L&S Honors Degree Tracks

How do Honors Degrees Work For Transfer Students?

Is An Honors Degree Right For Me and If So, Which One?

Earning Honors Credits

Transfer Credits for Honors from Other Institutions

Applying to the Honors Program

Questions? Contact Us

L&S Honors Degree Tracks:

In the College of Letters and Science we have three separate Honors Degree tracks which together aim to give UW-Madison Honors students a wide variety of ways to engage with their education more deeply, challenge themselves to interact with our world-renown faculty, and participate in original research.  Our three Degree options allow our students to meet a wide variety of personal needs and goals; as a transfer student, one of these programs might fit with your own educational goals better than the others.  For a general overview, click here.

Honors in the Liberal Arts (HLA)

This degree track requires students to take half of their breadth requirements for the College of Letters and Science in Honors coursework on the UW-Madison campus.  In addition, students must take 15 out of their total 24 honors credits in what are called "automatic" honors courses, which are designed to give students one-on-one contact with faculty in small classroom settings.  HLA also requires that students maintain and graduate with a grade point average of 3.3.  Click to learn more about Honors in the Liberal Arts.

Honors in the Major (HM)

This degree track allows students to focus in on their area or areas of concentration by taking Honors coursework in their Major.  In order to participate in this program, students must contact the advisor in the Major Department to discuss the specific requirements for that particular Honors in the Major.  Most of the HM programs across the College of Letters and Science culminate in a Senior Honors Thesis, an intense research experience that spans an entire year.  For the Senior Honors Thesis, students must connect with a faculty member no later than the end of their Junior year (though it is often initiated earlier) and register in the Departmental 681 for 3 credits in the first semester and 682 for 3 credits in a consecutive semester.  Click on the following links for more information about the Honors in the Major or the Senior Honors Thesis.

Comprehensive Honors

Students who complete both HLA and HM will automatically graduate with Comprehensive Honors, the highest honors degree awarded on campus.  Click on the following links for more information about Comprehensive Honors.

How do Honors Degrees Work For Transfer Students?

The Honors Program accepts applications for the Honors in the Liberal Arts (HLA) on an ongoing basis.  Individual Departments facilitate the application process for Honors in the Major and the procedures vary across Departments in the College.  Transfer students must earn all of their honors credits here on the UW-Madison campus and advisors in the honors program and the departments will work with you to evaluate how many credits you have left to fulfill for general education requirements, tool for learning, and depth of study before recommending an Honors track.  However, you may use the brief list of questions below to get a sense of what your advisor will ask you when considering the different Honors Degree tracks.

Is An Honors Degree Right For Me and If So, Which One?

• Do you have a love of learning in disciplines and areas outside of your own concentration or major?
• Do you want to be challenged to participate in small courses or discussion sections led by faculty members, not teaching assistants?
• Are you interested in delving in deeply into courses and department that you have never heard of before?
• Do you still have roughly half of your breadth requirements to fulfill after you consider AP, IB, and transfer credits from other non-UW-Madison institutions?
• Do you have less than 54 credits starting at the UW-Madison?

If you have answered yes to most of these questions, then Honors in the Liberal Arts (HLA) might be a good fit for you.  Please visit with an Honors Advisor as soon as possible and explore the HLA Application procedure for continuing students.

• Are you interested in simply focusing on your major(s) or area(s) of concentration while you are here at the UW-Madison?
• Are all of your breadth requirements for the College of Letters and Science completed?
• Do you have more than 54 credits?
• Are you coming into UW-Madison as a junior and are interested in connecting with a faculty member in your new department right away?
• Are you interested in working on a Senior Honors Thesis, a year-long commitment to work independently on research in any of the departments on campus?

If you have answered yes to most of these questions, then Honors in the Major might be a good fit for you.  Please see your Major Advisor as soon as possible to discuss the possibilities.

Earning Honors Credits:

Transfer Credits for Honors from Other Institutions:

The L&S Honors Program is unable to award Honors credits from any institution of higher learning other than the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Although honors credits earned at another institution will transfer as general credits, they will not count towards any of UW-Madison's three Honors Degrees (HLA, HM, or CH).  We hope that students who have participated in other honors programs before arriving on the UW-Madison campus will continue to draw on their previous honors experiences as they engage with honors on the Madison campus, especially when writing cover letters, seeking internships, or applying for jobs.  Certainly any honors work that students have completed before arriving at UW-Madison will be considered in our Continuing Student Application and the Admissions process to the Honors Program.

Applying to the Honors Program:

The application process for the Honors Program varies depending on which program (HLA, HM or CH) that you wish to apply to or which department you are choosing to major in.  For more information, please see our Admissions pages.

Questions?  Contact Us:

We hope that you will also explore the many resources available through the For Current Students page, including the Benefits of a Liberal Arts Education, How to Get Involved in Honors, and the Honors Fellows Program.  If you have additional questions, we invite you to contact us in any of the following ways:

phone: (608) 262-2984

email: honors@honors.ls.wisc.edu

chat advising: online chat link

in person: Washburn Observatory, 1401 Observatory Drive, Madison WI, 53706