Submit Your Honors Program Application Today
Incoming Fall 2024 First Year Students
The application for Bellarmine's Honors Program is available to admitted students for the fall of 2024 through March 1st.
Incoming Transfer Students
To be considered for admission into the Honors Program in the fall, please submit your application by August 1. To be considered in the spring, please submit your application by December 1.
Current Bellarmine Students
Bellarmine students currently enrolled and interested in joining the Honors Program are welcome to apply. To be eligible you must be a first year or sophomore student.
“While I know quite a few aspects of Bellarmine contributed to what I feel has been a wonderful educational experience, the Honors program is among the most important for me. In each Honors course, I have been part of a small, critically thinking group of students who share both genuine interest in the subject matter and a desire to get the most out of the class. Many Honors students have become close friends in the course of 4 years of taking smaller sized courses together, and I feel as though I've established very rewarding friendships with my professors as well. The Honors Thesis is the most challenging academic project I have completed so far, and I am very thankful for it. While it occupied much of my time and thought over the past few semesters, I will always look back on it proudly as a sustained intellectual achievement. Most undergradutes don't get to put so much time and work into one project that culminates in the completion of a paper and pesentation attended by professors and peers, so when I finished my Thesis I thought of myself as very fortunate to have had the opportunity to do so. It also helped me show my academic seriousness and capabilities to Law Schools when I was interviewing and applying. I am very thankful to have been a part of the Honors program these past four years, and I highly reccomend it as a rewarding experience one can look back proudly on for the rest of their life.”
- Benjamin Siegel, 2012
“The Honors Program has greatly enriched my overall experience at Bellarmine. Free tickets to cultural events, challenging classes, and the senior trip to Washington, D.C. were all exciting and enjoyable aspects of the program. The Senior thesis, while frustrating at times, was well worth the effort in the end. Not only was it an impressive topic in my law school interview, it also gave me a personal sense of accomplishment and helped me to grow as a person. Indeed, I am very thankful for the Honors Program. College would not have been the same without it.”
-Bernadette Kovacs, 2012
“I have benefited from completing the senior honors thesis in many ways. I learned a lot about a topic that I am very interested in and what I will be continuing to study next year in grad school. I also learned a lot about the research process and it gave me the kind of research experience I will need for graduate school. I felt a great since of accomplishment upon completing something that I worked so hard on. I am very glad that I stuck with it because even though it was a lot of work and very stressful at times, I am very proud of the work that I produced in the end.”
-Suzanne Potratz, 2012
“The honors program at Bellarmine provides students with an extra challenge in college that undoubtedly strengthens any resume. Honors classes are usually smaller, but the atmosphere is unlike that of any other class--the students and teachers are all there to learn together and from one another. Because of their smaller sizes, students develop closer relationships to each other and the teacher. The seminars also have the added benefit of the senior thesis. While it is time-consuming and difficult, the final product is something I'll always be proud of.”
-Bobby Murphy, 2012
“Being in the honors program has prepared me for Grad school in more ways than one. The honors courses offered me an opportunity to think in depth about important issues and make connections to the real world. The honors thesis taught me how to apply all of the research and writing skills I had been taught. When I applied for a teaching fellowship, my interviewer was impressed that I had been able to take advanced honors courses and complete in depth research and writing. As I move forward with a fellowship that offers a full-ride for Grad school, I feel prepared and ready to tackle any challenge I am faced with.”
-Val Thomas, 2012
“My honors senior thesis was the greatest achievement of my college career at Bellarmine. Yes, it was difficult and sometimes stressful, but it also gave me so many different experiences that allowed me to grow as a person because of the amount of time and effort that go into writing it. For my thesis, I had to perform scientific research as well as journal research in order to inform me readers of the background knowledge required to understand the importance of what I was researching and then present my results. Also, it required extensive collaboration with my advisor and work on my own outside of class. It gave me the ability to feel connected to my work because this is not a lab or a class, it is work that you complete on your own time and the work you put in is what you get out of it.
When I went for medical school interviews, my research and my thesis have me a springboard off which I could discuss the work that I had already done and the work I was going to complete before my thesis was finished. Writing a thesis is a huge advantage on a resume and gives other programs a sense of the kind of work you are willing to complete in addition to the work you can complete on your own. It shows that you are willing to undertake a difficult task, but you are passionate about your work and therefore will put your best effort forth in order to complete it.”
-Aaron Smith, 2012
“The Bellarmine Honors Program gave me an upper-hand in applying for graduate schools. The directors at the schools were impressed by the fact that I was writing a thesis. They told me I would be ahead of the other graduate students in the programs because I had already had the experience of writing a thesis. Although writing a thesis is hard work, I believe that it helped to delve deeper into my major of study and developed more of my researching, time management, and writing skills. The Honors Program also provided me with tickets to wonderful shows downtown and great social events throughout the past four years. Moreover, Honors housing has contributed greatly to my Bellarmine experience. I met nearly all of my best friends from Bellarmine on the Honors floor my freshmen year. Thus, the Honors Program at Bellarmine University has had a large impact on my undergraduate experience.”
-Brittany LaMarche, 2012