Honors Program
The Honors Program at 蹤獲扦-Dearborn is designed for qualified, highly-motivated students who want an extra level of challenge and stimulus in their college experience.
The University of Michigan - Dearborn Honors Program offers students a suite of interdisciplinary seminars. First-year honors students take Honors Writing and Rhetoric I (COMP 110) and The Four Trials (HONS 300) in the Fall and Honors Writing and Rhetoric I (COMP 220) in the Winter. After that, you and your colleagues can choose when to complete the next courses in the Honors curriculum: Ways of Knowing (HONS 311), Ways of Seeing (HONS 312) and your capstone seminar (HONS 400). The Honors Program is open and welcoming to transfer students. For more information, please contact Anna Muller.
You think its a lot of extra classes? 
But our six core classes are worthy.
These core courses are six worthy opportunities to read, write, and think in sophisticated ways. These core classes will build your capacity to solve difficult, 21st-century problems.
To help students build this capacity, we offer a suite of interdisciplinary courses that challenge students to read and analyze difficult texts, to write with both clarity and nuance about these texts and their broader contexts, and to think through how the study of fields including history, philosophy, political science, and rhetoric speak to our personal lives, our professional aspirations, and our civic obligations.
Advanced placement classes, exams, and dual-enrollment courses can be indicators of preparedness and ambition but don't exempt students from these core courses we ask our students to take. Our six core classes are worthy. These core classes build on previous academic work and are premiere opportunities to take reading, writing, and thinking skills to higher levels while learning with like-minded students.
Honors students develop a special set of relationships with each other and with the faculty. They get to know each other and build close friendships because they take many of the same courses together. The program regularly sponsors social hours and organizes group outings to concerts, plays, and museums. Students and faculty in the program get to share valuable experiences outside the classroom.
The core of the Honors Program is a group of four courses addressing a wide range of philosophical, political, religious, literary and artistic texts to debate problems the world has been facing over the past three thousand years. These courses have been designed to help prepare students for thinking creatively and critically about some of the key problems and challenges that confront us today as human beings, making use of authors and texts whose ideas have made a difference in our world. Issues of moral values, social justice, and human diversity are woven throughout the program.
Since the courses are taught by professors from different academic fields such as philosophy, political science, history, and art history students come to understand how various strands of geopolitical and cultural world history are linked with one another.
The Honors curriculum follows a historical progression from antiquity to the present, leading from discussion classes in the freshman year to independent research in the junior year. Students in the program develop academic abilities that gradually build on one another and create increasing competence, awareness, and self-reflection. The skills and values fostered by the Honors Program prepare students to engage with the contemporary world in a critical and meaningful way.
All courses in the program fulfill Dearborn Discovery Core Requirements.
Written and Verbal Communications:
- Communicate clearly in writing and public speaking.
- Compose analyses of challenging texts in thesis-driven academic essays.
- Compose advanced, inquiry-oriented papers, demonstrating comprehension of relevant primary and secondary sources and academic genres.
Critical Thinking:
- Raise good questions.
- Evaluate relevant texts in terms of authors theses, assumptions, evidence, and inferences.
- Consider counter evidence in response to ongoing reading.
- Draw well-reasoned conclusions that address implications of findings.
Integrative, Comparative and Creative Thinking:
- Compare different historical contexts and ideas.
- Assess ones own assumptions.
- Create ways of integrating contrasting information on contexts and theories.
Problem Solving:
- Recognize problems that inhibit use of intellectual standards in thinking.
- Identify and discuss reasonable solutions.
- Work and communicate with others in solving problems.
In their first semester of the freshmen year, students take a unique gateway course first, HONS 300 Four Trials, in which they study several trials of great world-historical significance. The course introduces students to key developments in philosophy, history, science, and modern secular politics, while also providing an introduction to methods of textual analysis, critical thinking, theoretical reflection, and cogent writing that are the very fundamentals that the program seeks to develop.
In their first and second semesters, students also take two composition courses specially designed for the program. These are small classes, capped at 25 students per section.
Curriculum
- HONS 300: Four Trials (first course)
- COMP 110: Honors Composition I
- COMP 220: Honors Composition II
Between their second and fifth semesters, students complete a sequence of two courses that together cover nearly three millennia of cultural history and thought:
- HONS 311: Ways of Knowing
- HONS 312: Ways of Seeing
- HONS 400: Honors Seminar
In the junior or senior year, Honors students enroll in HONS 400: Honors Seminar. This is a smaller class, capped at 25 students.They pursue intensive study of a given topic with a faculty member who is an expert in the field. The course introduces students to timely and important areas of research and it usually requires a major writing assignment.
How Does the Honors Program Fit into the College Curriculum?
The Honors Program provides an alternate route for completing basic required courses. Honors classes satisfy Dearborn Discovery Core requirements for the various units on campus. If a student leaves the program, the classes easily translate into a normal college program with no loss of time or credit. Honors courses are demanding, yet the atmosphere is supportive and honors students generally maintain the same GPA in the program as they would taking ordinary courses.
Apart from their Honors requirements, Honors students follow a normal course of study in their own area of concentration, together with the other students in their unit. They are required to maintain a cumulative grade point average of no less than 3.2 to remain in the Honors program. Any student falling below an overall average of 3.2 at the end of any given semester will be assigned probationary status in the Honors program for the succeeding semester. Failure to improve the overall average to 3.2 or above during that probationary semester will result in dismissal from the Program.
The program accepts students from all units on campus: College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters; College of Engineering and Computer Science; College of Education, Health, and Human Services; and College of Business.
There are no special charges or fees for participation in the program.
The Honors Program is open to all entering freshmen with a high school GPA of at least 3.5 or other evidence of superior academic ability. The program accepts students from all units on campus, including CASL, Engineering, Education, Health, and Business students.
Students who are eligible to join the Honors Program will be invited via email.
Participating in the program provides a chance for additional scholarship opportunities, including a chance to compete for our top Chancellors Scholarship, which meets 100% full tuition and fees.
Students eligible for the Honors Program are notified in January, and must complete required steps by Friday, February 28, 2025. Upon successfully completing the required steps, students will receive confirmation in April that they have successfully joined the Honors Program, and receive notification of any additional scholarship opportunities.
Our campus offers plenty of scholarships that students can consider applying for. Honors students have the opportunity to apply for the and Scholarships through the by March of every year.
"I am a Junior majoring in History. To me, the Honors program has not just challenged me academically, it has also challenged me with getting out of my personal bubble and with this granted me the opportunity to make lasting friendships and connections." -Hope Pacheco
I'm a freshman here in the Honors program, double majoring in Psychology and Integrative Studies. This is my first year in the Honors program, and I find it an astronomical program. It's truly fun and engaging. It is what helped me decide to come to 蹤獲扦-Dearborn; I was really grateful to find out about the small class sizes. After being in the program for a year, I can really see how it is a community, you make lifelong friends, and when you are around others you are ambitious to learn. We are all from different majors, and it's nice to have all of those different perspectives. Overall, no matter your major, interests, etc., this program will open you to new opportunities like studying abroad, networking, and emerging yourself into different situations that you wouldn't experience in your major or general education classes. -Zion Porter
"I'm a second-year student studying Psychology. The Honors program the last two years has been absolutely amazing from the community we've built with each other to the topics we talk about in the classes." -Juliana Bazzi
"I am a first-year student at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and this is My first year in the Honors program. The Honors program has not only helped me evolve academically but personally as well; I met so many new people with similar interests! I highly recommend this program! -Zakaa Reda
The Honors program has helped me grow my intellectual knowledge as well as my analytical skills. I would consider the Honors program to have a more philosophical view of history and social studies. These classes help students grow a deeper sense of empathy, which is crucial in any field. The Honors program has helped me develop connections with staff as well as students. This is in part due to the smaller classroom setting but mostly because of the incredibly welcoming community. -Morgan Corley
"Assalamu Alaikum and greetings to you all. I am a sophomore Biochemistry student pursuing medical school. To me, the Honors program provides the space for deep, fascinating discussions with amazing people" -Adam Almaleky
The Honors Program Student Organization (HPSO) is a student-led organization committed to creating a supportive and collaborative community within the Honors Program and across the 蹤獲扦-Dearborn campus. We know that when students feel connected and cared for, theyre more confident, more engaged, and more successful. This sense of belonging and community translates into the classroom, where students are empowered to thrive academically.
Our work and events center around this belief. We organize events that respond to real student needs, such as De-stress events, mental health check-ins (including walks and seminars), book swaps, and free food stations during finals. We also make space for connection and collaboration through social events like our annual visit to the Detroit Theater, fall cider mill trip, movie nights, and creative gatherings.
HPSO was founded by students who care deeply about each other and the campus community. With the support of the Honors Faculty, we are able to host and create events that help build community, inspire insightful ideas, and make a genuine impact. HPSO is driven toward building a community we want to be part of and work towards.
Join the on VictorsLink and check out our
Contact Information:
Founder/President - Mena Azzawi, [email protected]
Vice President - Tyler Pierron [email protected]
If you wish to withdraw from the campus Honors Program, please complete this Please note that the process may take some time, and it could take a few weeks before your honors attributes are officially removed from your record.
Learning from top-notch faculty about engaging topics - like writings of Socrates and restorative justice has helped me to analyze and think more critically.
Digital Storytelling with our Honors Program Students
Over the course of the previous semesters, our students created a series of powerful digital stories that captured their unique experiences in life, school, work, and beyond. These personal narratives reflect their journeys, challenges, and growthand offer a window into the diverse realities that shape our campus community.
In "Never Fully There, Never Fully Here", Honors Program student Haneen Yahfoufi catalogs her journey from Lebanon to America and how her life was changed in just one day. What started as a temporary trip, quickly turned into getting a job, enrolling in school, and house-hunting with her family here in Michigan. Haneen talks about juggling many things while trying to find her place in a society that felt both familiar and foreign.
I am a product of two worlds, shaped by two homes - and I don't have to choose between them.