Course Descriptions

Honors course sections are designated by an “HP” prefix or suffix.

While Honors provides academic enrichment for highly motivated students, it is not a formal major or minor. In order to graduate with Honors (“in cursu honorum”), and to have this distinction designated on their transcript and diploma, students must complete a minimum of 24 credits designated as Honors, along with a mandatory research course (1 credit) and senior thesis capstone project (3 credits). Up to 6 credits of students Honors credit may be earned through special study experiences such as laboratory, field, and clinical work, credited internships, study abroad opportunities, and service learning courses.

The Honors Program offers Honors-designated course sections for many core course requirements. In these sections, students are offered an accelerated curriculum and an enriched classroom experience, with smaller class sizes, more in-depth discussions, and more rigorous assignments.

Some of these Honors-designated core sections include:

BA-155-HP Principles of Marketing

This Honors Business course is also a service learning course. Not only do students learn the business activities involved in the flow of goods and services from production to consumption, but they work together on projects for the community. Past projects include crafting strategic marketing plans for nonprofit organizations and creating video advertisements for Saint Peter’s graduate programs.

BA-496-HP Seminar in Business Administration

This capstone course has students plan, execute, and report findings of a professional consultancy project with an actual local small business, which will help students integrate and apply the concepts, skills, and techniques learned throughout their four years. Students are required to work together in teams to solve real problems.

BI-183/185 General Biology I with an Honors lab section & BI-184/186 General Biology II with an Honors lab section

CS-150-HP Introduction to Computer & Information Processing

In this course, students will get an in-depth training in Excel and create their very own multi-page website. They will research emerging technologies of the 21st century and have a chance to visit a fully-functioning data center and meet guest speakers in the field of Computer Science. This robust undertaking will prepare students for real-world applications of computing and information technologies.

EL-205-HP Survey of World Literature

This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to modern and contemporary literatures of the developing world – specifically the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, India, and Latin America – with particular emphasis on situating texts in terms of their various cultural, political, economic, and historical contexts. The class includes critical readings of poems, short stories, essays, and novels, viewings of films and documentaries, and analysis of popular music.

TH-110-HP Religious Faith & the Modern World & TH-120-HP Introduction to Christianity

The Honors Program also offers special courses available only to students who meet Honors-eligibility requirements:

AR-110-HP Art in the City

This Metropolitan Seminar course can be taken in place of the Fine Arts requirement of the core curriculum. It incorporates visits to museums in NYC including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The MET Cloisters, The Frick Collection, The Guggenheim, and more! Students survey the history of Western visual art from prehistoric to the contemporary era through a unique travel experience.

AR-250-HP Live Performance Art

This Metropolitan Seminar course can be taken in place of the Fine Arts requirement of the core curriculum. Students are enlightened, enriched, entertained, and educated in the history of performance art by attending NYC theatre performances representative of Broadway musicals, ballet, concerts, dance, and opera.

TH-121-HP Space, Place, and the City

This course can fulfill your TH-110 core requirement. Students participate in field trips to various sites of devotion and worship in metropolitan New York, supplemented by readings and discussion. The course addresses issues of holiness and how a community’s sacred space relates to its sense of holiness. The semester culminates in a substantial project and synthetic discussion about the impact of religious space/place on political, intercultural, and inter-religious relations.

CH-130-HP Chemistry and Cooking

This course can take the place of one of your core science requirements. Students look at the science behind cooking, including choice of cooking method, purpose of ingredients in a recipe, ethnic cuisines, and techniques. Not only do they learn, but they get to eat, too!

PL-320-HP Asian Philosophy

This upper-level Philosophy elective can count toward students’ Values and/or Pluralism requirements. The course examines the philosophies of India and China, including a text-based study of the Upanishads, the philosophy of Yoga, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism.

Additionally, Honors students can earn credit for studying abroad. Check out some of the awesome opportunities our students have had traveling!