To earn honors, students must complete 15 credit hours of honors-level work and maintain a 3.25 or better.
Students may do so in a variety of ways, including by completing:
* 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 double-counted up to 5 credits.
Students may replace 3 credit hours of coursework with co-curricular or extra-curricular activities that may include but are not limited to:
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:
Honors contracts are not:
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.
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.
The following courses are pre-approved and do not need Honors Contract:
Course Number | Title | Credits |
BIOL 2030 | Honors Organisms to Ecosystems (Gen Bio) | 3 |
BIOL 2031 | Honors Organisms to Ecosystems Lab (Gen Bio) | 1 |
BIOL 2040 | Honors Molecules to Cells | 3 |
BIOL 2041 | Honors Molecules to Cells Lab | 1 |
CHEM 2031 | Majors General Chemistry I lecture | 3 |
CHEM 2039 | Majors General Chemistry I laboratory | 2 |
CHEM 2039 | Majors General Chemistry I laboratory | 2 |
CHEM 2061 | Majors General Chemistry II lecture | 3 |
CHEM 2068 | Majors General Chemistry II laboratory | 2 |
CHEM 2068 | Majors General Chemistry II laboratory | 2 |
CHEM 2081 | Honors General Chemistry I | 3 |
CHEM 2088 | Honors General Chemistry I Laboratory | 2 |
CHEM 2091 | Honors General Chemistry II Lecture | 3 |
CHEM 2098 | Honors General Chemistry II Laboratory | 2 |
CHEM 3481 | Majors Organic Chemistry I | 4 |
CHEM 3488 | Majors Organic Chemistry Laboratory I | 1 |
CHEM 3491 | Majors Organic Chemistry II | 4 |
CHEM 3498 | Majors Organic Chemistry Laboratory II | 2 |
COMM 4700 | Thesis and Project Practicum | 3 |
ECON 4850 | Honors Independent Study: ECON | 1-3 |
ENGL 4720 | Honors in English | 3 |
ENGL 4740 | Honors in Writing | 3 |
GEOG 4950 | Honors Thesis | 3 |
MKTG 4051 | Honors Applied Marketing Management | 3 |
PHIL 4950 | Honors Thesis | 3-6 |
* All courses must be B- or higher for the courses to count towards the certificate.
If you are a current applicant to CU Denver or a current student, click the button below to the HSP application.
Contact CUHSP@ucdenver.edu.