Honors Program Curricular Requirements
As the Messiah University Honors Program is designed to enrich student’s experience from the first year, scholarship recipients must declare their plan to participate in the program for the entry term in which they plan to enroll at Messiah.
Academic Requirements
Program participants shall meet the following curricular requirements:
First year
- Fall Semester: Honors First Year Seminar
- Spring Semester: Honors Ethics and the Common Good
Sophomore or Junior year
- One Honors section of general education intercultural course
Senior year
- Culminating University Honors Experience fulfilled through either a senior honors project (two-semester project advised by a faculty member) or senior honors seminar (one-semester interdisciplinary course).
Non-Credit Bearing Requirements
Each semester, the Messiah University Honors Program sponsors several enrichment events, including lectures, panel discussions, presentations, cultural events and day trips. All students in the Messiah University Honors Program will attend at least two of these events each semester they spend on campus.
Book-Of-The-Year Requirements
All first-year students in the Messiah University Honors Program will read the Book-Of-The-Year together over the course of the academic year and attend discussion seminars and lectures.
Continuing Eligibility Requirements
In order for a student in the Honors Program to graduate as an Honors Scholar, the student must have a 3.3 cumulative GPA at the end of their penultimate semester (in addition to fulfilling all the other requirements of the Honors Program). Scholarships are renewed each year provided you make satisfactory academic progress. Messiah's satisfactory academic progress policy and related requirements are available for review at messiah.edu/finaid-policies.
Disbursement of the Scholarship
The Honors Scholarship is awarded on a semester basis. One half of the annual award amount is available for each semester of attendance to Messiah University or one of our off-campus programs which is approved for the use of institutional financial aid. Of course, the award is not available during any semester in which the student is not enrolled. If the student graduates in fewer semesters than normal, future semester amounts are not available to use during the last semester of attendance.