Honors Program
The Honors Program offers talented and motivated students an opportunity to enhance and enrich their college learning experience. These specially designed courses offer more discussion and critical thinking and less lecturing and memorization.
The Honors Program isn’t more work, but an opportunity to do work that is more engaging, challenging and rewarding. Our flexible program allows students to take as few or as many honors courses as they like to fit their program and interests.
Build a record of academic achievement
As an honors student, you are actively involved in the learning process and able to form close relationships with instructors who can become lifelong mentors. You are part of a community of students who enjoy learning as much as you do.
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- Honors classes receive a special designation on your transcript and highlight creative thinking through engaging interactive learning
- Create your own opportunities by completing exciting projects in courses of your choice
Enhance your leadership skills
The Honors Leadership Board exists to provide service and leadership challenges outside the classroom, including participating in regional and national organizations.
2023-2024 Honors Leadership Board Officers:
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- President – Jacob Carmona
- VP of Service – Nick Stenman
- VP of Membership and Recruitment – Brielle Herner
- VP of Communications – Madi Keidel
- Secretary/Treasurer – Hannah Walther
Honors Program opportunities
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- Priority registration
- Academic awards that distinguish your transcripts and resume
- Scholarship opportunities
- Service projects
- Priority consideration for tutoring positions at the Teaching Learning Center and the WRIT Center
- Additional consideration when applying for scholarly admission to the dental hygiene, nursing, physical therapist assistant, and diagnostic medical sonography programs
Eligibility
To be eligible for the Honors Program, students must meet one or more of the following:
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- Accuplacer Writing Skills score of 256 or higher
- Accuplacer Reading Skills score of 256 or higher
- SAT Composite score of 1200 or higher
- High school GPA of 3.5 or higher
- Completed 12 Delta College credits with a GPA of 3.2 or higher
Frequently asked questions
The Honors Program is a local organization designed to allow students an avenue to pursue academic challenges beyond - or in addition to - the conventional classroom environment. We are a department within Delta College that offers several awards as well as an academic scholarship to students who demonstrate academic excellence.
Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society is an international-level organization that recognizes academic excellence in students attending two-year colleges.
Graduating with honors, according to the Delta College Catalog, is conferred upon a student who has completed an associate's degree while maintaining a cumulative GPA of at least 3.50. Graduating with high honors or highest honors requires a cumulative GPA of at least 3.70 or 3.90 respectively.
As a member of the Honors Program, you will be eligible to participate in these areas, among other opportunities:
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- Creative and interactive classes
- Honors options
- Academic awards
- Academic travel
- Leadership development
- Priority registration
- Scholarships
- Social activities
Honors classes are designed to be more challenging, not more work. For example, one student reported that in an ENG-111H class, very little time was devoted to basic concepts such as grammar and punctuation because it was expected that students in an honors-level composition class would have already mastered these basic elements. Instead, the instructor spent a great deal of time on more advanced writing concepts such as style, voice, and advanced revision techniques. Another student reported the Honors Colloquy class was a very enjoyable experience because the instructor encouraged a highly interactive classroom environment and allowed the students to explore topics of interest to them.
Honors options can be somewhat different. In honors classes, the course content and structure is designed with honors students in mind; regular sections are not. Honors students wishing to complete an Honors option must fulfill additional requirements beyond those of the class itself.
For example, one student took an Honors option in a CST-133 class. For the project, the student researched the role of computers in the music industry. They wrote a paper on the topic and made a presentation to the class using Microsoft PowerPoint. Sometimes class requirements can be substituted, as another student did for their Honors option in ART-271. The Honors option consisted of doing the same project as the rest of the class, but working on a more complex level.
The Delta College Honors Program welcomes all students to its program, provided they meet the eligibility requirements. The means dual enrolled students, part-time students and full-time students who meet the eligibility criteria are welcome to apply for membership.
Joining the Honors Program is free. Submit an Honors Program application along with a typed personal statement online.
While we make every effort to process applications as quickly as possible, we ask that you allow two weeks for us to complete the process. As soon as a decision is reached, you will be notified via email. If there are circumstances that require an expedited response, please make us aware of this when you submit your application and we will give your application priority status.
One of the flexibilities the Honors Program offers you is the ability to do as little or as much as you want as a member. There are no minimum activity requirements. The only time any sort of requirements come into play is when you try for any of the awards the program offers, such as the Honors Certificate or the President's Award for Excellence in Honors.