Category: Featured

Dear UHP Community,

Hello and welcome to the start of the 2021-2022 academic year! We are eager to come together this fall— in person!— around campus, on The Vern, and in the UHP townhouse. 

We look forward to once again debating politics and philosophy over coffee or extra-sweet hot chocolate in the townhouse. To challenging each other’s points of view and discovering new truths about ourselves. To struggling with seemingly impossible assignments and emerging with a deep and lasting understanding of the material. To exploring DC or taking a hike outside the city. To capping off the Honors experience by pondering the meaning of time, the ethics of humor, or the writings of Nobel Prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Márquez. We look forward to the energy of a classroom debate and to the quiet moments of intense focus and reflection in between. To sharing a meal and to getting to know each other again and to learning how we’ve all grown and changed since we were last on campus together. And, as is true every fall, we are particularly excited to be welcoming new students into our community of scholars.        

As a program, we are committed to continual reflection on how we can make this community a more inclusive place for all students. It is important to us that folks of all identities feel welcome in the UHP; a truly interdisciplinary program requires a truly inclusive community. 

We want to acknowledge the initiative taken by the UHP BIPOC Collective — a student-run group formed in 2020 that was created by and for UHP students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color, including both domestic and international students. The UHP BIPOC Collective is not affiliated with the UHP administration and seeks to empower and support one another and hold the UHP accountable through providing programming, opportunities, and collective power to raise issues of concern with UHP administration, faculty, and staff. 

We are appreciative of their determination to voice their truth and advocate for change, and also for all of the feedback that students from across our community have provided. We’ve heard students share how they’ve felt excluded or undervalued in our community and classrooms and we want to acknowledge the vulnerability, effort, and time that students took to engage with us to help make the program better for everyone. Through these often difficult discussions, we have made progress toward our goals in the last year. Task forces of faculty, students, and staff have worked collaboratively to reform aspects of the program including its admissions protocols and our peer advisor program.

We are excited to continue working toward our goals as well as aiming for new ones. To that end, it is important that we continue the work of the UHP Diversity & Inclusion committee and ensure that we include more student voices in these conversations. We invite students who are committed to openly discussing topics relating to diversity and inclusion in the UHP, and who want to help guide the program in developing new goals and priorities alongside UHP peers, faculty and staff to join the committee. If you’re interested in joining this committee (or if you’d like to nominate a peer), please complete the interest and nomination form. We also encourage you to share any ideas or thoughts you have on the form. 

With our return to campus, we are creating several opportunities to reconnect and build community through in person UHP events and activities (as is possible based on GW health guidelines). Please be sure to read our e-newsletter, the Honors Newsflash, every week to remain aware of important program dates/deadlines and to learn more about the happenings of the program and the University. We also encourage you to connect with us on our Honors Blog, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn group. If you learn about a University event that might be of interest to students within our community, you are welcome to advertise the event by submitting information here. 

As always, your UHP faculty and staff are available to support you this semester, and we urge you to reach out at any time.

Sincerely,

Bethany Cobb Kung
Director, University Honors Program
Associate Professor of Honors and Physics

Resources:

Counseling and Psychological Services: https://healthcenter.gwu.edu/counseling-and-psychological-services

Office for Student Success: https://studentsuccess.gwu.edu/

Academic Commons: https://academiccommons.gwu.edu/

Office of Advocacy & Support: https://safety.gwu.edu/oas

Office of Diversity, Equity, and Community Engagement: https://diversity.gwu.edu/

Make an appointment with a UHP Program Manager: https://honorsprogram.gwu.edu/make-appointment

It’s almost time to register for the Fall! To help prepare, check out this registration guide.

Helpful Sites:

• GW Bulletin– the most official, updated spot for all university, school, and major requirements. 
• Your school’s website- CCAS (+ Corcoran and SMPA); ESIA; GWSB; SEAS; Milken  and their individual department pages for more detail on major/minor requirements.
• GW Schedule of Classes– all class offerings for Fall 2022
• UHP course descriptions page 
• UHP Forms & Documents page– Student Handbook, Senior Thesis Verification Form, Senior Thesis Info pack, Honors Contracts
• Degree Map (accessed through GWeb)- see what requirements you have already fulfilled (including transfer credits). It also has “What If” and “Look Ahead” functions for future planning.
• GW CATS (Course Approval Transfer System)- an inventory of study abroad courses previously transferred in for credit. This should be used as a Study Abroad resource and not as a definitive planning tool.

When to Register

Early Registration (April 15th @ 9:00 AM- 11:59 PM)

• Who: Current first students will get to register during early registration as well as during their regular registration day. 
• When: Early registration for Fall 2022 will be on Friday, April 15th @ 9AM-11:59PM EST. 

Regular Registration (April 18-22 @ 9:00 AM- 11:59 PM)

• Who: All students
• When: The day that you register depends on how many credit hours you have earned*

*If you’re not sure what day you register, you can check your earned credit hours in GWeb using the following path: Student Records & Registration Menu > Student Records Information Menu > Transcripts > View Unofficial Transcripts. Make sure you’re looking at overall hours earned for the accurate total.

General Registration & Waitlists (Starting April 25th@ 9AM)

• Who: All Students
• When: The registration system will open again on Monday, April 25th and stay open through the add/drop deadlines in late September. Waitlists will also open at 9AM on April 25th.

For more information, please visit the Registrar’s website: https://registrar.gwu.edu/fall-spring-schedule.

Waitlists

If an Honors course closes during registration week, we cannot overenroll it and students must wait until the waitlists become available and add themselves to the list. 

Waitlists generally become available the Monday after registration week, the same day as general registration, or the “add/drop”period, opens. (Please check the registration schedule for the specific date and time). Once waitlists become available, students must add themselves through GWeb. Students cannot get instructor permission to bypass an active waitlist.  

If you are a graduating senior, please note that per the Registrar’s office website, waitlists prioritize seniors, then juniors. The Honors program follows the same guidelines. 

Please note that waitlists are generally cleared on the Friday of the first week of classes (the specific date is also listed on the registration schedule); after that, registration opens without waitlists and students can request instructor permission to be enrolled in a class. 

If an instructor grants permission, the instructor can send Brianna an email. RTF and RTF-EZs are not required. 

More on waitlists here.

Upper Level Honors courses

• CROSS-LISTS: Remember that if an Honors course is cross-listed, you can sign up for any open section unless specified otherwise in the comments sections on the Schedule of Classes. If you register for a non-Honors section, please complete and submit an Honors Course Petition form (on the Forms & Documents page of our website) so that it counts toward an Honors requirement. 
• DOUBLE COUNTS: Additionally, if an Honors course counts toward a major/minor/concentration requirement and you’d like it applied to your Degree Map, please complete and submit an Honors Course Petition form (on the Forms & Documents page on our website). To confirm if a course has been approved to fulfill a particular major/minor requirement, you will need to review the course description on the Honors program website or confirm with your department advisor.
• COURSE SUBSTITUTION OPTION: Students have the option to request to substitute a non-Honors course for an upper-level Honors course. For students that can demonstrate that they will benefit personally and intellectually from a non-Honors upper-level course, they may be granted an exception to count it toward the UHP upper-level course requirements (Self & Society or Arts & Humanities). To learn more about what courses may be approved and how the substitution request process works, please carefully review the Upper-level Course Substitution Request page on our website. If you have questions, please contact Brianna or Jasmine.

Hold Information

Check your record via GWeb regarding holds prior to your scheduled registration time. Any hold on your account will prevent access to registration. You can view any holds on your account by looking at: Student Records & Registration Menu > Student Records Information Menu > View Administrative Holds.

Make sure to check now and again in the days leading up to registration. Check early, and check often! More on holds here.

Fall Registration Advising

All Honors students are encouraged to see a Program Manager before registration. Make sure you are prepared with a tentative course schedule using the Fall 2022 Schedule of Classes and Honors course descriptions when they become available. As new course information and revisions become available, we will update the website. Please re-check the information on the Schedule of Classes and the Honors site before you register to ensure that you’re up-to-date!

First Year Students: 

Please make sure you sign up for the 3rd and final round of mandatory small group advising sessions. If you are unable to attend, please contact Brianna (bcrayton@gwu.edu) or Jasmine Williams (jwilliams25@gwu.edu).

All Students:

• Schedule a virtual or in-person appointment with Brianna or Jasmine online: honorsprogram.gwu.edu/make-appointment. When scheduling, please consider how much time you may need. 15-minute appointments are best for quick questions, whereas 30-minutes are best for discussions on four-year-plans and registration planning.
• Drop-in Advising & Pizza– come drop by West Hall or the Townhouse for food, registration/scheduling support from Brianna and Jasmine, or just to hang out and do some work. No sign up required.

Pizza & Advising

• Thursday, April 14th @ 12-2pm in the West Hall B111
• Friday, April 15th @ 12-2pm in the Townhouse Club Room

• As always, UHP Peer Advisors are also a wonderful resource if you have questions about specific courses, professors, or anything else.