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Las Positas College

Honors Transfer Program

Overview

The Las Positas Honors Program is designed to prepare highly-motivated students for transfer to four-year colleges and universities and to build the intellectual and social skills needed for their success. The program provides opportunities for taking any transferable course at a different (honors) level, through activities and experiences designed specifically to encourage independent and creative learning. Highly-motivated students have the opportunity to work closely with outstanding faculty and other honors students in doing a wide variety of research projects and other activities.

Program Calendar

Our program runs in the fall and spring semesters. The program is not usually active during the summer term, but there are some exceptions.

How Does the Program Work

Members of the Honors Transfer Program can take any transferable course at LPC as an "honors" course, per their instructor agreement. There are two ways a student can have the course count as HONORS: 

  • by adding an honors contract/proposal to the course with the consent of the instructor. Check the  honors contract page to learn more about Contracts and to see Contract examples.
  • by fulfilling the requirements of a "certified embedded honors component" for the course, if your instructor offers one. Check with your instructor if they do. In this case you do NOT need to submit any contracts/proposals, all you need to do is to complete all the Assignments in your instructor's Honors Canvas Section.

To have access to the Honors Contracts and Honors Course Completion Forms, or to see the list of the instructors who might offer an embedded honors component in their courses you must be an approved member of the LPC Honors Transfer Program. You can apply to become a member anytime, there is no due date for program application. To read about the application and to apply:

GO TO THE LPC HONORS TRANSFER PROGRAM APPLICATION PAGE

Honors Course Scope and Examples

Honors work should represent a minimum of 25 hours of additional high-level work beyond what is already required in the course. The work should consist of in-depth research, demonstration of critical thinking, and scholarship of greater breadth or depth than the normal coursework. The specific content and shape of the projects vary widely depending on the instructor and the course discipline. The Honors work is intended to help prepare the student for work at a four-year institution. Topics are individual and very flexible, but here are some examples:

  • a traditional research paper
  • a case study or series of case studies
  • a specialized lab experiment
  • an art project
  • a musical composition
  • a literary composition
  • an original software or hardware creation
  • an empirical research study or fieldwork
  • an extensive gathering and analysis of statistical data

Program Benefits

Benefits and opportunities you will have as an Honors student include:

  • An "Honors" transcript designation for each Honors course completed - the course will show as "Honors" course on your transcript
  • Special recognition as an honors scholar at graduation for students who complete at least 5 honors courses worth at least 15 units and graduating with a GPA of at least 3.5
  • Access to honors transfer guarantee and/or priority agreements with a number of the most competitive universities (such as UCLA, Yale, Pomona - check the links to the left for the full list) for those who graduate as honors scholars
  • The opportunity to do exciting and challenging coursework geared toward those who wish to achieve beyond what is normally required for lower-division classes
  • The benefits of working one-on-one with faculty as you engage in your honors work
  • The opportunity to participate in the statewide community college honors research symposium held at either Stanford University or UC Berkeley each spring
  • A chance to collaborate with other honors students

Short Power Point Presentation about the Program.

Follow the links to the left for more information.

Student Interviews

In this video honors students discuss their experience in the Las Positas College Honors Transfer Program.