Frequently Asked Questions
The Honors Project must be distinct from the work that all students in your major as asked to complete. However, your major senior project or capstone could be a means of completing your honors project or vice verse. You and your faculty member would need to agree upon a meaningful extension or addition to the parameters of the required work.
Please record your co-curricular activity as soon as possible. We want to ensure your experience is accurately reflected. Plus, we would like to know the cool things you do! To record a co-curricular experience, go into the University Honors Program Info module in Canvas. Find “Co-Curricular Instructions and Submission" and complete the associated Qualtrics form.
Two things of note:- An activity cannot be a co-curricular if it counts as class credit or is required by a course.
- All co-curricular activities must occur during your time at Kansas State University. No activity will be counted should it be performed the summer before your freshman year.
Maybe! Schedule a time to talk to a UHP staff member to discuss co-curricular transferring.
Yes. We want you to record your co-curricular experiences after the fact so that you have an opportunity to reflect on the experience as you complete the form. Please do it ASAP after the experience though. It becomes awkward to collect signatures too long after the fact. To record a co-curricular experience, go into the University Honors Program Info module in Canvas. Find “Co-Curricular Instructions and Submission" and complete the associated Qualtrics form. Caveat: you cannot earn co-curricular credit for things that happened before you matriculated.
Yes, as long as the activity is 100 hours long each time, it can count as a co-curricular. For example, you may have an internship for three summers. Assuming you worked at least 100 hours each summer, those internships count as a co-curricular even if the internship was at the same place each time. You do not have to do the same activity three times; you can mix and match as you see fit. You can do three different things, or you can do one thing three times.
You cannot “double dip” between categories. If you count something as a co-curricular activity, it cannot also count as your Honors Project. UHP 189 does not count as one of your four Honors courses. Etc. However, distinct experiences of the same type might fill different categories. I.e. four years in the same lab could have three co-curricular experiences (years 1-3) and the honors project (year 4). Additionally, participating in a study abroad experience, including taking the offered course(s) for honors, can count as a co-curricular experience and an honors course.
In short, no. There are many kinds of campus involvement, and we love to see honors students get involved and exercise leadership across campus, but the menu of co-curricular experiences is limited and not intended to count every constructive thing you can do outside the classroom. The co-curricular activities chosen should all relate closely to your academic experience and build explicitly on that experience.
To take a non-honors course for honors credit, you will first need to discuss the potential contract with your professor. It is best to meet with your professor in the first month of the semester and to come to the meeting prepared with contract ideas. Upon agreeing on a contract, you will then fill out the Qualtrics form to submit the contract. To submit a contract for a non-honors course, enter the University Honors Program Info module in Canvas. Find “Contract Instructions and Submission” and fill out the associated Qualtrics form. Do this after you have spoken with the instructor and mutually agreed upon the supplemental work you will need to complete.
Course contract proposals are due each semester on the last day to drop classes without a "w" grade. Spring 2026 course contract proposals are due by Monday, Feb. 23, 2026.
Yes, UHP can be completed in three years. The same requirements must be met if graduating regardless of undergraduate graduation timeline - taking UHP 189 and 4 honors courses, completing three co-curricular activities, completing an honors project and graduating with a minimum of 3.5 GPA.
“University Honors students are required to take 12 credit hours of honors courses. To ensure that the completion of the program fits into a student’s schedule, he/she can “contract” courses for honors course credit. A contract involves the student and the professor mutually agreeing upon additional scholarly requirements. This could include extra assignment(s), assistance in labs, or additional independent work. Honor students and their professors are to decide upon the scholarly requirement, including the task and length, together. These requirements do not have to be graded and can be pass/fail. Should the student and professor come to an agreement, I will create and submit the contract to the honors program. Professors should sign off on the contract and oversee the requirements. With any questions or concerns, professors are encouraged to email UHP staff at ksuhonors@ksu.edu.”
Studying abroad, regardless of the time frame, counts as co-curricular. If a class is taught by a KSU professor abroad and you take the class for honors (either as an honors course or as a contracted honors course), that class would count as an honors course too.
We recommend having (at least) a potential faculty mentor and tentative project idea before completing the 2nd semester of your junior year. That way, upon returning to campus for your senior year, you are ready to begin working on your project. This allows for ample time for project completion. However, the honors project process can easily be started at the beginning of senior year.
We understand that students have many advisers and adding another advising meeting into the mix can be stressful. Meeting with UHP staff about advising does not need to be time consuming; we simply want to ensure you are meeting program requirements and answer any questions you may have. Meeting with a member of UHP staff prior to enrollment ensures that you are aligning honors with your degree requirements.
Every course on campus has both fans and critics, and some of the courses with the scariest reputations actually have nothing to do with Honors. When you take an Honors course, you should expect a challenging course; it is an Honors course after all. However, we want Honors courses to be “different” rather than “harder” per se. Smaller classes and an honors peer group in the classroom allow instructors to structure a course and its content differently, and whether you find this harder or not depends on how you like to learn and what interests you. Honors courses can also be quite different from one another, as can Honors students, making it hard to generalize.
Honors Chemistry is accelerated - it covers all of Chemistry I and the first half of Chemistry 2. Honors Chemistry 2 finishes Chemistry 2 and covers Chemical Analysis. No other Honors course is accelerated.
Please record your co-curricular activity as soon as possible. We want to ensure your experience is accurately reflected. Plus, we would like to know the cool things you do! To record a co-curricular experience, go into the University Honors Program Info module in Canvas. Find “STUDENT LINK: sign up for co-curriculars here” and complete the associated Qualtrics form.
Two things of note:- An activity cannot be a co-curricular if it counts as class credit or is required by a course.
- All co-curricular activities must occur during your time at Kansas State University. No activity will be counted should it be performed the summer before your freshman year.
Maybe! Schedule a time to talk to a UHP staff member to discuss co-curriculars transferring.
Yes. We want you to record your co-curricular experiences after the fact so that you have an opportunity to reflect on the experience as you complete the form. Please do it ASAP after the experience though. It becomes awkward to collect signatures too long after the fact. To record a co-curricular experience, go into the University Honors Program Info module in Canvas. Find “STUDENT LINK: sign up for co-curriculars here” and complete the associated Qualtrics form. Caveat: you cannot earn co-curricular credit for things that happened before you matriculated.
Yes, as long as the activity is 100 hours long each time, it can count as a co-curricular. For example, you may have an internship for three summers. Assuming you worked at least 100 hours each summer, those internships count as a co-curricular even if the internship was at the same place each time. You do not have to do the same activity three times; you can mix and match as you see fit. You can do three different things, or you can do one thing three times.
You cannot “double dip” between categories. If you count something as a co-curricular activity, it cannot also count as your Honors Project. UHP 189 does not count as one of your four Honors courses. Etc. However, distinct experiences of the same type might fill different categories. I.e. four years in the same lab could have three co-curricular experiences (years 1-3) and the honors project (year 4). Additionally, participating in a study abroad experience, including taking the offered course(s) for honors, can count as a co-curricular experience and an honors course.
In short, no. There are many kinds of campus involvement, and we love to see honors students get involved and exercise leadership across campus, but the menu of co-curricular experiences is limited and not intended to count every constructive thing you can do outside the classroom. The co-curriculars activities chosen should all relate closely to your academic experience and build explicitly on that experience.
To take a non-honors course for honors credit, you will first need to discuss the potential contract with your professor. It is best to meet with your professor in the first month of the semester and to come to the meeting prepared with contract ideas. Upon agreeing on a contract, you will then fill out the Qualtrics form to submit the contract. To submit a contract for a non-honors course, enter the University Honors Program Info module in Canvas. Find “STUDENT LINK: submit course contract here” and fill out the associated Qualtrics form. Do this after you have spoken with the instructor and mutually agreed upon the supplemental work you will need to complete.
Course contract proposals are due each semester on the last day to drop classes without a "w" grade. Spring 2026 course contract proposals are due by Monday, Feb. 23, 2026.
Yes, UHP can be completed in three years. The same metrics must be met if graduating regardless of undergraduate graduation timeline – taking 4 honors courses, completing 3 co-curriculars, completing an honors project and graduating with a minimum 3.5 GPA.
“University Honors students are required to take 12 credit hours of honors courses. To ensure that the completion of the program fits into a student’s schedule, he/she can “contract” courses for honors course credit. A contract involves the student and the professor mutually agreeing upon additional scholarly requirements. This could include extra assignment(s), assistance in labs, or additional independent work. Honor students and their professors are to decide upon the scholarly requirement, including the task and length, together. These requirements do not have to be graded and can be pass/fail. Should the student and professor come to an agreement, I will create and submit the contract to the honors program. Professors should sign off on the contract and oversee the requirements. With any questions or concerns, professors are encouraged to email UHP staff at ksuhonors@ksu.edu.”
Studying abroad, regardless of the time frame, counts as co-curricular. If a class is taught by a KSU professor abroad and you take the class for honors (either as an honors course or as a contracted honors course), that class would count as an honors course too.
We recommend having (at least) a potential faculty mentor and tentative project idea before completing the 2nd semester of your junior year. That way, upon returning to campus for your senior year, you are ready to begin working on your project. This allows for ample time for project completion. However, the honors project process can easily be started at the beginning of senior year.
We understand that students have many advisors and adding another advising meeting into the mix can be stressful. Meeting with UHP staff about advising does not need to be time consuming; we simply want to ensure you are meeting program requirements and answer any questions you may have. Meeting with a member of UHP staff prior to enrollment ensures that you are aligning honors with your degree requirements.
Every course on campus has both fans and critics, and some of the courses with the scariest reputations actually have nothing to do with Honors. When you take an Honors course, you should expect a challenging course; it is an Honors course after all. However, we want Honors courses to be “different” rather than “harder” per se. Smaller classes and an honors peer group in the classroom allow instructors to structure a course and its content differently, and whether you find this harder or not depends on how you like to learn and what interests you. Honors courses can also be quite different from one another, as can Honors students, making it hard to generalize.
Honors Chemistry is accelerated – it covers all of Chemistry 1 and the first half of Chemistry 2. Honors Chemistry 2 finishes Chemistry 2 and covers Chemical Analysis. No other Honors course is accelerated.
University Honors Program
203 Leadership Studies Building
1300 Mid-Campus Dr. N.
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-2642
785-532-6542 fax
ksuhonors@k-state.edu