There are many! We offer over 600 Honors College classes per year, or over 250 per semester.  These classes are small, averaging about 18 students, allowing for you to engage deeply with your classmates, your professor, and the course content.  Our classes are distinguished by discussions, demonstrations, debates, and much more.  Our students also get free printing, priority registration, and an Honors College advisor to help keep them on track with requirements. There are also study abroad trips, research opportunities, internship programs, and service learning experiences available exclusively to Honors College students.

No, only Honors College students who declare International Business as incoming freshmen receive direct admission. Students transferring to the SCHC (either internally or externally) who declare International Business are not eligible for direct admission and will be required to apply through the standard process.

No, only incoming honors college freshmen who declare Nursing at time of admission and maintain both minimum GPA and upper division progression requirements will receive direct admission. Students transferring to the SCHC (either internally or externally) who declare Nursing are not eligible for direct admission to upper division and will be required to apply through the standard process.

SCHC transfer students can apply for Honors College departmental scholarships as well as departmental scholarships from the college that correlates to your major. 

Internal transfers who have previously received a university scholarship  will retain their scholarship. SCHC transfer students are not eligible for additional university scholarships through Admissions. 

All Honors College students, including those who transfer in, are expected to complete the Honors College Requirements.  

While the curriculum requirements may look complicated, your Honors College advisor will work with you to be sure you graduate on time. 

Courses you have previously taken will not count towards Honors requirements.

The handbook states that you are required to have an Honors course in English. You may have already taken ENGL 101 (AP) and ENGL 102 at USC, but they were not Honors courses. You would still need to take an Honors English class, but we have many options to choose from--you would not have to retake something that you have already taken (ENGL 101 or 102 in this situation).  For example, you could take our Nature Writing, Literary Hauntings, Life & Leadership, or a host of other Honors English classes.

We primarily look at work done at the college level.  SAT and ACT scores and high school GPA factor very minimally into our decision.

We do have a hard cut-off, so if your GPA is less than 3.6, you would be ineligible to apply.

While we do prefer faculty, it is to your advantage to ask for a letter of recommendation from an instructor who can best speak to your academic abilities and work ethic—and that may be a staff member or graduate student.

No, but we expect that the letter will address your academic ability and academic work ethic.

If accepted, you will receive your acceptance in late May/early June before fall classes begin in August, and you will be advised and placed into honors classes for the fall semester sometime shortly after. 

No, you are not required to live in honors housing. It is also difficult to get into honors housing in the semester immediately following your acceptance. However, you are welcome to apply for honors housing options in future semesters. 

Being a student in the Capstone program does not, in and of itself, give you an advantage in transfer consideration, but Capstone students tend to be competitive transfer applicants.  If you are accepted as a transfer student into the Honors College, you can be both a Capstone Scholar and an Honors College student if you so choose. Note that there are fees associated with both programs.

There is a fee of $575 per semester. This fee primarily goes towards securing distinguished faculty to teach honors courses.