opportunity to interact about challenging academic issues. Students and instructors should feel free to design an agreement in addition to general course expectations that is tailored to the specifics of their interaction, the expected work, and the course. Both instructors and students should be able to benefit from the honors enrichment contract work.   

Honors contracts are:

• An opportunity for undergraduate research
• A chance to delve deeper into your area of interest
• A chance to do in-depth learning with a mentor
• An opportunity to prepare for graduate level work

Honors contracts are not:

• Part of the expected workload of the class
• Busy work 

Timing:  Students should meet with the faculty member during the first two weeks of class to arrange the honors contract.   Students are expected to meet individually with the faculty outside of class time to discuss the project(s) at least once prior to submission of the project(s).  Additional meetings are recommended as agreed upon.  Meetings can be in-person, via zoom, via phone, or via email as agreed upon by the instructor and the student. 

Honors Contracts must include additional elements of labor beyond that of the already required coursework.  Below are examples of some but not all enrichment opportunities that the student and instructor might agree upon.   

• Conduct an individual research project or assist with instructor research
• Create, test, and/or evaluate a program
• Prepare and present a class lecture
• Complete a small group project with other honors students
• Produce a research paper
• Design and test a lab project 

To received honors designation, the additional elements of labor should be a minimum of 10 additional hours (in class and/or out of class work) beyond the regular course work and not including the meetings to arrange the honors enrichment contract.   

Please note that Honors activities are supplemental to regular course work and honors credit will be independent of the final grade. 

Sample Honors Projects

Submit an Honors Contract