One Of The Oldest Honors Colleges
Dean Foote on Frederick Honors College University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Nicola Foote is the Dean of Frederick Honors College University of Pittsburgh.
Here are the excerpted highlights from my Podcast conversation with Dean Foote on Frederick Honors College.
1.One of the Oldest Honors Colleges
Dean Foote: We are actually one of the oldest honors colleges in the nation.
We were established as an Honors Program in the 1950s, which was one of the very first waves of Honors Programs.
And we became an Honors College in 1987, which is many years ahead of most big public research universities where most of the Honors Colleges were established in the early 2000s.
So for most of that history, the Honors College at Pitt worked in quite an unusual way, where students didn't apply explicitly into the Honors College.
Instead, any Pitt undergraduate could take honors classes, and apply for honors research programs,
And through that process, they became honors students, but that wasn't a separate cohort of honors students.
And so in 2018, we made a shift to a Direct Admit model. Students could now apply directly as first year student.
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2.Honors Programs Highlights
Dean Foote: We actually offer 3 different degree programs that students can choose from,
Most of our students do the Honors Joint Degree program, and that works with any undergraduate major here at Pitt. And basically, students do 24 of that credits within Honors.
We also have an Honors Distinction, which is a sort of lighter academic commitment for students. It works with any of the undergrad degrees, and students do 12 of those credits within Honors.
And then, what I'm most proud of is that we also offer a B Phil degree.
We're one of only a handful of universities anywhere in the world that offer that it's the highest research distinction available to an undergrad;
So, B Phil is essentially a graduate level thesis completed by an undergraduate student.
By committing to that research track, and defending a thesis, the students convert that bachelor's degree into a B Phil degree!
3.Experiential Learning
Dean Foote: Both our joint degree and our distinction programs have a very strong Experiential Learning component.
So students are required as part of those Honors credits, to take a certain number of experiential credits.
So that could be Study Abroad, Study Away, it could be Internships, Community engaged learning, there are different ways, but it's something that we really value we want students learning in these applied modalities.
And we also have a very unique co curricular program that's embedded within our, our, our academic programs, we call it the Honors OCC or Honors Outside Of the Classroom curriculum.
And through that students earn points for engaging in activities outside of outside of the classroom, so that, you know, we want to both incentivize and record recognize the type of work that our students do.
So if a student is say, president of a student government body, then they would get points for that, that literally count towards their degree.
So and these points you can earn for all kinds of things, including going to seminars, listening to speakers.
It includes even fun things. We had a what we call Frederick Bowl a couple of weeks ago, which is a flag football tournament students, and they could on OCC points for that.
So there's lots of ways that we value and highlight co-curricular and experiential learning.
4.What is the Office of Social Innovation?
Dean Foote: This is an office that really empowers students to be part of using their expertise and skill set to push forward, transform, tip social change.
So as an example of that, I was at the launch of a new civic learning app.
It's called CivWiz, and the students created it,
It's a tool through which students can learn more about civics in the United States and globally,
And share that knowledge with others.
So you know, that's an example of how we sort of bring together different types of experiments of experiential learning, and put students at the center and that interests and that goals as we as we build these programs.
5.About Scholarships
Dean Foote: For the first year, most of the financial aid is awarded centrally by the University.
One Big Exception is the Chancellor's Scholarship, which is a separate scholarship.
It's essentially a full ride scholarship to Pitt,
It covers tuition, it covers living expenses, and
Is administered directly through the Honors College.
So if you're interested in that award,
It's important to apply for that at the same time that you're applying to Pitt and to Frederick Honors;
There's a separate box that you have to check off to be considered for the Chancellor's Scholarship;
And those applications are reviewed separately, there's an interview process for that.
And those decisions are made by the Honors College, but that's a pretty small group, the Chancellor's scholars are around 15 students in that incoming group of 650 to 700.
All the other merit aid is is determined through the Central Office of Financial Aid.
Once students are in the Honors College, we do have lots and lots of scholarships that are Honors College specific.
And those vary in in the amount of funding and also the types of things that they cover.
So we do have a handful of awards that help offset tuition and living expenses.
But the largest amount of our awards are to cover academic opportunities.
For research, study abroad, study away, or internships.
One other thing I'd highlight is that we have an Honors College Emergency Fund as well.
So if a student runs into financial challenges, while they're with us,
Let's say that laptop dies, they just they need help getting a new one,
We have a fund that can help them with those types of emergency needs.
So it's one of the great reasons to, to consider being part of the Honors community.
6.Why are the Career Opportunities Better?
Dean Foote: We definitely see elevated outcomes upon graduation with Honors.
Students get admitted into prestigious graduate programs at a higher rate than the wider student body;
They get into medical school at a higher rate, Law School and so on.
So I think there were there are multiple reasons for that.
The primary reason I think, is level of individualized attention that we can provide to them;
You know, although we are a large college, we have a large student body, we really pride ourselves on individualized mentoring;
Every student gets advising in their disciplinary major;
They get an Honors advisor whose job is to make sure that they get connected to all the research opportunities, all the co curricular experiences that they're making the most of that time at college;
And then we also have the Scholar mentors, who are the national scholarships advisors. And we try and connect our students early on to that group.
And then I think, being part of a community of ambitious and aspirational students in itself is an advantage.
We have specific residence halls for the Honors students where you can congregate and support one another.
So I think that really helps our students succeed!
7.On with the Podcast
On our podcast, Dean Foote introduces the Frederick Honors College, BPhil & Experiential Programs, Undergraduate Research, Scholarships, How to Apply, and Career Opportunities.
Listen to the Podcast with Dean Nicola Foote of Frederick Honors College University of Pittsburgh. (42-Minute Listen).
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Thanks.
Finally, my heartfelt Thanks to all my Podcast guests who have been generous with their time and counsel on my Podcast.
Have a wonderful week!
Venkat