Honors College

Jot Travis Building, Room 11
(775) 784-1455

Purpose and Mission 

The Honors College provides unique intellectual, professional, and personal development opportunities to highly motivated students across the curriculum and co-curriculum.

The Honors College offers three flexible curricular pathways that accommodate students within any major(s): the Honors Baccalaureate, the Provost’s Scholars pathway, and the 1874 Scholars pathway.

Admission to the Honors Program

Any student may apply for admission to the Honors College and, upon acceptance, select any one of the three pathways. Students in every honors pathway will complete a specified number of enhanced academic experiences and co-curricular experiences as well as an honors record and an honors signature experience. Visit the Honors College website for information on how to apply.

Honors Residential Scholars Community 

The Honors Residential Scholars Community provides a cohort of honors students with the opportunity to develop both local and global awareness through inquiry, discussion, and immersion. The community is open to qualified, first-year students of all academic majors who have been admitted to the Honors College. A supplemental application that may be completed together with the Honors College admission application is required in addition to the primary housing application. First-generation college students, members of underrepresented groups, and students who demonstrate financial need are especially encouraged to apply.

Program Requirements

The Honors Baccalaureate is the most immersive honors pathway. This pathway incorporates a first-year experience requirement that distinguishes it from the other two pathways and, more generally, favors curricular honors engagement. Like the other pathways, it requires students to engage in at least two approved co-curricular activities for honors credit and integrates an Honors Signature Experience. The Honors Baccalaureate is well suited to first-time, first-year students seeking to engage with the Honors College throughout their undergraduate years.

Honoring the tremendous contributions of the Office of the Provost to honors education at the University, the Provost’s Scholars pathway offers a balanced middle ground. Its requirements allow students to establish an equilibrium between their curricular and cocurricular honors activities. Like all other honors pathways, it requires students to engage in at least two approved co-curricular activities for honors credit and integrates an Honors Signature Experience. Because it does not require a first-year experience course, the Provost’s Scholars pathway is well suited to students who join the Honors College in their second year of study.

Named for the year of the University’s founding, the 1874 Scholars pathway is the foundational honors pathway. Its requirements allow students to favor co-curricular engagement. Like all other honors pathways, it requires students to engage in at least two approved co-curricular activities for honors credit and integrates an Honors Signature Experience. In its brevity, it is well suited to the needs of continuing and transfer students as well as students whose majors incorporate a time-intensive culminating experience such as a professional practicum.

Note: The first-year experience course and honors signature experience count toward enhanced academic experiences.

Program Completion

Students in the Honors College may select any one of the three pathways above. Students in every honors pathway will complete a specified number of enhanced academic experiences and co-curricular experiences as well as an honors record and an honors signature experience. Completion of all three honors pathways is measured in honors experiences as detailed in the table above. Pathways do not require the completion of a specific number of credit hours and they are not time dependent. Each pathway includes four flex experiences; these may be academic or co-curricular experiences.

Honors experiences include, but are not limited to, academic courses; co-curricular activities like creative performance, service-learning, internships, and research engagement; applying for a nationally competitive scholarship or fellowship; presenting work at an academic conference; etc.

Enhanced academic experiences are equivalent to honors courses. These may be honors sections of courses or contract courses for honors credit.

Co-curricular experiences include, but are not limited to, service, internships, research, professional examinations, leadership of clubs and organizations, etc.

Students who enter the Honors College as first-year students enroll in a required honors first-year experience course and are, thus, eligible for the Honors Baccalaureate. For students who enter the Honors College later in their undergraduate careers, a major-required first-year experience course may fulfill the Honors Baccalaureate first-year experience requirement. For students selecting the Provost’s Scholars or 1874 Scholars pathways, the honors first-year experience course may count toward required enhanced academic experiences but it is not a requirement of the pathways.

The honors record is an advising tool that integrates artifacts from students’ honors experiences and critical reflection into an electronic portfolio. 

The honors signature experience is equivalent to a major-required thesis/capstone for majors that require one. For majors that do not require a thesis/capstone, students will design their own project in accordance with their intellectual, professional, and personal goals. Projects might take the form of creative performances (e.g., senior recitals), extended course projects (e.g., consulting work), an extended service-learning project (e.g., establishing a community program), a professional experience (e.g., internship), etc. Signature experiences may or may not be associated with an academic course.

Progression Requirements

Students must score at least five points on the rubric below each semester to be in good standing with the Honors College.

Artifact Submission: 3 points are awarded to students who submit at least one artifact related to an honors experience. 0 points are awarded to students who do not submit any artifacts to an honors experience.

Life Check Participation: 3 points are awarded to students who attend a Life Check appointment. 0 points are awarded to students who do not attend a Life Check appointment.

Grade Point Average: 4 points 3.75-4.0. 3 points 3.5-3.74. 2 points 3.25-3.49. 1 point 3.0-3.24. 0 points 2.99 and below.

A student scoring fewer than five (5) points on the above rubric will be placed on honors probation for a period of one semester. If, by the end of the probationary semester, the student is able to score five (5) or more points on the rubric, then the student will be restored to good standing in the Honors College. If not, the student will be dismissed from the Honors College. The Honors College will use the above rubric to evaluate students at the end of the fall and spring terms. Any honors experiences completed in the summer or wintermester terms will be evaluated with the appropriate fall or spring term. 

Nationally Competitive Fellowships and Scholarships

The Honors College houses the University of Nevada, Reno Office of Undergraduate and Graduate Fellowships and Scholarships. The office provides advice and assistance to University of Nevada, Reno undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni applying for external undergraduate- and graduate-level awards such as the Boren Scholarships and Fellowships, the Critical Language Scholarship, Fulbright grants and the Gates Cambridge, Goldwater, Madison, Marshall, Mitchell, Rhodes, Truman, and Udall Scholarships.

The Office of Undergraduate and Graduate Fellowships serves all students at the University of Nevada, Reno. Students do not need to be declared in the Honors College to receive assistance with their fellowship and scholarship applications. Interested students may visit the Honors College website for preliminary information and follow up with the Associate Dean for specific information.

Programs

• Honors College