Imagine a cool spring evening at San Jose State University. In your dorm room, you and your roommate sit, diligently working on papers. Suddenly, something sweeps down from the sky and hovers outside of your window. Creatures like you've never seen before emerge from an oddly shaped ship. One steps forward and asks you to explain to them what it means to be human. Would you show them Hamlet, as Dr. Olcott recommends, or would it be Gilgamesh as one student in the Honors Program suggested? Or would you be unique, and show them not a text but Michelangelo's David or a song by Nirvana? The Honors curriculum includes the great works of human culture, such as the Bible, Shakespeare, Greek Tragedies, the Tale of Genji, the Taj Mahal, the Pantheon, the Us Constitution, the Empire State Bulding, and many others. Join the Honors Program, discover what it means to be human, just in case...
The Honors Program is an all university general education program designed to explore the origins and growth of modern civilization, while developing analytical and expressive skills required of all students as San Jose State. This innovative, integrated program allows students to fast track their way through the various areas of required core courses in a comprehensive and efficient manner. (Students majoring in Engineering are enabled to satisfy requirements, which account for 33 of the required units; other majors satisfy 30 units in the required areas.)
During the first two semesters the program covers developments from the Ancient World through the middle ages in a global perspective. In the last two semesters, the course focuses upon the emergence and development of modern American culture and institutions within the broader framework of European, Asian, African and indigenous American history and cultures. Interdisciplinary by nature, the course is comprised of both team-taught lectures and small seminar/discussion sections.
At San Jose State University, you will be required to take 39 units of lower division general education requirements, as well as six units of American Institutions, which translates into fifteen different courses. Without the Honors Program you may be able to finish you lower division GE in two and a half years. Because the Honors Program offers priority registration to its students, you will be able to finish your core GE in two years. You will take fewer courses overall, and you will make friends to keep throughout your time at SJSU and after during your four semesters in the Program.
No. Because the Program comprises 4 six-unit courses(one each semester for four-semesters) you can finish your Core GE very efficiently. This means that you have one course to prepare for instead of several separate courses each semester to study and prepare for.
It isn't. You take one set of finals each semester on the same material instead of several different final exams.
Don't interrupt. The Honors Program seems like it would be more difficult than other courses because rather than take 12 smaller classes, you will take four mega courses. Each of these courses will require more work than an average 3 unit course, but because there are fewer courses you will be able to take more courses that you are interested in rather than courses you are required to take. Furthermore, because the Humanities Honors Program has a small learning community of about 25 students each, you will make good friends and have opportunity to get to know your professor well.
For four semesters, you take two classes; a lecture and a seminar, for a total of six units. There are 100 students in the lecture and twenty-five in each seminar. The seminar groups rotate from teacher to teacher at each semester, allowing you to stay with the same group of students for both years. At the end, you will have completed all of you A, C, D2, D3, and F core GE requirements.
Students who enter the Honors Program must graduate from high school with a 3.0 GPA and 580 verbal SAT score.
But, SATs were the morning after junior prom and I was umm...erm... Anyways, what if I don't qualify?
If you didn't, contact Dr. Marianina Olcott either on registration date or by phone (408-924-4455) to discuss waiving the requirements or how to enter the Program in the Spring by being recommended by your MUSE, LLD 2 or english 1A instructor.
Contact Dr. Marianina Olcott at (408-924-4455) for more information.
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