College of the Mainland offers highly motivated students a chance to enhance their learning experience by working to explore subject areas in more depth through the Honors Program.
Honors credit may be received in most courses if the faculty member is willing to assist the student in earning honors in their course. The student and faculty member will work together to create an Honors Contract. An Honors Contract will detail the project the student must successfully complete to be awarded honors credit. Students work with a faculty member that will supervise and guide them through the endeavor and help them fulfill the obligations of the Honors Contract.
The Honors Contract requires the completion of the following criteria:
- Permission and approval of the faculty member for course student is currently enrolled
- Approval of the contract by the Honors Committee
- If the contract involves human subjects, contact COM’s Institutional Review Board at ir@com.edu before starting on the contract
- Completion of a research paper, special project, performance or creative project, or other work in addition to the usual requirements of the course
- Presentation of final results by the student
- At least 15 additional hours outside the normal expectation of the course completing the honors project
- The student must earn an "A" in the contracted course of record
- The student must develop a meeting schedule with the faculty member
- Signed Honors Contract by the student and the faculty member of the designated course
- A completed original typed copy of this form must be submitted to the Honors Committee co-chair(s)
- A rubric for assessing whether a completed honors project merits honors credit should be developed jointly by the student and the faculty member. The rubric must be submitted with the signed Honors Contract.
- Honors Committee Co-chairs may contact the faculty member to learn the status of the project
- A final report must be submitted to one of the Honors Committee Co-chairs prior to the contract deadline. The final report must include the rubric developed jointly by the student and the faculty members with the faculty member’s comments on whether the student satisfied the criteria in the rubric and should receive honors credit.
Students desiring honors credit may also enroll in courses that have been designated as honors sections. These courses are identified in WebAdvisor as honors sections. Coursework in honors sections is more rigorous than a non-honors section.
In addition, any student who completes at least 12 honors credit hours, maintains a GPA of 3.5 or higher, completes at least 24 hours of approved community service, and a minimum of 18 hours at College of the Mainland will be recognized as a COM Scholar at graduation.
For more information, contact dserda@com.edu ext. 8497 or swakao@com.edu ext. 8107.