Dean Christopher Ames will implement a "genuine honors program" at Washington College in upcoming years.
Ames said of the school's current honors classes, "what we have isn't really a program. We have honors courses for which you need a minimum GPA to enter."
Ames went on to explain that "we have terrific opportunities for motivated juniors and seniors. But we don't have a lot of special opportunities in the first two years for students who might be more motivated academically."
He suggested that a full-fledged honors program would provide such special opportunities for academically advanced freshmen and sophomores.
While an official proposal for the program has yet to be developed, Ames described the honors program as one in which "students accepted to the college have to apply to the program before coming. There would be special classes and seminars which would be taken as alternatives to existing distribution requirements."
After an official proposal for the program is developed, it will be sent before the Curriculum Committee this fall. Both the Committee and the faculty as a whole must approve of the program before it is implemented.
Dean Ames said that "if it is approved early enough that prospective students could apply, the program could conceivably start in the fall '09 semester. But, that would be the earliest."
According to Ames, the idea of an honors program was developed in conjunction with the retention consultant who has been working closely with WC recently.
Ames said such a program would be a "tool for recruiting and retaining students with top academic potential," in that it would "help academically motivated students find each other and find particularly challenging courses."
When asked if the implementation of such an honors program might affect the school's selectivity, Ames said that it "could improve our yield among the highest scholarship students."
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