Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College

The Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College is an academic college of Florida Atlantic University, located at the John D. MacArthur campus of FAU in Jupiter, Florida. The Wilkes Honors College opened in 1999. It offers a rigorous Liberal Arts education in the platform of a public institution. The Honors College currently has 37 full-time tenured, or tenure-track faculty, all of whom have terminal degrees in their field. [http://www.fau.edu/divdept/honcol/faculty_alpha.htm] The current Dean is Jeffrey Buller, a classicist.

The Wilkes Honors College states that it is the first public honors college built from the ground up; as such, it strives to be the flagship honors college in the United States. A major difference between the Wilkes Honors College and other U.S. honors colleges attached to public institutions is that the majority of classes students take are exclusively honors courses taught by exclusively honors faculty. Students have the opportunity to work closely with the faculty, as class size averages about 12 students. Each student under the supervision of a faculty advisor must write a substantial honors thesis during his or her senior year. These collaborations have led to publications in various spheres of academia.

The Honors College's intellectual foundation is a belief in Liberal Arts education as the best preparation for a full and productive life. Students receive a Bachelor's Degree in Liberal Arts & Sciences [http://www.fau.edu/divdept/honcol/academics.htm] , with a concentration in a specific area of study. [http://www.fau.edu/divdept/honcol/academics_majors.htm] The concentration does not appear on the diploma, but concentrations and minors do appear on the official transcript.

Starting the summer of 2006 the Wilkes Honors College, in collaboration with The Scripps Research Institute hosts the Honors Summer Institute on the topics of Science, Technology and Society for high school juniors and seniors. [http://www.fau.edu/divdept/honcol/hsi_index.htm] .

External links

* [http://www.fau.edu/divdept/honcol/honors.htm Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College]
* [http://www.fau.edu Florida Atlantic University]
* [http://www.Scripps.edu The Scripps Research Insitute]
* [http://www.library.fau.edu/npb/theses.htm Partial list of theses completed by Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College students]