How to Apply

Initially, the Office of Undergraduate Admission handles acceptance to the Honors Program for incoming students. However, current students who have an excellent academic record and are motivated to work at the Honors level may apply for admission to the Honors Program. Applicants must have at least four semesters of their undergraduate program remaining at Bentley (excluding study abroad) and have maintained at least a 3.5 GPA while at Bentley. If admitted, students must complete their Honors coursework, including any required honors courses in their major, and an Honors Pathway. In addition, students must adhere to the required overall GPA throughout their undergraduate studies. Admission is at the discretion of the Honors Leadership Team. 

If you wish to apply for admission to the program after a full semester at Bentley, please do the following:

1. Write a 500-word statement describing a challenge you have faced and what you learned as you responded to this situation. Please discuss how your personal experience has shaped your values and goals, and how this relates to your interest in the Honors Program. 
2. Academic research can be defined as the process of original discovery, or original interpretation or revision of existing research or knowledge in a society. As an honors student, we expect our students to embark on research projects either individually or in group. Write a 600 - 850 word original essay describing a research project that you have developed either individually or in group throughout your academic years. What was the outcome? What lessons did you learn? How did this research project impact your experience as a student? In addition to these questions, please share any research topics that are of great interest for you.
3. Provide the Director of the Honors Program with the names and contact information of two faculty members. At least one, but preferably both, should be full-time faculty members.
4. Be sure to include your name, email address, class standing, student ID number, and major.
5. Applications will be accepted between December 1 to December 15 for spring admission and between May 1 to May 15 for fall admission. Send to GA_HonorsProgram@bentley.edu. 

Program Requirements

Students in the Honors Program must meet complete honors sections of the following:

Course List

Course	Title	Credits
Honors Requirements
Three courses from Foundations for Success		9
FDS 100	Falcon Discovery Seminar 1
EMS 101	Critical Reading and Writing 2
EMS 104	Multimodal Communication 3
or HNR 201	Honors Seminar: Gateway Course
Five additional honors courses (some majors have unique requirements - see details below)		15
One Service-Learning Experience:		1
SL 120	Service-Learning
SL 121	Service-Learning-Business
Or other service learning experience approved by Honors Director
Capstone Experience		3
Total Credits		28

¹

Students who join the Honors Program with Falcon Discovery Seminar completed or who are waived from FDS 100 will have this honors requirement waived. Students who enrolled in a special cohort (i.e. First Gen Presidential Fellows) taking a non-honors section of FDS as a cohort, will need to take an additional honors course.

²

Students who join the Honors Program with Critical Reading and Writing already completed will be required to complete an additional honors elective in lieu of EMS 101 honors.

³

Students who enter the Honors Program without EMS 104 credit must take EMS 104 as an honors course. Bentley students who are in their second semester or beyond may enter the program as long as they have four semesters left for completion of the undergraduate degree and must take HNR 201, then choose a pathway. Transfer students are also eligible to enter the Honors Program as long as they have at least four semesters left for completion of the undergraduate degree and after the completion of HNR 201, they must choose a pathway.

Major Requirements

The following majors have required honors courses:

Course List

Course	Title	Credits
Accounting or Information Technology in Accounting (ITA)
AC 201	Preparing and Interpreting Financial Statements	3
or AC 215	Performance Measurement
Business Economics, Economics-Finance, or Quantitative Economics
EC 224	Intermediate Microeconomics	3
or EC 225	Intermediate Macroeconomics
Finance, Finance and Technology, or Corporate Finance and Accounting
FI 305	Principles of Accounting and Finance	3

Honors Pathways (3 credits)

During the second year, the Honors Program Director will document each student's declared Honors Pathway. Students must select a pathway that will lead them to complete the Honors Pathway Experience from the list below:

• Business Immersion Pathway

• Creative Project Pathway

• Research Project Pathway

• Service-Learning Pathway

• The Economics Pathway

• The Analytics Pathway

Course List

Course	Title	Credits
Pathway Requirements: Select one
HNR 440	(H) Honors Pathway Business Research	3
HNR 445	(H) Honors Pathway Community Based Research	3
HNR 450 & HNR 460	Creative/Research Pathway Proposal and Creative/Research Pathway Project	3
EC 431	Research in Business Economics	3
EC 483	Applied Econometrics	3

Business Immersion Pathway

The Business Immersion pathway will offer the opportunity to honors students to truly partake in experiential learning. Students will gain hands-on experience by delivering business solutions to a real-world organizations, for and non-profit. Students will present their work to business leaders.

The Business Immersion Pathway will enable students to:

• Analyze quantitative and qualitative data and articulate results through oral presentations and written deliverables to real world organizations.

• Utilize quantitative and qualitative data, as well as creativity and critical thinking, to shape business strategy for partner companies.

• Create a more inclusive business model by addressing real-world diversity, equity, and inclusion issues affecting profit and non-profit organizations.

• Practice their business acumen by challenging relevant issues in the workplace.

Suggested courses: Students should complete an honors business elective course before taking HNR 440 (3 credits).

Creative Pathway

The Creative Pathway is an opportunity for students to bring together the threads of personal, intellectual, and creative interests and weave them into a final product that demonstrates original research and exploration of the creative and conceptual. This is an opportunity to investigate and/or embrace unexplored or unexamined areas of interest. The Creative Capstone can vary in form, content, and execution, but unlike the traditional research capstones, the Creative Capstone offers a student the opportunity to envision, plan, and construct their own Honors experience, and in doing so, pushes at established parameters of academic scholarship. 

The Creative Pathway will enable students to:

• Explain and understand that their creative activities are not individual, isolated, and isolating, but social activities, and that they and their work are part of a much larger conversation and discursive field.

• Explore creative ways of expression by distinguishing a variety of interdisciplinary approaches.

• Design a project that expresses unexplored or unexamined areas of interest.

Suggested Courses: Students should take one course with a Context and Perspectives focus before completing the Capstone with HNR 450 (1 credit) and HNR 460 (2 credits). Please speak to advisor for a list of approved courses.

Research Project Pathway

The Research Project Pathway allows students to work with a faculty advisor to complete a scholarly research project. Scholarly projects should aim to make an original contribution to the academic literature. The Capstone research project can be multidisciplinary or use a singularly focused lens. There will not be any required course for the Research Pathway.

The Research Project Pathway will enable the students to:

• Demonstrate the ability to perform applied research in various contexts and use research conventions and technologies suitable to their research question and purpose to which the projects aim to address.

• Evaluate and compare the existing literature in the field(s) that their projects belong to.

• Assess and analyze quantitative and/or qualitative data and formulate solutions to the research questions their projects will address.

Suggested Courses: No set suggested courses.

Service-Learning Pathway

The Service-Learning Pathway will allow the students to participate in civic and service-learning opportunities that impact change outside of the classroom. It will also allow the students to lead, as well as foster their ability to be effective team members. Prior to working on their Service-Learning Honors project, students will take a one-credit service-learning course approved by the Honors Director that will prepare them for the culminating phase.

The Service-Learning Pathway will enable students to:

• Develop skills that enable them to work collaboratively and creatively on problem solving through experiential learning.

• Describe citizenship and one’s own sense of civic duty and commitment to social justice.

• Use community engagement experience to inform their own academic studies.

Suggested Courses: No set suggested courses; students will take a required one-credit service-learning course approved by the Honors Director.

Economics Pathway

Open only to Quantitative Economic (QE) and Business Economic (BE) majors, the Economics Pathway allows the students to work on a scholarly project related to their major. These projects are focused on students developing skills working with data and econometric analysis. Similar to the Scholarly Project Pathway, students write a proposal the semester before the project. Students then complete their Capstone project in either the Research in Business Economics (BE Major, EC 431) or Applied Econometrics (QE Major, EC 483) course. These courses are built into the Business Economics (BE) and Quantitative Economics (QE) Majors, respectively.

The Economics Pathway will enable the students to:

• Develop a research question and determine its contribution to an area of Economics literature.

• Gather the appropriate type of data to answer a research question and determine an econometric strategy. 

• Demonstrate the ability to apply highly rigorous econometric methods to economics research questions. 

Courses: Capstone process will be EC 431 for BE majors and EC 483 for QE majors. These courses have prerequisites as stipulated by each major.

Analytics Pathway 

Open only to Data Analytics (DA), Actuarial Science (ASC), and Mathematical Sciences (MA) majors, the Analytics Pathway allows students to work on a scholarly project related to their major. These projects focus on students developing skills working with data and applying analytics techniques to solve scientific or business problems. Students complete MA380-H and their Pathway Project within this course. MA380-H is the honors version of MA380. MA380 is a required course for the Data Analytics major and is an option for the Actuarial Science and Mathematical Sciences majors. 

 The Analytics Pathway will enable the students to:

1. Enhance their critical reading abilities and develop the skills necessary to replicate and enhance prior research or applied work products/case studies in the Analytics literature.

1. Gather the appropriate data, pre-process it, and apply various analytics techniques to arrive at a recommendation.
2. Demonstrate the ability to work with data, apply analytics techniques, and clearly communicate the findings of an analysis to a non-technical audience.

Course: Pathway process requires enrollment in MA380-H and the prior fulfillment of the prerequisites for MA380

Overall GPA Requirements

End of the first full semester at Bentley University: 3.3

End of the second full semester at Bentley University: 3.3

End of the third full semester at Bentley University: 3.4

End of the fourth full semester at Bentley University: 3.4

End of the fifth full semester at Bentley University to graduation: 3.5

All Honors students must graduate with at least a 3.5 overall GPA, regardless of circumstances.

On Notice Period

If a student does not achieve the required GPA at the end of a semester (fall, spring, or summer), the student will be automatically placed On Notice within the Honors Program and be given the subsequent semester after the term in which they fell below to raise their overall GPA to the required standards. Students who are On Notice must meet with a member of the Honors Program Leadership Team to develop a plan to support their academic success. If a student fails to meet the minimum Honors Program GPA requirement at the end of their first semester, the On Notice Period may be extended for another semester if the student’s GPA improves substantially. In order to obtain this extension, the student must meet with the Director of the Honors Program. If a student’s GPA does not improve substantially after the subsequent semester in which they fell below the required GPA and/or does not meet the required GPA after an extended on notice period, the student will be removed from the Honors Program. If the student is on a leave of absence from the University or studying abroad the subsequent semester, the first semester in which the student returns to campus will apply in raising their overall GPA to the required standards. Students who fall below the required overall GPA more than once will be removed from the Honors Program.

Students who have been removed from the Honors Program do have the option to submit an appeal. The Honors Leadership Team, in tandem with the Honors Faculty Council, will evaluate whether or not the extenuating circumstances directly and clearly adversely affected the student’s academic performance as well the student’s potential for satisfying the program requirements for graduation. Students whose appeals are granted will receive an additional On Notice semester to meet the required GPA minimum. No other grounds for appeal will be considered. 

Honors Program Academic Integrity Guidelines

These guidelines are a supplement to the Academic Integrity (AI) policy, which can be found in the Undergraduate Handbook and the Faculty Manual. The AI policy applies to all Bentley students, as well as the Bentley Honor Code, which reads as follows:

    As a Bentley student, I promise to act honorably in my courses and my professional endeavors, adhering to both the letter and spirit of Bentley’s academic integrity system. I will neither take advantage of my classmates nor betray the trust of my professors. My work will be honest and transparent, and I will hold myself and my peers accountable to the highest ethical standards.

Participation in the Honors Program is a privilege and, as such, students are subject to removal from it for breaches of AI policy. In addition to the university-wide AI policy, the following specific rules apply to Honors students:

1. Whenever an Honors student is determined to have committed a violation via the AI process, case materials are submitted to the AI Council for review. Each Council member then votes as to whether the violation warrants a Level I or Level II designation. In all instances, the student is still subject to any sanctions proposed by the submitting faculty and the normal review process (Level I or Level II) will thereafter ensue.

• If a majority of respondents deem the incident a Level I violation, the student may remain in the program.

• If a majority of respondents deem the incident a Level II violation, the student will be removed from the Honors Program.

• In instances where votes are evenly divided, the student may remain in the program and the incident designated Level I.

2. Any finding of a second violation through the normal AI process will result in removal from the Honors Program, regardless of violation level.

3. After a Level determination has been made by the Academic Integrity Council, an Honors student retains the right to take their case to an AI Hearing just as they would if they were not enrolled in the program. In these instances, the Hearing Panel will perform the normal duties of determining whether a violation occurred and the appropriate sanction.

4. If a Hearing Panel finds that the circumstances described in the incident report submitted to the Academic Integrity Council differ materially from those discovered during the Hearing, the Director, in consultation with the Panel, will refer the case back to the Academic Integrity Council for further review and a new vote regarding the violation level.

Additional procedural notes:

• When a finding requiring removal occurs, the student and the Honors Program Director are notified by the Office of Academic Integrity. When a pending incident report may impact graduation privileges, the Office of Academic Integrity will inform the Honors Director of its existence without any details.

• There will be no appeal of removal under any circumstances except, as specified in the university AI policy, to the Provost.

• Confidentiality will be maintained throughout this process. Faculty, staff, and students will only be notified of the violation on a need-to-know basis.

• A student removed from the program after receiving a medallion and Honors Program certificate must return both before graduation upon request by the Honors Director.

• If a student falls below the required Honors GPA as a result of an AI sanction, they will be automatically removed from the Honors Program.