About

The George Washington University (GW) Honors Program helps students hone their analytical and expressive powers, deepen their understanding of complex issues and questions, and broaden their perspectives. Built upon an interdisciplinary honors experience, the program is fully aligned with the highest academic aspirations of GW’s schools and departments. Honors students are intellectual omnivores who know that you can’t be interested in one thing without being interested in all things.

 

Message from the Director

 

Contribute

 

Our People

 

Mission

The mission of the University Honors Program is to bring together outstanding students of wide academic interests and challenge them through rigorous engagement in and contributions to a community of scholars. Our distinctive curriculum promotes a broad liberal education that encourages students both to probe the most foundational questions of humanity and to apply their understanding to complex problems of the world today. Students enhance their course work with research and other experiential opportunities and work with our faculty and staff to achieve intellectual and personal development throughout their undergraduate years.

Overview

As a University Honors Program student, you can expect:

 

 

SMALL CLASSES:
Seminar-style classes with 15 to 20 students that provide an opportunity to probe a variety of evolving issues and eternal questions.
 

 

 

COMMUNITY:
A shared academic experience is enhanced by the small size of the program, approximately 500 students. All first-year Honors students live in an Honors living and learning community on the Mount Vernon campus. Upper-level Honors students have the option of living in an Honors residential community on the Foggy Bottom campus.

 

 

UNIQUE COURSES:
Students enroll in a series of unique courses, addressing questions and issues through cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary perspectives, drawing from the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences.
 

 

 

DISTINCTIVE CO-CURRICULAR PROGRAMMING:
Programming includes off-campus activities with peers, professors, and staff including visits to local museums, day trips throughout the region, theater performances, and film screenings; discussions in the program's Club Room; student-faculty dinners; and guest speaker.
 

 

 

CLOSE FACULTY RELATIONSHIPS: Small, discussion-driven Honors courses create a collaborative environment and strengthen relationships between students and faculty.
 

 

 

DESIGNATED HONORS ACADEMIC ADVISORS:
Supplemental to other advising at GW, Honors advisors assist students with academic, career, and personal planning.
 

 

 

EARLY COURSE REGISTATION:
Honors students have early registration during their second, third, and fourth semesters at GW.

 

 

DISTINCTION:
Achievement in the Honors Program is indicated on a student's transcript.