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Engineering Honors Program

Honors Courses

Honors Course Options

There are five general types of courses that count for Honors credits at Purdue:

  • HONR-prefix courses (offered through the Honors College);
  • Courses with an H designation (sections of a course offered by a specific school or college; for example COM 11400-H);
  • Honors contracted courses; 
  • Graduate-level courses (500-level) that are not specifically required for graduation (e.g., a 500-level technical elective); and
  • Courses taken for research credit (e.g., Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) courses).

To see a list of HONR courses and course sections with an H designation being offered, click here: Honors Courses Offered

Honors Contracts

An Honors contract is an agreement between an instructor and student that makes a standard course eligible to receive Honors credit.  A course taken with an Honors contract will involve additional or alternative required coursework.  The student and faculty instructor of the course will reach an agreement on the exact work to be done for the Honors contract, and this information will be communicated in the form of an Honors syllabus.  Students should expect to produce work of elevated quality and to meet regularly throughout the semester with their faculty instructor.

Students interested in Honors contracting a course must request a Grade Mode Change for that course using the Scheduling Assistant in myPurdue before the end of the 2nd week of classes in the current semester. For Spring 2023, this deadline is Monday, January 23rd at 11:59 pm EST.

For each College of Engineering course that you plan to contract, you will need to submit the appropriate honors contract information by the deadline listed above. To do this, follow this link:

Engineering Honors Contracting Form (currently not active)

As a part of completing this form, you will need to upload a copy of the standard syllabus for the course as well as an Honors syllabus. At a minimum, the Honors syllabus must provide a description of the work to be performed for the honors contract as well as a modified grading scale for the course that takes the honors coursework into consideration. Students will work with their respective course instructors to get the necessary syllabi in a timely manner.

Be aware that submitting an Honors syllabus lacking sufficient detail may result in the honors contract not being approved. To assist students and faculty instructors in the construction of an appropriate syllabus, we have created an Honors Syllabus template as a downloadable Word file; this file provides guidance on the process. We have also created a web page that has examples of honors contracts along with answers to frequently asked questions.

For questions about honors contracting for Engineering courses, please contact your advisor or email Dr. Timothy Whalen at whalen@purdue.edu.

Note: Honors contracting of Engineering courses does not require paper copies of the Form 23 + Honors Contract Form because our online process replaces those for this purpose. However, if you wish to honors contract a course offered by another college at Purdue, hard copies of the paperwork may be needed. To be sure of the process you need to follow, please contact the respective college’s honors liaison prior to getting started. You can find the contact information for honors liaisons by college on the second page of the Honors Contracting Form, Procedure, and FAQs document.