Plymouth State Honors Programs

         As a college student, do you feel under-challenged in school, or that your talents need to be exercised as well as your brain? Or do you have the desire to befriend students with similar goals? Certainly, PSU has programs for you, known as the Plymouth State University Honors Programs. These programs are scholastic tools used to aid the students, rather than to just break their backs with homework overloads. The most common honors programs within the university encompass three general studies, Psychology, Business, and Communication.

         However, before we get into the more specific honors programs, it would benefit us to look into the general honors program. A prospective honor student must have an accumulative GPA of 3.25 in order to enter and complete the society, but in order to graduate with honors a student must also have completed at least four honors classes, community service, or host a cultural event at least once per semester and discuss their experience on Honor's Mahara page, subsequently presenting and defending their own Independent scholarships before the Honor's Thesis Committee, which is a small group of individuals, who are specially qualified to analyze these projects.

         The students within this program will be challenged with higher-leveled classes with a smaller group of students. This allows the students to get a more personalized way of learning, as well as more focus from the teacher, and since most of the students are enrolled for the same reason, the student will be surrounded by individuals there for the enlightenment. The student also is permitted to go on field trips and be a part of most of the cultural events that are taking place on campus.

         To get more specific, the Business Honor Program is slightly different. In the Business Honor Program, students must complete extra research, reading, class activities, and more for each course. However, that's only if they are accepted. A student must have not only a 3.25 GPA for the general program, but also a 3.20 as a student at PSU. The student also must have at least 11 business honor classes from the list on their home page. This program is essentially designed to give students a taste of their prospective business occupations upon graduation. Each class is meant to inspire students to get into what trade they want to learn, and additionally get them into a good standing for what they are about to do.

         The next honors program is Psychology, which was essentially created to aid students with their independent projects to decimate the rigmarole of normal class work. Psychology is a different than the one that proceeds it, mainly for the reason that in order to get in, it requires consent of the psychology faculty, and a public sponsor, along with the completion of a class called experimental psychology, and the standard 3.25 GPA.

         Also, to complete the program, the student must make and present an independent project, a paper describing the project, and 6 hours of independent study and research and faculty approval--all to be presented to the undergraduate research committee. While that seems like a lot of work, keep in mind that the students who actually complete it, are much better off. In the long run, if the students finish this program, they will have gained reputable recommendations and pertinent knowledge.

         Lastly, PSU also offers the Lambda Pi Eta (more specifically Pi Omega), which is the Communication Honors society. One might question the Greek name in front of the honors, but this is due to the fact that it is not a curriculum-based honor society, it is actually an extra-curricular club. However, it doesn't mean that everyone can join. It still has the same general requirements enlisted in order to be accepted into a Plymouth State honors program.

         The curricular experience is only a fraction of what these honor programs are about. The different students joining these societies lead to lots of opportunities for companionship and camaraderie. "The students are friends outside of the classroom, stated Mrs. Clarissa Uttley, the chairman of the honor's council, " and there are several students who work hard outside of the classroom to make this program successful."

 

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