At the cost of a heavy class workload students joining Commonwealth College, the University’s honors program ,have the opportunity to engross themselves in their undergraduate academics and graduate with honors.

According to Cory Pols, Director of Advising and Student Programs, “It is best to join if a student is interested in the intrinsic awards of the research, learning, and camaraderie with other students and faculty who are interested in academics.”

The honors credit requirements deter some students from joining Commonwealth College.

The requirements range from taking honors general education classes, three levels of the Dean’s Book course, other honors courses and maintaining a minimum grade point average of 3.2. The final step in attaining full honors credit is the Capstone Experience, a thesis or project culminating in an oral presentation.

On top of a full course load, honors requirements can be difficult to fulfill.

“I thought it was too time consuming in the beginning,” said sophomore biology major Winson Wong. “Now I am going to join. I want to graduate with honors and it will look good for medical school.”

In the competitive application process for graduate school, graduating with honors is helpful.

“I think it is definitely a benefit to be able to graduate with honors and completing a thesis is good practice for graduate school,” said junior nutrition major and honors student Katelyn Russell.

Students who plan on joining the over 3,500 students in Commonwealth College are awarded with an academically vigorous undergraduate education.

“The four most significant experiences of students are faculty mentoring, studying abroad, community service learning, and the Capstone Experience,” explained Pols.

Not all students are able to join Commonwealth College with their intensive major requirements.

“I have a lot of requirements for chemical engineering,” said sophomore Kevin Chen. “I considered joining, but I don’t have the time to do all that honors work.”

For honors credit, students’ final GPA and overall grade for the Capstone Experience determines the level of honors on their transcript. The different levels of honors, from highest to lowest, include summa cum laude requiring a 3.8 GPA or higher, magna cum laude 3.5 GPA or higher, or cum laude a 3.2 GPA or higher. The final grade for the Capstone is based on the students’ performance on the thesis and oral presentation.

During the capstone process, students in their senior year choose between a self-initiated independent capstone or a faculty initiated course capstone.

The independent capstone requires the student to pursue a self-interest research topic, produce a project and present an oral defense to faculty mentors. The course capstone has more structure since projects are developed in a classroom setting and students present their work to classmates.

“When our alumni return or complete surveys, they report that the Capstone Experience prepared them more than anything else they accomplished,” said Pols.

Most students start thinking about their capstone in their junior year and are required to complete the capstone by the end of their senior year.

“I am doing an independent capstone. I think it allows me to get more out of it,” said Russell. “I am expanding on my research from an internship I did at Tufts where I collected scientific data and drew conclusions.”

Tracy Morris, senior communications major and former honors student could not complete her independent capstone.

“Due to its time commitment, I was frustrated that I could not pursue other interests like my internship.”

Instead of completing the independent capstone, Morris is spending her senior year taking journalism classes like Women in Journalism and interning at the TV News Station ABC 40. Morris will not be graduating with honors, however.

“I am very happy with my decision. I am exposing myself to real hands on experience,” said Morris.

Attaining full honors credit requires students to have time management and academic dedication. Students in Commonwealth College are academically challenged in small intensive classes with other student scholars.

“I wanted to be in harder classes that looked good on my transcript,” said Emma Lifvergren, sophomore honors student and journalism major. “I wanted to be around people who care about school.”

Sara Afzal can be reached at [email protected]