Welcome, New Honors Students!
Welcome, new Dorothy and Bill Cohen Honors College students, to an intellectual community that asks big questions and makes bold plans for the future. We want you to find your passion for inquiry and your reason to engage in more meaningful work.
Welcome to a Shocker Honors alumni network of 1000+ strong!
Meet just a few of our notable alumni in our alumni welcome video.
We look forward to seeing you soon on the Wichita State campus. Contact us if you have questions!
Save the dates!
- Honors General Assembly - April 3, 2024. Honors students and faculty are invited to celebrate the academic year, learn about Honors initiatives, and future plans.
- End of the Year Celebration & Graduation Reception - May 10, 2024. Honors College and Department Honors graduates and their families are invited to receive recognition for academic excellence for going above and beyond the requirements for college graduation.
- Follow the college on Instagram @CohenHonorsWSU for events and opportunities each week.
Find Your Honors Path
Honors Curriculum and First-Year Advising
We often say that we aim to do more meaningful work in Cohen Honors, and we do this by aiming to fulfill the four pillars established by the students who wrote the college charter.
Honors curriculum paths comprised of courses that meet general education or major requirements allow you to choose how you earn honors.
- Honors Colloquium: All new honors students take HNRS 102 in fall and HNRS 103 in spring. This new zero-credit
course sequence meets at least two times each semester. It's designed to introduce
you to honors opportunities and build honors community in your first year. If the
meeting times don't work with your schedule, your first-year advisor will let us know.
Below are the Spring 2024 meeting days and time.
- 2/21 - 3:30-5:15pm
- 3/20 - 3:30-5:15pm
- 4/3 - 3:30-5:15pm
- First-Year Honors Courses: There are many types of honors courses for your first year. These include pre-requisites for your major, such as PSY 111H or ECON 201H, and Honors First-Year
Seminars. Fall honors FYS topics include:
- Me and My Place in the World
- Facts, Opinions, and Why They Matter
- Community & Cultural Connections
- Discovering Humanity
- 8-week Class Cohorts: We've scheduled two of the first-year seminars as 8-week classes and scheduled two department honors courses at the same time in the second 8 weeks so that you can get to know a group of honors students and can take more than one honors course in your first semester, if you choose.
- First-Year Advising: Your first- year advisor will place you in an honors course in your fall semester when possible. It doesn't always work with your schedule, so you may take your honors course in your spring semester instead.
Many Options: You may take more than one honors course in a semester if you choose, and you may work with a faculty member to turn one of your regular courses into an honors course with an honors option agreement. We recommend the honors option only for your second semester and beyond.
There are many ways to earn honors - not only through courses listed in the schedule of courses each semester. Visit the Types of Honors Courses and the year-by-year sequence of courses pages on our website for more information.
Benefits and Opportunities
- Honors has 24/7 student space in Shocker Hall with multiple study areas, a break room with a microwave and lockers, a dedicated classroom, computers and free printing. All Honors students, whether living on campus or off, have 24-hour keycard access to this space.
- First-Year Research opportunities in spring.
- Look for more information in September about the spring First-Year Research Experience program. Applications are typically due October 1st.
- Student Leadership opportunities throughout the year:
- Honors Ambassadors recruitment group, Honors Student Council, and the First-Year Honors Advisory Board welcome new members each year. Applications open in late spring.
- Lead for Tomorrow Leadership Academy students participate in an 8-week course in the spring semester, a Place as Text travel experience, and a design-thinking focused retreat culminating in solutions pitches to the faculty thought leaders.
Student Fee and Scholarship Fund
The expanded Honors student space in Shocker Hall, new technology and programs are supported in part by a $50 per semester program fee for all Honors students, effective fall 2019.
The Honors College Student Council also passed a resolution in 2019 creating a scholarship fund to support students with financial hardship to pay their fee each semester.
Fee scholarship applications are due each semester in early September and early February.