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 Contracts

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 Spring 2024, this deadline is
January 22 at 11:59 pm.

For *each* College of Engineering course that you plan to contract, you
will need to complete an 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 Engineering Honors Contracting
Form and submit the honors documentation: Honors Documentation

This link will go live on the first day of the semester (January 8 for Spring 2024) and will
become inactive once the contract submission deadline (January 22 for Spring 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

Honors Syllabi and Addendums examples

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

Note: Honors contracting of Engineering courses does not require hard
copies of 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 honors liaison prior to getting
started. You can find the contact information for honors liaisons by
the college on the second page of the Honors Contracting Form, Procedure,
and FAQs Honors Contracting Form, Procedure, and FAQs document.