Honors Core
The foundation of your LMU education takes place in what is called the “core curriculum”—a set of courses that introduce you to a breadth of topics, develop your communication and critical thinking skills, and connect themes from different disciplines to answer life’s big questions. Honors students take a different set of core courses from the general LMU core in Honors-dedicated sections. Honors core courses are structured as seminars that emphasize deep understanding of the material through active student engagement, and are taken exclusively with other Honors students. Our classes are generally capped at 15 students, giving you a chance to investigate course topics more fully and connect with faculty and fellow students more meaningfully.
Below are tables comparing the general LMU Core to the Honors Core. The Honors Core is the same "size" (in terms of units) as the regular LMU Core, so membership in Honors will not prevent you from pursuing second majors or minors. The PDF files below offer detail customized for each College showing what your core curriculum will look like as an Honors student.
Foundations
| LMU Core | Honors Core |
|---|---|
| First Year Seminar | Honors First Year Seminar |
| Rhetorical Arts | Honors Literary Analysis |
| Quantitative Reasoning | Waived |
| Theological Inquiry | Honors Theological Inquiry |
| Philosophical Inquiry | Honors Philosophical Inquiry |
| Studies in American Diversity | General LMU Studies in American Diversity |
| Introduction to Honors Colloquium (1 unit) | |
| Research and Exhibition Colloquium (1 unit) |
Explorations
| LMU Core | Honors Core |
|---|---|
| Creative Experience | General LMU Creative Experience* |
| Historical Analysis and Perspectives | Honors Historical Analysis and Perspectives |
| Nature of Science, Technology, and Math | Honors Nature of Science, Technology and Math** |
| Understanding Human Behavior | General LMU Understanding Human Behavior* |
| The Edge of What We Know (1 unit) |
* Waived for students in the Seaver College of Science and Engineering; ** Fulfilled by the major for students in the Seaver College of Science and Engineering
Integrations
| LMU Core | Honors Core |
|---|---|
| Faith and Reason | General LMU Faith and Reason |
| Interdisciplinary Connections | Waived |
| Ethics and Justice | Honors Beyond Good and Evil |
| Honors Thesis*** |
*** Can be fulfilled by thesis requirements within a major
Note that Honors students do not need to meet the Flag requirements of the general LMU core.
See the following PDF files for more information about Honors Core requirements in each college:
HNRS Core Curriculum 2024-25 (BCLA CBA CFA SFTV)
HNRS Core Curriculum 2024-25 (SCSE)
For information about recent course offerings, see this page.