Have more questions?
Make an appointment with your honors advisor, or reach out to us with any other questions you have related to the John Martinson Honors College experience at Purdue.
Phone: 765-494-6758
Email: honorscollege@purdue.edu
Frequently Asked Questions
Academics
Students must maintain a 3.3 GPA throughout their time in the JMHC. They must also meet with their honors advisor at least once a year. It is recommended that honors students pursue six honors (HONR) credits per academic year.
JMHC students must take HONR 19901 and HONR 19902, two classes offered in the fall and spring of their first year, respectively. Past these two classes, there is no set curriculum for honors students. The 24 honors credits needed to graduate can be fulfilled through multiple avenues. To learn more about credit opportunities, see the question about the completing the honors curriculum.
Students who join the JMHC in their first-year will take HONR 19901 and HONR 19902, these are the only required courses for JMHC students. In total, honors students must earn 24 honors credits with at least five credits coming from opportunities offered by the JMHC. These are HONR courses, study away, or the Honors Mentor Program. Students can continue to pursue opportunities within the college for more honors credit or complete honors sections, honors contracts, H-ready courses, graduate level courses, and supervised research offered outside of the JMHC to fulfill the remaining 19 credits.
Honors students must also propose their scholarly project by fall of their third year and complete it by spring of their fourth year.
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.
To contract a class, ask the instructor if you can contract the class with them. If they say yes, you work together to establish a modified syllabus that contains additional work you will need to complete to earn academic and honors credit.
The original and modified syllabi must be submitted to the college offering the course and a request must be made within the first two weeks of the beginning of the semester. Visit this page for more information about submission instructions and deadlines.
For the scholarly project, JMHC students must create new knowledge or add to an existing body of knowledge and present it to a public forum or space. The scholarly project can be completed through supervised research inside or outside of the JMHC, scholarly project-focused courses, a research thinking portfolio, or internships. Students must have a faculty member to mentor throughout the process and validate their completion of the scholarly project
Research
JMHC students have multiple opportunities and pathways to engage in research experience with faculty dedicated to providing mentorship. Students will receive announcements about research opportunities through the Scholarly Project Milestones Brightspace course. There are also research fairs hosted throughout campus by the JMHC and other colleges. Students are also encouraged to ask professors about opportunities for research after class, during office hours, or through email.
Keep an eye out for announcements in your Purdue email and the Scholarly Project Milestones Brightspace page about opportunities to connect with professors conducting research. It is always a good idea to speak with professors in your class or during office hours about your interest in research and asking them about opportunities they have for you or ones they are aware of. More opportunities may be found on our bulletin board in Honors College & Residences - South.
There are lots of research opportunities available through research generators that students from all majors can engage in even if it is not specific to their major. Students can get honors credit for research opportunities pursued outside of the JMHC. Doing research outside of your field of study is encouraged.
At Purdue, faculty can choose to compensate students for their research with academic credits or they might provide a monetary alternative. This depends on what works best for the faculty member and how their research funding is arranged. For students involved in research in other colleges or departments at Purdue for-credit, their work already counts for honors credits. If you do not see this credited to your plan of study in myPurduePlan, tell your honors advisor so that they can make the appropriate changes.
Leadership
There are many leadership opportunities are available for honors students to pursue. Students can become Honors Ambassadors who represent the JMHC for prospective students and others outside the honors college. They can represent their academic college through the Honors Leadership Council to create ways to forge connections between honors students. There are many other ways to get involved in a leadership experience through the JMHC as well.
For students that want to improve their leadership abilities, the JMHC offers Leadership Praxis, COBALT, and leadership courses.
Leadership Praxis is a collection of online modules that allow students to reflect on their leadership roles at Purdue or in the community and earn credit for doing so. It is designed to facilitate growth as a leader for students who may hold more formal roles. COBALT is a living-learning community exclusive to honors students where they embark on their own leadership journey alongside a group of peers. Through investigating seven key leadership areas via coursework and coaching, students are enabled to learn their strengths and how to communicate them with others. The leadership courses in the JMHC focus on educating students on different aspects of leadership and teamwork. Through experiential learning and discussion, the courses are meant to be a praxis of leadership theories.
To start, nearly every student at Purdue has been a leader whether they know it or not. Have you taken charge on a group project? Are you an older sibling? Did you delegate a task to someone during a crisis? Do you actively defy social expectations you disagree with? All of those are examples of being an informal leader. Regardless, not holding a formal leadership role in the past will not bar any JMHC student from being involved in future roles. There are many options for learning how to be a leader, enhancing your abilities, achieving your own formal role in the JMHC, being a leader at Purdue, etc. Don't let a "lack" of experience hold you back from going for these roles at Purdue!
Honors leadership courses are available for students looking to develop skills that increase the value of leadership experiences they pursue. Additional leadership resources include a self-help toolbox for students who want to learn more outside of class.
General Information
The JMHC is the only residential college at Purdue. From year one, students are directly put in-touch with peers who value education, growth, and both professional and social involvement. There is an interdisciplinary focus in classes, research, mentoring, study away experiences, and other opportunities. These formative moments of discourse not only improve the soft skills required to navigate any career, but they also allow students to find new areas of interest unrelated to their field. In total, the JMHC offers easy networking for its students and unique learning experiences not offered in other spaces at Purdue.