Departmental Honors Certificates
Departmental certificates are designed to allow Honors students to move seamlessly from Honors coursework to an Honors capstone experience in their major. Requirements vary as they are determined by individual departments but typically a certificate program requires 18 hours of Honors credit work, distributed between Honors coursework and a capstone learning experience in the major. Upon successful completion of all the requirements, students are awarded an Honors Certificate by their particular college or school, and the award is noted on the student’s academic transcript.
Requirements Satisfied:
Earning a Departmental Honors Certificate is another way of meeting the requirements for “finishing” the Honors program. Depending on the individual department’s certificate program, it may also satisfy partial requirement for the major and/or for an Honors in the Major.
Departmental Honors Certificates Offered:
Currently the following three departments/programs offer Honors Certificates:
Each of these programs and/or departments has its own application process and requirements. Click on the above links for further details.
Honors Certificate in Communication Sciences & Disorders
A. Purpose- To provide University Honors students with a structure that will lead them seamlessly from the University Honors program to the Honors-in-the-Major Program in the field of Communication Disorders.
- To encourage University Honors students to become engaged in a capstone experiential learning project in their field by the time they graduate.
- To provide University Honors students who bring in a lot of credit from high-school an alternate route to earn 18 hours of Honors credit and thus “finish” the Honors program.
- This certificate is not intended as a diploma or a degree.
B. Application Procedure
Although students are typically admitted to the limited access Communication Sciences and Disorders major at the end of their sophomore year, students in the Honors Program are encouraged to apply to the major early. University Honors students may apply to be admitted into the Communication Disorders Honors Certificate program by submitting an application form to the Department of Communication Disorders. The application form will be available on the Honors Blackboard website.
After the application is approved by the Department of Communication Disorders, the student must set up a meeting with an advisor in that department to discuss a course of study. The department advisor will then forward a copy of the approved application, along with the planned course of study, to the Honors Office.
C. Admission RequirementsAny student who has been admitted into the University Honors Program and who is in good standing in this program (i.e. has attended the Freshman Colloquium and has maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.2) is eligible to apply to pursue the Communication Disorders Honors Certificate.
D. Program of StudiesThe Communication Disorders Honors Certificate requires a total of 18 hours of Honors credit work, distributed as follows:
- 6-9 hours of University Honors coursework
- 3-6 hours of Department of Communication Disorders coursework
- 6 hours of Honors in the Major thesis hours, and a successful defense of the Honors thesis in compliance with the procedures for Honors in the Major in the Department of Communication Disorders.
An advisor in the Department of Communications will approve the student’s course of study upon admission to the Honors Certificate program.
E. Certificate RequirementsThe Communication Disorders Honors Certificate requires a total of 18 hours of Honors credit work. There are no time limits on completion. Transfer credits are not accepted. Students must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.2 to remain in the program.
Honors Certificate in Music
Purpose:
The Honors Certificate in Music will provide honors sections of required music courses for music majors and promote additional experiential learning outside the university. Thus the certificate is open to music majors only. Completion of the certificate will enrich the core music curriculum through enhanced course content that develops more advanced musicianship and knowledge, and will encourage experiential honors projects that further develop critical writing skills, performance expertise, and/or community service initiatives. It will also facilitate completion of the Honors Medallion, which is a challenge for music majors given the extensive music requirements for their degrees.
Application Procedures:
The Honors Certificate in Music is available to all music majors who are admitted to the University Honors Program, whether as first-time incoming students or lateral admissions. Information applying to the FSU Honors Program may be found at http://honors.fsu.edu/admissions.html. Information on applying to the College of Music can be found at http://music.fsu.edu/admissions.htm. The application to the College of Music is separate from the university application. No separate application is necessary for the Certificate in Music, but see Program of Studies below concerning approval of a certificate curriculum. The certificate is not intended as a diploma or degree.
Admission Requirements:
Students must be admitted to the University and the University Honors Program, and must be admitted as a music major through a successful audition. Admission to the Honors Program is by invitation and requires a 3.9 FSU weighted GPA and a score of 1300 on the SAT or 29 on the ACT. Once admitted as an FSU honors student and as a music major, students should contact the Honors Liaison for the College of Music (currently Professor Nancy Rogers) for advising during their first semester in residence. The certificate must be completed in conjunction with a Bachelor’s degree in music prior to graduation.
Program of Study:
The certificate is completed under the guidance of the College of Music Honors Liaison, a faculty member who advises all COM honors students. Eighteen credit hours of honors coursework and experiential learning are required for completion of the certificate, distributed as outline under Certificate Requirements. The Honors Liaison must approve a course of study for this certificate in writing. All courses applied to the certificate must be completed at the main FSU campus. The COM Honors Certificate meets requirements for finishing the University Honors Program and earning the Honors Medallion. While certain honors sections of courses required of music majors may count toward both the certificate and the music degree, completion of the certificate is not a requirement for completion of the degree or the honors medallion. The requirements for completing the certificate, outlined below, follow the basic guidelines stipulated by the University Honors Program in the Departmental Honors Certificate template.
12- 15 hours of Honors Coursework distributed as follows:
6-9 hours of honors music courses. These courses may include any MUX class that is designated as an honors course or section, which typically will be required music-major classes in music theory, history, or literature.
6 hours of university honors courses outside of music.
3-6 hours of Capstone Experiential Learning
These credit hours can consist of thesis hours for Honors in the Major; an enhanced internship; a practicum; a Directed Individual Study; an additional, off-campus recital of repertoire separate from required recitals; an Apprentice Research Project; or a Service-learning Project. In all cases, the learning experience should have an Honors component that differentiates it from the equivalent non-Honors experience.
Each of the experiential learning types listed will entail registering for 3 credits under MUS 4904. The Honors Liaison’s signature and a supervising faculty signature on a 1:1 form are required for approval each time.
Certificate Requirements:
Grade required for successfully completing the Certificate:
Minimum GPA (cumulative): 3.2 Grade of B or higher is necessary for each honors music course that is counted toward the honors certificate in music.
Human Rights Leadership
The Honors Certificate: The FSU Center for the Advancement of Human Rights offers Honors students the unique opportunity of earning an Honors Certificate in Human Rights Leadership. This program makes it possible for Honors students to enhance their degree work in their chosen field by working in an additional interdisciplinary field (human rights) that is of crucial importance in the contemporary world. The Honors Certificate in Human Rights is not intended as a diploma or degree in its own right, but rather as a specially crafted enhancement to whatever diploma or degree a student chooses to pursue.
Program of Studies: The certificate requires a total of fifteen credits, i.e., five three-credit courses. Two of these courses must be: (1) the freshman Honors Human Rights Seminar, and (2) an individual capstone senior DIS in human rights. The other three courses are elective but require the prior approval of the Center’s Executive Director to ensure their relevance to the goals of the certificate program. For Human Rights courses and representative electives, see the attached PDF file Human Rights Courses and Electives.
All credit hours for the certificate program must be earned at FSU, whether on its main campus in Tallahassee or one of its satellite campuses or programs in the United States or abroad. Since this is an Honors certificate program, all courses leading to the award of the certificate must be passed with a grade of B or better, and the student’s GPA within the certificate program must be at least 3.3.
Admission Procedures: To be admitted into the certificate program, applicants must be members in good standing of the University’s Honors Program. Students must also submit a written application in their freshman year, during the semester that they are enrolled in the freshman Honors Human Rights Seminar.
There is no special form. The application requires a written statement in the form of a letter that details: the nature of the student’s interest in human rights as part of his or her baccalaureate career and post-baccalaureate career goals (if these are known): the student’s specific aims regarding human rights education: a projected set of courses for achieving these aims. In developing their applications, students must consult with at least two faculty members affiliated with the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights.
Completed applications should be submitted to the Executive Director of the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, 426 West Jefferson Street.
For more information on this program, contact Professor Terry Coonan at tcoonan@admin.fsu.edu
