You’ve come this far—you’ve gotten accepted to USC! I’m sure the initial thing in your concerns now is ways to challenge you to ultimately the fullest level throughout your four years as a Trojan. Ok, ok, maybe researching Honors Programs at USC is not the first thing on your to-do list (you’re busy applying for housing and ordering football seats, right?) So, we thought we would bring the information for your requirements! Here you will find the details on two honors options at USC: Freshman Science Honors and Thematic choice.

The Freshman Science Honors Program, or FSH, provides a rigorous yet personalized experience for first 12 months students into the natural sciences. In the place of using the most common freshmen year technology courses, FSH pupils just take an advanced version of these classes that have both a smaller lecture and discussion section. This fosters a more hands-on experience in labs, more individualized attention from faculty, and a more collaborative environment amongst FSH Scholars. FSH also expands beyond the classroom, supplying possibilities for industry trips, guest lectures, etc.

Austin Carter, a sophomore majoring in Biological Sciences, participated in FSH and says he initially applied because he ‘was excited about working with a smaller group’ and ‘thrives off collaboration.’ He definitely discovered that teamwork through FSH: ‘Through collaborating on labs or studying for tests, our perseverance brought us together.’ He also notes that an investigation trip to Catalina ‘offered an opportunity to really get to understand one another outside the classroom setting.’ For more information, including how to apply, please check out submit an application for FSH . Please observe that the 2013 deadline is April 10th, and to be eligible, you need to be a declared natural technology major.

Thematic choice, or even TO because it is known on campus, is just a program that replaces USC’s General Education curriculum having an interdisciplinary core curriculum. While maybe not a humanities program per say, TO is very learning and writing intensive, so students signing up to this scheduled program should be ready for this sort of rigor. If you don’t LOVE reading and writing, this program is probably not for you. Like FSH, TO provides students having a smaller learning environment which enables greater discussion amongst students and faculty.

Aaron Brown, Associate Director of Admission, took part in TO when he was a student at USC. Aaron says that TO ‘became a way that is great shrink this big institution to a more manageable size’ and states it provided him with outstanding community of like-minded students. Aaron states their favorite TO course ended up being Core 102 that he took his very first semester of college themed ‘The Hero’s Journey.’ He says one instance that sticks out is when the class invested an entire period discussing just two paragraphs of Heart of Darkness. Aaron says it had been a ‘wow, this is college’ moment for him. Aaron even got a play royal vegas trip to Disneyland out from the experience during his Core 101 course whenever they were studying Mickey Mouse as a cultural symbol. He notes that as a freshman new to LA, ‘these had been invaluable opportunities to explore this great city.’

To learn more on how to apply, please visit Applying to Thematic Option . Please note that only admitted pupils are eligible to use while the due date is 10th april.

These are simply two of the options that are many have for pursuing honors at USC. One may also receive departmental honors by completing a honors thesis in their senior year. Please visit the links that are following information on other honors programs at USC: Dornsife Honors Prorgrams, Viterbi Honors, Renaissance Scholars, Global Scholars, Discovery Scholars, McNair Scholars, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship.

Don’t forget that even if you don’t complete any of the aforementioned programs through your time at USC, rest assured that you’ll still be getting an invigorating and intellectually challenging education at among the world’s premier research institutions. Fight on!