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The Honors Program
Since its inception in 1982, the Honors Program has provided outstanding students
with a truly unique set of academic and social opportunities.
Unlike many honors programs that offer a single "honors seminar" or that add "honors
sections" to existing courses, the Honors Program at Randolph-Macon College provides
its members with an array of innovative Collegiate
Honors Courses developed exclusively for the program. Drawn from a wide
variety of disciplines and often interdisciplinary in nature, these courses demand
active student participation and have their enrollments limited to 15 students.
The course offerings change each year. Each of the courses offered by the program
can be used to satisfy a collegiate requirement, so students in the Honors Program
do not need to take "extra" courses.
Honors students in their junior or senior year will engage in an in-depth study
of a particular topic in their field of interest. These
Departmental Honors Projects can assume a wide variety of forms, and individual
students have a great degree of latitude in designing them. One possibility is to
engage in research with a faculty member, an opportunity generally not accessible
to an undergraduate at a large university. The necessary forms to report a Departmental
Honors Project are available here.
Students who meet the requirements
of the Honors Program receive a graduation medal and have successful completion
noted on their diploma and transcript.
There is far more to the Honors Program than academics alone, however. A strong
sense of community has existed for years among its members. The Honors Program at
Randolph-Macon College is one of the few Honors Programs in the country with its
own house, the Honors House.
The Student Honors Association
(whose members include most current Honors students) is a very active body on campus,
providing events such as coffee houses after performances by the Student Drama Guild,
movie nights, outings to musical and theatrical performances offered by such groups
as the Richmond Symphony and the Barksdale Theater, and informal conversations with
faculty and guest lecturers. Each year students have attended conferences held by
state, regional, and national honors organizations.