Policy on Taking Courses Outside the Honors College

Honors College students are welcome to take advantage of the broad course offerings at FAU. Students may take up to 15% of their courses outside the Honors College if they are courses not regularly offered at the Honors College and with their advisor's approval, subject to the specific guidelines below.

Students are reminded that to take a course at another university, they must fill out a transient student form, available at the registrar's office.

Criteria for receiving credit from non-Honors College courses:

1. No more than 15% of the credits taken to satisfy the 120-credit requirement for graduation, less AP, IB, and transfer credits, may be taken outside the Honors College without permission of the Dean. Example: a student with 30 credits from AP courses who graduates with 120 credits exactly can take no more than 15% of 90 credits or 13.5 credits outside the HC without permission of the Dean.
   
   
2. AP, IB, and recognized credits taken by students entering the Honors College as transfers are exempt from the 15% rule, and are counted toward graduation without the need to petition. AP, IB and transfer credits for Honors College courses that satisfy the Honors Core or a concentration requirement can be used to satisfy the Core or concentration requirement without the need to petition. However, AP, IB and transfer credits for courses that are not identical to Honors College courses that satisfy the core or a concentration requirement can be used to satisfy the Honors Core or a concentration requirement only by petition. Students must establish that the course fulfills the requirements of the Core or the concentration.
   
   
3. Courses above and beyond what are applied to the 120-credit requirement for graduation are exempt from the 15% rule.
   
   
4. Honors College Scholarship policy requires that students must be enrolled in a minimum of 24 credits of Honors College courses during the Fall/Spring semesters of an academic year. To count a non-HC course towards these 24 credits requires approval of the advisor and compliance with the rules in section 5, below.
   
   
5. (a) Students may not take non-Honors college courses that are substantially similar in content to or identical to courses that they have the opportunity to take at the Honors College (AP, IB and transfer credits are exempt from this rule).
   (b) Where a course is offered at the Honors College but not at a time when the student can reasonably take this course, a student may take a non-Honors College version of the course if this is necessary for them to graduate on-time or they have other reasons they cannot delay taking the course.
   (c) If the conditions of (b) have been met, students must petition to take the course in question and the petition requires the signature of their faculty advisor.
   (d) Students who reach 12 credits for a semester only by including one or more non-Honors College courses must have the approval of the Associate Dean before they can receive their Honors College scholarship (which requires being registered for at least 12 credits of Honors College courses).