** You must fill out an application in ordered to be considered for the Honors Program.**
**There is no set deadline to submit applications for admission to the Honors Program. The Honors Admissions Committee meets regularly to review applications.**
The Honors Program accepts applications from prospective high school students, transfer students, and SUNY New Paltz students up through their junior year.
Choose one of the links below to download the appropriate application.
*High School Students & First Semester Freshman Application
*Current New Paltz Students Application
*Transfer Students Application
ADMISSION PROCESS
The Honors Program admission review process is holistic. In addition to SAT scores and GPA, the Honors Program values the following attributes and they are considered during the admission process: creativity, intellectual curiosity, commitment to thinking deeply and broadly about a range of ideas, communication skills, and interdisciplinary orientation. The Honors Program is committed to diversity in admissions (broadly defined to include, minimally, race/ethnicity, family income, gender, life experience, major).
Fall 2012 Incoming Honors Students Range of Scores
| GPA Score Range | SAT Score Range | High School Average Score Range |
| 3.62-4.00 | 1510-2130 | 87.5-97 |
Application guidelines for incoming freshmen:
- SAT scores: 1280 or higher (Critical Reading and Math)
- ACT composite score: 28 or higher
- High school average: 95 or higher
- Cover Letter
- Two analytic writing samples
- Two letters of recommendation
- High School Transcript
Application guidelines for transfers and currently enrolled students:
- An overall college GPA of 3.5 or higher
- Cover Letter
- Two samples of analytic writing from the past year. Currently enrolled students should include writing samples from courses at SUNY New Paltz.
- Recommendations from two college professors
- College Transcript
Guidelines for the cover letter:
Prospective students have an opportunity through the letter of application to explain why they are interested in the Honors Program and why they are a good fit for it. The letter of application should address the following: Why do you want to join the program? What would you bring to the program? What are your goals, both as a student and beyond? Please share examples to illustrate your commitment to values such as creativity, intellectual curiosity, commitment to thinking deeply and broadly about a range of ideas, communication skills, interdisciplinary orientation or other characteristics that would allow you to not only benefit from but contribute to the Honors Program at New Paltz.
There are three basic requirements for graduating with honors:
1. Seminars: Most Honors courses fulfill GE requirements. Students starting the program late are not required to take The Individual and Society and may be allowed to skip one or more courses at the discretion of the Director. The Honors Program requirement that Honors students take four honors seminars may be modified in individual cases by a waiver of a maximum of two seminars. The waiver is designed to accommodate students who transfer in as second semester sophomores or juniors, those who are in accelerated programs, and those who have majors with unusually heavy course requirements. Three seminars are sufficient for students entering the Honors Program as second semester sophomores (have completed 45 credits), two for those who enter as juniors (have completed 60 credits).
All Honors Students must take four three-credit seminars over their four years at SUNY New Paltz. These seminars all fulfill GE requirements, and -- with the exception of "The Individual and Society" -- all are upper-division.
The seminars are all cross-disciplinary, and on a variety of topics. In the past, we have offered the following seminars:
- The Individual and Society
- Education and Poverty
- 20th Century Work and Image
- Modern Self and Society
- Debates in U.S. History
- Modern Western Aesthetic Theory
- Racism and the Social Sciences
- Illuminating the Darkness: African Narratives and Realities
- Origins of "Evil Incarnate: The Grim Adventure"
- Love and Humanity
- Education Across Borders
- U.S. Drug Education and Policy
- Alternative Epistemologies
- Indigenous Ways of Knowing
- Cigarettes and Nylons - Postwar Realities in Occupied Germany after World War II
- Poetry and Performance
- Evolution and Humanity
- Myth Meets Philosophy
- Digital Diasporas
- Feminist Emistemology
Honors students also have the option to take Honors-designated courses in the major.
2. Community Service: All Honors Students must complete at least 40 hours of community service before graduating (though we hope you would do more!). This service can be done on-campus, at home over the summer, or even in the Honors Center. We have a list of suggested places to do community service.
3. Senior Thesis: Before graduating, all Honors Students must complete a senior thesis project. The specific type of the project can vary depending on your own focus. Students in the natural sciences tend to do laboratory experiments, while students in the Humanities tend to write papers. Art students usually put up an exhibition of their work in the Honors Center.
Students also have a chance to present their senior theses in a special ceremony the day before graduation. The president of the college attends these ceremonies to award you with a special Honors sash to wear at graduation.
Here's a listing of several recent graduate's thesis projects:
"Fear and the Contested Space of Power and Authority 16th-19th Century"
- Myles Brawer, '12
"Fierce to Farouche: The Hierarchy of Costumes"
- Kyle Fassett, '12
"Teaching To The Test: Can Intelligence Be Taught"
- Justin Goodman, '12
"Is Nigeria Trapped? An Analysis Based on Collier's Four Development Traps Model"
- Alison Gratto, '12
"Pets, Paramours, and Plantation Slaves"
- Susannah Hershey '12
"Evolved to Cabaret: Expressing Human Behavioral Evolution Through Costume Design"
- Laura Johnsen, '12
"When Love Transcends Gender: The Friendship of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Charles Sumner"
- Kelly McCann, '12
"The Benefits of Foreign Language Education in Elementary School"
- Amy Moschitta, '12
"A Correspondence With Ghosts: Poems Inspired by Franz Kafka's Letters to Milena Jesenska"
- Marc Perrin, '12
"Growing Into Love"
- Kristopher Pistillo, '12
"The Role of Narcissism in Perceptions of and Reactions to Over Qualification"
- Carrie Sauer, '12
"The Power of Consensus: Cold War Ideologies and McCarthyism in Selected Stories of Shirley Jackson"
- Jeremy Simms, '12
"Toward an Intersectional Approach: Understanding the Victimization of LGBTQ Youth"
- Marissa Ward, '12
"Veteran Suicide: Toward Informed Intervention"
- Brianna Wright, '12
