To qualify for graduation with honors, a student must have been a participant in the Honors Program and have completed 24 hours of Honors class credit and a total of 134 semester hours of academic credit, including participation in two interdisciplinary Honors seminars. The student will receive 6 credit hours of departmental course credit when completing the senior thesis. To be considered for admission to the Honors Program, either when first entering SHSU or as a continuing SHSU student, a student must make special application to the Honors Program Office. Incoming freshmen are considered eligible for consideration if they have a composite SAT1 score of 1200 or above, or a composite ACT score of 27 or above, or have graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school class. For transfer or continuing students, eligibility is based upon a college cumulative GPA of 3.4 or better.
Admission is competitive, dependent upon the pool of applications received for any given year.
Once accepted into the Honors Program, a student must maintain a 3.25 overall grade point average while at Sam Houston State University in order to continue participation in the Honors Program. The Demands of Honors Classes Honors classes employ the same grading criteria used in other classes. In other words, the class curve will not be artificially high, nor is it expected that a bell-shaped curve will be imposed. You may work harder in Honors classes. However, the emphasis is on creating an environment in which you are more personally involved rather than simply working harder.