Welcome Prospective Students!

College should be a special time, when one gets to act on one's intellectual curiosity while seriously preparing for whatever may come next. Working with stellar faculty and fellow students while living in the most exciting city in the world will not only enable you to get the most out of your college education, but you'll also be exposed to the widest range of ideas and opportunities imaginable. It's this - encountering new ideas, challenging your own, and determining what you believe and why - that makes your college years exciting, and there's no better place to do this than the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College.

An Overview of the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter

Academic Excellence

Hunter's faculty is at the core of all students' intellectual experience. With world-class teachers and researchers in virtually every department, the faculty is committed to undergraduate education while simultaneously pursuing research agendas that ultimately enrich the lives of their students.

The academic program offered to Honors College students represents Hunter's dedication to the liberal arts. In addition to preparing you for virtually any professional school or graduate program, the range of majors and classes within those majors goes beyond the expected - English, history, political science, biological sciences, physics and astronomy, etc. - to the unexpected - film and media studies, urban affairs, or African Puerto Rican/Latino studies.

In all of these departments, students receive personal attention from professors and have the chance to take special sections of Honors courses. Some of the past Honors course offerings have included:

• Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
• Honors Principles of Biology II
• The Animal Estate: Humans, Beasts, and Literature
• Germany in the Twenties
• Religion, Fundamentalism, and Violence
• Calculus with Analytic Geometry I
• The Beatles and Their Legacy
• Ancient to Early Modern Political Thought
• Human Sexuality
• Abnormal Psychology
• What is Queer Theory?

In these classes - and in non-Honors courses at Hunter - you'll be encouraged (and perhaps forced) to participate in a dialogue of ideas. Discussions form the centerpiece of most classes, particularly in your interdisciplinary seminars, and your professors will push you to shape your ideas as you read, learn, and hone your approach to the material.

In addition, all Honors College students must elect the option of pursuing Honors in their elected major, which often means writing a senior thesis or creating a senior project. Perhaps more than any other academic experience, the senior thesis or project will define your intellectual arc while in college, and it will provide a launching point for whatever you choose to pursue after graduation.

Personal Attention

Attending a major research institution like Hunter College can be intimidating. With thousands of fellow students, how will you get what you need and be sure that you're making the right decisions?

If a college or university has an outstanding faculty and academic program, the next most important thing is that institution's attention to individual students. At Hunter, not only will you learn in class from outstanding professors, but you will also have the chance to work with them one-on-one as research assistants as well as full-fledged collaborators. More than most research institutions, Hunter provides easy access to its faculty, and students universally cite their close working relationships as a high point of their college careers.

As a student in the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter, you will have the benefit of a close, working relationship with a full-time advisor during your four years. Your advisor will not only meet with you to discuss your course selections for the upcoming semester, but he or she will also meet with you to discuss applying for internships, study abroad programs, and also your general course of study. Moreover, the Honors College advisors are here to help make your transition to college a smooth one. Your discussions with them are not limited to academics - you can talk about anything with them. And you're not limited to a specific number of meetings or how long they take.

Academic advisors also play a role in making sure that you stay on track. You'll know them through your ORSEM class, a special one-credit introductory seminar you'll take in the fall of your freshman year. Here your advisor will also serve as your instructor, and you'll learn how to "do" college. Study tips, time management, feedback on writing, and an introduction to the vast resources of Hunter are all part of an ORSEM, and students find that all of these skills and information help a great deal during the first and subsequent years.

When it's finally time to graduate, your advisor, along with staff and faculty across Hunter and also at the CUNY Graduate Center, will work with you to ensure that you're well prepared to apply to graduate school, fellowships, or jobs. In fact, this work really begins as soon as you enter the Honors College, with workshops on crafting your personal narrative (used later in application personal statements), how to apply to graduate school, and career fairs that are open to all Honors College students.

Small College Atmosphere

With only about a hundred students in an entering Honors College class, it's almost impossible not to form fast bonds with your classmates and the more experienced students. You'll know your classmates through orientation, ORSEM courses, the interdisciplinary Macaulay Honors College seminars (you'll take one each semester for your first two years), and if you live in the Brookdale dorm (as about 90% of each entering class does). The Honors College student council, the Brookdale student council, and the Honors College office all plan events that span the unimaginable range of interests, from trips to movies to parties to weekly club meetings. In addition, you'll have access to all of the resources at Hunter College, where you'll find dozens of activities each week. Finally, you'll have an upperclassman as an Honors College mentor, whom you'll meet in your first week of school, and who will help introduce you to the ins and outs of Hunter and the Honors College.

A Diverse Student Body

Hunter College is the fourth most diverse college in the United States; it reflects the wide array of backgrounds of students from New York City, the state, and beyond.

You'll meet fellow students who have achieved amazing things before they entered Hunter, and as college students they continue to impress. You've probably heard that while in college many of your most profound learning experiences come as a result of encounters with fellow students. Informal discussions in the Honors College lounge, at the Brookdale dorm, or during any number of events provide ample opportunity for you not only to get to know other Honors College students, but also for you to sharpen your ideas and opinions.

And of course, you'll be in the heart of Manhattan, which is truly the crossroads of the world. Virtually anywhere in the five boroughs is accessible by public transportation, and your choosing what not to do might end up being the hardest decision you make every week!