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Learn more about the requirements and pathways to earning credit through Honors Contracts here.

What are Honors Contracts?

An Honors Contract is an agreement between an undergraduate student and a faculty instructor that allows the student to turn a standard course into an honors course.

In general, Honors Contracts allow the student to go beyond the material of the regular course and to produce more sophisticated work. A student may, for example, delve more deeply into methodology, structure, theory, or application; perform additional or alternative research; develop a service project; or present findings in some format.

How to Contract a Course

Paperwork is processed within the college offering the course being contracted—not the Honors College or the home college of the student undertaking the contract.

You can contract a course in the 4 quick steps below.

 

Student initiates conversation about contract with course instructor.

- 1 -

If instructor agrees, instructor provides student with modified syllabus.

- 2 -

Student initiates college-specific workflow.

- 3 -

College designee reviews the contract and approves the grade mode change.

- 4 -

Important Note: All students MUST request an Honors (H) Grade Mode Change using the Scheduling Assistant in myPurdue.

Deadlines

Honors Contracts are due by the Registrar's H (Honors) grade mode deadline. Please see the Registrar's Calendar Year (Spring, Summer, Fall) Drop/Add Dates here.  The deadline to add H Grade mode for full-semester courses in Spring is Monday, January 27, 2025. Late submissions will not be accepted. 

For shorter terms, the deadlines are:

  • First 8 weeks:  January 17, 2025
  • Second 8 weeks:  March 14, 2025

Submission Information by College

Paperwork is processed within the college offering the course being contracted—not the Honors College or the home college of the student undertaking the contract. 

Click on the college in which you are taking the class you wish to contract. If a college is not listed, click on the Other Colleges button to start the contract process for all other colleges.

College of Science College of Education
College of Engineering College of Health and Human Sciences
College of Liberal Arts Daniels School of Business
College of Agriculure Purdue Polytechnic Institute

Frequently Asked Questions

An Honors Contract is an agreement between an undergraduate student and a faculty instructor that allows the student to turn a standard course into an Honors course. Submitting an Honors Contract form and an H grade mode request in the Scheduling Assistant represents a commitment by both the student and the faculty instructor.
A student enrolling in an Honors Contract course may do more work (e.g. the addition of an honors project to a standard syllabus) or alternative work (e.g. a different set of assignments). In general, honors contracts allow the student to go beyond the material of the regular course and to produce more sophisticated work. A student may, for example, delve more deeply into methodology, structure, theory, or application; perform additional or alternative research; develop a service project; or present findings in some format. The intention is for the work to contribute to the outcomes associated with the Honors College pillars.
Work load varies depending on design, but it should remain within a reasonable minimum and maximum. One rule of thumb is the time it takes to research and write a 10-page paper (minimum) or a 20-page paper (maximum)—or the appropriate disciplinary equivalent. A student should expect to spend more time on an Honors Contract course than the standard version of the course.
Student and faculty partners are expected to develop an Honors syllabus with clearly outlined expectations, deadlines, and grading scale. Students are also expected to plan regular meetings with the faculty instructor throughout the semester to review and discuss the honors elements of the course.
Yes. Course work assigned to a student with an Honors Contract contributes to the student’s final course grade.
Students may dissolve an honors contract by completing a Grade Mode Change via Scheduling Assistant to revert a course to its original grade mode. The request must be fully approved by the add/drop/modify deadline at 11:59PM per the Office of the Registrar Drop/Add Refund & Deadline Calendar. University rules and regulations regarding schedule revisions apply to Honors Contract courses.
All regular Purdue faculty members may offer a contract course. Visiting faculty and continuing lecturers holding the terminal degree in their field may do so with the approval of their department head and/or disciplinary college. Graduate student instructors may not offer Honors Contract courses.

Additional Resources

Example Contract Assignments

  • Planned an herb garden for the new Purdue Student Farm location, working with a landscape architecture professor and the student farm's manager. Design was presented in class. Student taught half of one class period on the uses and medicinal qualities of four herbs.

  • Created electronic study aids (e.g., electronic mortality tables, a tool to generate annuity tables) to be used by future students in the class. Met with faculty member each week to review work and discuss next steps.

  • Revised/Expanded a Wikipedia article on Shear Flow, a topic covered in the course. This included creating diagrams and examples, as well as several phases of review.

  • Worked closely with faculty member to develop and write two 5-page research papers on topics related to the course material and/or to scholarly project. Met regularly with faculty member to discussion ideas and progress.

  • Met weekly outside of class for a 50 minutes long honors segment. Sight-read ancient Greek from the New Testament. Utilized skills from regular class interactions and was exposed to and learned new language concepts not covered in the regular class.

  • Piloted a series of experiments with an instructor. Summarized the results of each lab session and documented problems encountered. Offered possible suggestions for improvements.

  • Completed extra homework assignments for each unit (normally bonus). Completed a company financial statement project that required looking at a selected company's annual report, performing calculations, and writing up a financial analysis.

Questions about Contracts?

For more information on Honors Contracts and resources, please contact Chirine Lavassani .

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