GE Honors Certificate

Units required for Certificate: 42

Program Description

The General Education Honors Program is a course of study to provide academic challenges and enhanced learning for highly motivated students at Sacramento State. Honors students take most of these courses in their first two years. An additional nine-unit upper division Honors sequence is completed to earn an Honors certificate upon graduation.  The Honors courses fulfill almost all Sacramento State General Education requirements.

Requirements

Honors students take forty-two (42) units of Honors courses (33 lower division and 9 upper division). Limited exceptions are permitted with permission of the Director.

In their first two years, Honors students take approximately three Honors courses (9 units) per semester, filling out their schedules with other General Education courses or courses required in their pre-major. Honors students must take at least 12 units overall per semester.

The core of the curriculum will be a three-semester Honors seminar in which students read some of the great books of world civilizations, consider some of the big issues raised by world thinkers and writers, and improve their skills in critical thinking and writing:

HONR 1First Year Seminar: Education, Self-Examination, and Living3
HONR 2Great Books and World Civilization I3
HONR 3Great Books and World Civilization II3

The Honors courses fulfill almost all Sacramento State General Education requirements for graduation. GE courses that students take in addition to their Honors courses are: ENGL 5, Math, and a physical science course with lab. Students must also fulfill a university graduation requirement in foreign languages.

Honors students are assigned a faculty advisor upon arrival at Sacramento State. They must consult with their advisor at least once a semester before registering for their courses.

The freshman and sophomore courses for the first Honors cohort are approximately as follows:

Program Requirements

Plan of Study Grid
Freshman YearUnits
First Semester
HIST 50H World History I: to 1500 3
HONR 1 First Year Seminar: Education, Self-Examination, and Living 3
HIST 15H Major Problems in U.S. History 1 3
 Units9
Second Semester
COMS 4H Honors Public Speaking ((may be taken in fall or spring)) 3
EDUC 10H Critical Thinking and the Educated Person: Honors 3
HIST 51H World History from 1500 to the Present 3
 Units9
Sophomore Year
Third Semester
ANTH 2H
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology - Honors 2
or Introduction to Ethnic Studies (Honors)
or Cultural Geography - Honors
3
ENVS 10H Honors Environmental Science 3
HONR 2 Great Books and World Civilization I 3
 Units9
Fourth Semester
POLS 1H Honors Government 3
HONR 3 Great Books and World Civilization II 3
 Units6
Junior and Senior Years
Honors students take three specially designed Honors courses to fulfill their upper division requirement in General Education:  
HONR 101 Science and the Public Good 3
HONR 102 The Public Good Through the Visual and Performing Arts 3
HONR 103 Civic Engagement, Service Learning: Pursuing the Public Good 3
 Units9
 Total Units42