About the College Honors Program
The Ramapo College Honors Program is a community of faculty and students dedicated to intellectual, creative, and moral engagement. Honors students seek excellence through continual guidance and a distinctive curriculum of critical thinking, intercultural and international understanding, experiential learning, service, and interdisciplinary studies. The end of the program is the beginning of an enriched and accomplished life.
Ramapo College of New Jersey invites incoming first-year students, current Ramapo freshmen in their first semester, and second-semester freshman transfer-students to consider admission into the College Honors Program. Completion of the program includes six courses, a project related to the student’s major, and curriculum-based civic engagement. Students will also become part of an intentional learning community designed to ignite the imagination of all students at the College so that all our students become engaged in their own learning.
In the College Honors Program, intellectual development is inseparable from one’s own growth and development as a whole human being. Students work with faculty mentors who monitor their progress as engaged learners and as contributing members of the college, the wider community and society.
Good academic standing is a consequence of the engaged values of a College Honors student, not the primary goal. Self-motivated intellectual independence from extrinsic rewards is the distinctive disposition of a College Honors student. Intellectual strengths are essential to academic engagement but intellectual strengths, by themselves, are not adequate to define the attitude of academic engagement. Consider the College Honors Program:
If you long for the personal experience of fulfillment that comes from encountering new ideas in dialogue with others
If you approach your scholarly research in a deeply personal manner
If you are seeking to find ways to contribute to society
Please see the College Honors Program page for more information.
Ramapo College Honors Program Requirements
Students accepted in the College Honors Program shall fulfill the following requirements.
GPA Requirements
The GPA for Honors students is a minimum of 3.0 at the end of each semester. The director will review the GPA of continuing students in January and May of each year. Students who fall below this requirement will receive a notification that they will be placed on a probationary period for one semester. Those who do not bring their GPA above a 3.0 after this period may not continue with the Honors Program.
Courses
Successful completion of the Honors Curriculum below.
course | DESCRIPTION | |
|---|---|---|
course - HONORS FIRST YEAR SEMINAR | This course fulfills the General Education requirement for First Year Seminar. The Honors First Year Seminar is not required of continuing students entering the program after their first year who have already taken a First Year Seminar. | |
course - HONORS SOCIAL SCIENCE INQUIRY | This course fulfills the General Education Keystone requirement for Social Science Inquiry. | |
course - HONORS STUDIES IN THE ARTS & HUMANITIES | This course fulfills the General Education requirement for Studies in the Arts & Humanities. | |
course - HONORS GLOBAL AWARENESS SEMINAR | This course fulfills the General Education Keystone Global Awareness category. | |
course - HONORS VALUES & ETHICS SEMINAR | This course fulfills the General Education requirement for Values and Ethics. | |
course - HONORS INDEPENDENT STUDY | The Honors Independent Study is only for juniors enrolled in joint degree programs and seniors. An independent study is a course in which you are the only student. You and the faculty sponsor must develop a syllabus with deadlines, grading system, meeting times, assigned readings and writing assignments, etc. That syllabus must meet with the approval of your school Dean and the Director of the Honors Program. rising juniors and seniors are required to apply to do their Honors Independent Study by May 1. Once approved, they must register for the course by May 15. The Honors Independent Study course must be taken in the Fall of junior year (for juniors enrolled in joint degree programs) and Fall of senior year for seniors. Student may register for 2 or 4 credits. All the necessary forms can be found in Student Resources. | |
Senior Project
The Honors Senior Project is a two-semester project that integrates the major or majors and minors of each student. The topic is selected by the student who then selects one Faculty Sponsor and one Faculty Reader to assist them in researching and completing the project. The project is completed through HNRS Independent Study courses. Seniors and Juniors in joint degree programs are required to present their thesis projects at the annual Symposium.
Engaged Citizenship
General Meetings: Each student is required to attend the General Meetings at the beginning of the Fall and Spring semesters. These are not just vital for their information, but are a chance for us to convene as a community.
Academic Events: These events emphasize the principles of the Honors Program and develop and express the intellectual lives of the students associated with them.
Minimum 3 per year:
Lunch with a Professor
Fall Honors Trip
Brown Bag Lunch Discussions
Honors Networking Dinner
National Collegiate Honors Council Conference
Northeast Regional Honors Council Conference
Others will be announced regularly
Civic Engagement
The goal of civic engagement within our program is not just to reach a certain number of hours of participation or dollars raised. We aim to dig deeper and target systemic problems within our community to change them at their root cause. Freshmen and sophomores will complete 10 hours of community service per year. These events facilitate collaboration between the Honors Program and the outside world, including the surrounding community. We will communicate and coordinate service opportunities on and off campus throughout the year.
Honors Mentoring Team (First-Year Honors Students Only)
An Honors Mentoring Team (HMT) is made up of six to nine Honors freshmen with junior/senior leaders that meet on a weekly basis. Their purpose is simple: to make the transition into college and/or into the Honors Program as seamless as possible through supportive peers and opportunities to get involved. Students in each new cohort are assigned to an HMT based on the availability within their class schedule.
International Study
Honors students are not required to study abroad but are greatly encouraged through a distinctive and diverse curriculum to pursue intercultural, international, and experiential learning in their field of study. Honors study abroad scholarships are available on a competitive basis. Visit the Roukema Center Study Abroad page.