Students who successfully graduate with honors within their discipline receive departmental honors, recognized as graduating with "distinction". Students who are admitted to the university honors program during their freshman year, and complete the honors requirements, receive college honors, recognized as graduating with "honors". These academic accomplishments are recorded on both the college diploma and university transcripts. For more information on departmental versus college honors visit the University of Washington Honors Program site.

Students who have already begun the honors program in Arts and Sciences as a lower division student are invited to apply to the BSN Honors Program during their first quarter in the School of Nursing. All other students in the BSN program are invited to apply to the BSN Honors Program during their second quarter. Students with prior degrees are eligible to apply. Applicants must have a School of Nursing cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 to apply. (Successful progression in the Honors Program requires maintaining a SON minimum GPA of 3.5.) In addition, the university requires a minimum UW cumulative GPA of 3.3 at the time of graduation to receive either college or departmental honors.

Applications are accepted during Winter Quarter. Deadlines will be communicated via e-mail. Complete the Honors Program application and return it to Academic Services (Room T310, Health Sciences Building) or mail it to Box 357260. The application includes information regarding your GPA, a short personal statement to communicate what you hope to gain from participation in an honors program, and a description of your ideas for an honors project and potential mentor(s). Applicants are also asked to submit a previously written paper.

Students in the BSN Honors Program register for a 1-credit honors seminar over four quarters (i.e. spring, autumn, winter, spring) starting in spring of their junior year. Students register for this seminar as an independent study (NURS499) with the honors seminar leader, a faculty member who provides general mentorship to a cohort of honors students. In addition to the 4 credits of honors seminar, students are required to take 6-8 additional credits as independent study with their chosen mentor/s to complete their honor's thesis or scholarly project. (These may be taken as either NMETH499 for research projects or NURS499 for scholarly projects.) It is possible for some of these 6-8 credits to be done as an independent study attached to an existing course (with the instructor's approval) where the student might explore a particular concept, theme, health issu in depth, or particular population. For example, students who participate in the Citizens of the World Scholar Travel Award program might choose to focus on international health issues. Students interested in geriatric populations may apply for a de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging Scholarship to support their project.

The honor's project is a scholarly activity that may take a variety of forms including a research project or a scholarly project such as a demonstration project, concept analysis or literature review. Students will have the opportunity to select a topic of interest to them or to work with an ongoing research project. School of Nursing faculty members will mentor honors students with their projects. Prior to graduation, each honors student will present his/her honor's product or thesis.

If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact the program coordinator, Dr. Mayumi Willgerodt, at mayumiw at uw dot edu or 206-685-7933, or Dagmar Schmidt at dagmar at uw dot edu.