Curriculum Overview

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The Honors College Curriculum consists of a set of required Core courses, plus optional Honors subject courses offered by Mason’s departments. The Honors Core includes a small number of interdisciplinary courses that satisfy the university general education requirements, allowing students increased opportunities to pursue minors or other individual interests.

How Honors Courses Are Related To Your Major

Honors students are not restricted in their choice of majors or minors. Honors courses provide skills and perspectives that are valuable, whatever a student’s major. Many majors offer separate upper-level Honors curricula.

The Honors Community Beyond the Classroom

The Honors Curriculum offers students special access to the technical, intellectual, and artistic resources of the university and the national capital region. Outside the classroom, Honors students and faculty participate in field trips and social events, as well as lectures and discussions. Students enjoy informal community in the Honors Study Lounge, computer lab, and residence halls. Most students in the Honors Curriculum choose to live in a residence hall reserved specifically for the Honors Living and Learning Community but this is not a requirement.

Admission

The Honors Curriculum invites students who want to be challenged and have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement in high school to join the Honors Curriculum in General Education. Candidates applying to George Mason who also want to be considered for the Honors Curriculum submit a separate essay which is included in the general Mason application. If your application meets the criteria for Honors, you will receive an invitation to the curriculum shortly after you receive your acceptance to the university. Candidates are evaluated on the strength of their entire academic record, including their GPA and standardized tests scores as well as the rigor of their high school curricula. To complete the admission process, students will need to follow the instructions in the letter of invitation to confirm online their intention to enroll in the Curriculum.

The Honors College Curriculum

The Honors College Curriculum can fulfill a student’s general education requirements at Mason. Below is a chart that illustrates how the Curriculum fulfills the University level requirements as well as the College level requirements for students pursuing a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree.

University General Education Requirements

Written Communication, lower level – HNRS 110: Research Methods

Quantitative Reasoning – HNRT 125: A Liberal Arts Approach to Calculus, HNRT 225: Applied Calculus, or MATH 113: Calculus I

Arts – HNRS 122: Reading the Arts

Natural Science – HNRT 227 Scientific Process I and HNRT 228: Scientific Process II

History – HNRS 240: Reading the Past

Global Understanding – HNRS 131: Contemporary Society in Multiple Perspectives or HNRS 230: Cross-Culture Perspectives

Social and Behavioral Science – HNRS 131: Contemporary Society in Multiple Perspectives or HNRS 230: Cross-Culture Perspectives

Synthesis – HNRS 353: Technology in the Contemporary World

Students who complete the entire Honors College Curriculum listed under University General Education Requirements above. also fulfill the University general education requirements for Oral Communication, Information Technology, Literature, and upper level Written Communication.

College Level Bachelor of Arts General Education Requirements

Philosophy or Religious Studies – HNRS 130: Conceptions of Self

Non-Western Culture – HNRS 230: Cross-Cultural Perspectives