Are you driven by rigorous coursework? Is undergrad research or scholarly work part of your plan? Then this track will fulfill your goals. If graduate or professional school is in your future, or if you’re part of Purdue’s Honors College, learn more about your options.

• Dean’s Scholars for Prospective Students
• Dean’s Scholars for Current Students
• Departmental Honors Thesis
• Purdue University Honors College
• Undergraduate Research

Scholarly Project

To complete a Scholarly Project, a student must engage in a sustained project, either on or off campus, in which the student creates new knowledge. Results of this project should be presented in a public forum upon completion, including publication, presentation, display or performance. A student may enroll in a departmental independent study or undergraduate research credit(s) to complete the creative, scholarly work.

Ag Dean's Scholars and Honors College students may engage in Scholarly Projects by meeting the following four criteria:

1. Compose a clearly defined research or creative question that will drive the project and define its significance or problem to be resolved.
2. Indicate the goals for creating new knowledge and in what format; examples include a new concept, device, technology, analysis, web page, app, argument or lesson plan.
3. Explain how the project will result in an independent deliverable to be demonstrated by the end result; examples include a paper, report, website, data analysis, classroom talk or engagement.
4. Describe the individual contribution(s) made toward the project if completed in a collaborative environment.

Honors Contracting

An honors contract is an agreement between an undergraduate student and a faculty instructor that allows the student to turn a standard course into an honors course.

In general, honors contracts allow the student to go beyond the material of the regular course and to produce more sophisticated work. A student may, for example, delve more deeply into methodology, structure, theory, or application; perform additional or alternative research; develop a service project; or present findings in some format. More information can be found here. 

The process for contracting a College of Agriculture course can be found here: Ag Honors Contracting Process