Honors Courses

Honors Course Options

Honors Course Options

There are three general types of Honors courses at Purdue:

  • HONR-prefix courses (offered through the Honors College);
  • Courses with an H designation (sections of a course offered by a specific school or college; for example COM 11400-H); and
  • Honors contracted courses.

To see a list of HONR courses and course sections with an H designation
being offered, click here: Honors Courses Offered

Honors Contracting Quick Links

Honors Contracts Details

An Honors contract is an agreement between an instructor and student that makes a standard course eligible to receive Honors credit.  A course taken with an Honors contract will involve additional or alternative required coursework.  The student and faculty instructor of the course will reach an agreement on the exact work to be done for the Honors contract, and this information will be documented and submitted as part of the contract approval process.  Students should expect to produce work of elevated quality and to meet regularly throughout the semester with their faculty instructor.

Students interested in Honors contracting a course must request a Grade Mode Change for that course using the Scheduling Assistant in myPurdue before the end of the 2nd week of classes in the current semester. For Fall 2024, this deadline is August 29th at 11:59 pm.

For *each* College of Engineering course that you plan to contract, you will need to complete a College of Engineering Honors Contracting Form by the deadline listed above. As a part of completing this form, you will need to upload a document that provides a description of the work to be performed for the contract. This document can take one of two forms:

  • A copy of the standard course syllabus modified to include an Honors Addendum. The honors addendum contains the details of the honors activity to be undertaken by the student, including deliverables, expectations, and deadlines. In effect, this turns the regular course syllabus into a standardized honors contract that all students in the course can participate in (if eligible). The addendum must also indicate a modified grading scheme for determining the overall course grade that takes the work done for the honors contract into account.
  • An Honors Syllabus. The honors syllabus is a stand-alone document that has much of the same information as the honors addendum described above (description of work, deliverables, expectations, deadlines, and a modified grading scheme). As a stand-alone document, however, the contents of the contract can be individualized to provide a unique honors experience for each student.

Students will work with their respective course instructors to get the necessary document in a timely manner.

Students will use the following link to fill out the College of Engineering Honors Contracting Form and submit the honors documentation: https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eCzxsBdEVaPQYke. This link will go live on the first day of the semester (August 19th for Fall 2024) and will become inactive once the contract submission deadline (August 29th for Fall 2024) has passed.

Be aware that submitting an Honors syllabus/addendum lacking sufficient detail may result in requests for additional documentation or, potentially, the honors contract not being approved. To assist students and faculty instructors in the construction of an appropriate document, we have created an Honors Syllabus template available as a downloadable Word file. This file provides guidance on what to include in an honors syllabus, and it can also be used to guide the development of an honors addendum that gets incorporated into the standard course syllabus in whatever format the instructor prefers. Use of this template is not required, but we strongly recommend that students and instructors review it in order to learn best practices for making a solid honors contract document. We have also created a web page that has examples of honors syllabi and addendums along with answers to frequently asked questions.

For questions about honors contracting for Engineering courses, please contact your academic advisor or email Dr. Timothy Whalen at whalen@purdue.edu.

If you wish to have an honors contract for an Engineering course that is offered as a departmental Study Abroad course, the Study Abroad office provides special instructions on the workflow you need to follow in order to get contract approval.

Note: Honors contracting of Engineering courses does not require hard copies of the Form 23 + Honors Contract Form because our online process replaces those for this purpose. However, if you wish to honors contract a course offered by another college at Purdue, hard copies of the paperwork may be needed. To be sure of the process you need to follow, please contact the respective college’s honors liaison prior to getting started. You can find the contact information for honors liaisons by college on the second page of the Honors Contracting Form, Procedure, and FAQs (PDF) document.