Answering Your Questions about Purdue Honors Engineering
As a graduating senior that's involved in the Engineering Honors Program, I've been asked a lot of questions about the honors college over the years. I've chosen a few of the most frequently asked questions I've gotten and written about them so that you feel better prepared on your decision.
What is the College of Engineering Honors Program (EHP)?
The Purdue College of Engineering Honors Program is for students in the Purdue College of Engineering and the John Martinson Honors College, which you apply to during your application to Purdue. The program requires 24 honors credits, which are generally integrated into your coursework rather than adding on top of it. The overall curriculum includes 5 credits of core HONR courses and 19 credits of elective honors coursework, along with a scholarly project which can be completed at any time.
What does the Honors First-Year Engineering (FYE) Path look like?
Being in Honors FYE, you will be living in the Honors Living and Learning community, which means you'll be living with other honors students from all majors. As an Honors Engineering student, you have the option of taking ENGR 16100 and ENGR 16200, which are the honors first-year engineering courses focused on physics, robotics, and coding in Python. You will be put into teams for the semester and you will be completing several projects meant to involve students in hands-on, collaborative work. Additionally, you'll gain skills in organization, technical writing, and technical presenting. Though you are not required to take these courses, they involve you in the honors engineering community, give you 8 honors credits, and give you great experiences to talk about in interviews - and as a bonus, the courses also count as your introductory physics credit (PHYS 172)! In your first two semesters, you will also take 1-credit honors seminars. The topics of these seminars change semester-by-semester, but generally you will get to pick from a few different interdisciplinary options. In these seminars, you will improve your professional writing and reading skills in a classroom of around 20 students, reflecting a high school-style environment where you have close, one-on-one interactions with your classmates and instructor. By the time you've completed your first year, you will have 10 of the 24 required honors credits completed!
Is Honors Engineering a lot of extra work?
Short answer - no! The Honors Engineering curriculum is designed to be integrated into your regular coursework. Apart from the two 1-credit seminars and 8 credits of honors engineering during your first year, you will need to take one HONR course, and the rest of your credits are elective honors courses. The elective honors credits can be completed by honors-contracting courses, which means that you come to an agreement with a professor of extra course-work or an extra project you can complete along side your course to make it count for honors credit. For example, I got honors credit for my Calculus II course by taking a 1-credit lab alongside the course (MA 16290 - Data Science Labs: Calculus) that met once a week. I also got honors credit for ECE 463 - Intro to Computer Communication Networks - by doing some extra coursework in the class. Additionally, any 500-level courses (graduate courses) count as honors credit automatically. In summary - your honors credits can be completed through courses that you're already taking, so you don't have to add on 24 extra credits to your degree plan. Though there is a small additional workload in the courses, I have personally found the extra work to be very helpful is furthering my understanding of the subjects, and this is especially helpful when it comes to exams.
What is the Scholarly Project?
The scholarly project is an additional project you must complete before you graduate to fulfill the honors program requirements. It can be fulfilled in a variety of ways - a scholarly project course, a research portfolio, an internship, or mentored research.
A scholarly project course is a 3-credit project-based course (HONR 460, 461, 462, 463) taught by a faculty member. The topics of these courses vary, but for example this semester one of the options is HONR 46400 - Building and Improving AI Models - where students learn how to train AI models and understand and address bias within them using real datasets. This is a great way to complete your honors scholarly project and get 3 HONR course credits at the same time. These courses are only available to 3rd and 4th year students.
Similarly, HONR 463 is a 2-credit class where you will build a portfolio that gathers and reflects on research experiences you've had in coursework, labs, or somewhere else. HONR 221 is a 1-credit class where you will reflect on an internship experience you've had through small-scale research, academic readings, and a presentation. This is how I did my scholarly project since I had an internship lined up anyway.
Finally, you can complete the scholarly project through mentored research done individually or in small teams. You can complete a research project, creative arts project, or complete research through a departmental program. Research through a departmental program varies on the program, so be sure to ask your honors advisor if you want to complete the scholarly project through this route.
What kinds of benefits do you get?
The Honors College offers many benefits, such as exclusive internships, exclusive research opportunities, and leadership and mentoring programs. During FYE, I had a upperclassmen mentor that I could go to if I was struggling with coursework or just wanted to talk. I was also able to get involved with my first research opportunity during the second semester of my first year thanks to the Honors research fair. I largely credit the FYE program for jump-starting my work ethic and time management skills in my first-year, as they helped me shape who I am today. Research and internship opportunities are frequently advertised, so be sure to stay on the lookout for those opportunities in your email.
Additionally, the interdisciplinary coursework I completed helped me develop different perspectives about everyday situations, and this helped me to approach engineering problems with a different mindset. It allowed me to expand my creative problem-solving skills and work on teams of people with several different majors and backgrounds.
Do you regret it?
Not at all! If anything, I regret not taking more advantage of all the opportunities that the Honors Engineering Program offered.
So, is it worth it?
The answer to this question largely depends on what you're wanting to get out of your degree. If you just want to graduate and not get involved any further, then probably not. If you're looking to get more out of your degree, get involved in research early, and potentially pursue higher education, then I would suggest the Honors Engineering Program. I personally did not end up pursuing higher education and will be working in the industry directly after graduating, but I am thankful to the Honors program for allowing me to pursue interdisciplinary coursework and research as I did my engineering degree. Interviewers were always interested in the work that I've done outside of engineering, and it gave me great topics to talk about.
Your experience in the Honors College will differ depending on what you're interested in and what you want to get out of it. The more involved you get, the more you'll benefit. Ultimately, it's your decision and you decide how involved you want to be with the Honors program. If you have any questions, or want to learn more about something, feel free to contact us by commenting, sending us an email, or visiting any of our social media pages!
Cynthia Castaneda, CompE '26
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