My Experience in the Honors Program
I have been a member of the University Honors Program at DePaul since I started as a freshman, and it has been a great experience! On top of that, I lived in the Honors Living Learning Community last year in Ozanam Hall and that was one of the best choices that I made when I enrolled at DePaul!
First, I’ll give an overview of the Honors Program from my experience. The biggest benefit, in my opinion, is the classes. At DePaul, your classes are split into three categories: major classes, electives, and liberal arts/gen ed classes. With the Honors Program, your liberal arts/gen ed classes are swapped out for honors versions of all of them. On top of that, the honors classes have small sizes, usually around 20 people, and are very discussion focused. I have found that I learn much more with this style of class, and I also develop better connections with my classmates and professors. I have almost completed all of my 100 level honors courses, which are all about things like history, literature, philosophy, and other liberal arts topics. After those, I’ll move on to the 200 level seminar courses which have some very interesting options like race and criminal justice, and then finally on to the 300 level capstone project courses. Overall, the academic side of the Honors Program is unsurprisingly very robust and impressive, and I highly recommend taking advantage of it if it’s an option for you.
The other part of the program that I wanted to talk about was the social experience and people I’ve met. Like I mentioned earlier, I chose to live in the Honors Living Learning Community for my freshman year. This community consisted of the entire sixth floor of Ozanam Hall. So, immediately everyone on my floor had a connection and it really brought us all together. I quickly became friends with a ton of people on my floor, and my close friends that I still have today are pretty much all members of the Honors Program. On top of living in this community, I was also given a ton of options for events to go to and things that I could join specifically for being in the Honors Program. These also provided me with some awesome connections and new friends. Also unsurprisingly, the students who choose to take part in the Honors Program are typically driven and passionate about their studies, and those are the type of people that I like to surround myself with.
This program is something that may seem like it’s just going to give you harder classes, but I am here to tell you that it is something that has a lot to offer. It will truly improve your time at DePaul, so check it out!
~ Jeff