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Honors Program

Location: Room AH 102

Phone: 619-388-3512

Each year over 500 students participate in City College's Honors Program. Honors classes are stimulating, engaging, and offer a greater level of depth while emphasizing student involvement, participation, and performance.

The City College Honors Program offers three different options for participation: the Honors Core, Honors Courses, and Honors Contracts.

The Honors Core

A two semester learning community. The Honors Core begins every fall semester and features a team taught Honors English 101 course linked to Honors Sociology 101.  During the spring semester the entire Honors Core cohort progresses to a second learning community linking Honors English 205 with Honors Humanities 101. The Honors Core allows for a relationship of complex ideas that can be explored over an extended period of time.  Academic skill-building is reinforced, and a stronger sense of community is developed among all participants in the program. Students must maintain good academic standing in order to progress to the following semester. For more information contact the Honors Program office, Room AH-102 phone number (619) 388-3512.

Honors Courses

Outside of the Honors Core, courses are offered in several different subjects every semester. They are identified on the class schedule by an Honors designation. These courses are open to any student and do not require an application. They explore topics in greater depth and breadth; honors students encounter a range of historical, technical and cultural points of view that they may not experience in a non-honors section of the same course.

Honors Contracts

Completing an honors contract is the most popular way that students participate in Honors. An honors contract is a mutual agreement reached between a student and a professor to enhance a course through honors level objectives and tasks that are completed in addition to the regular classwork. 

Honors contract requirements may include additional readings, writing, and/or special projects. The biggest advantage of honors contracts is that they allow students to explore their favorite subjects in greater depth and compile the honors units they need to transfer while accommodating students' schedules. Almost any course can be converted into honors; the only stipulations are that the course must be 100-level or higher and occur during the Fall or Spring Semesters. Honors is not available during summer school or intersession.  

How to Sign Up for an Honors Contract

Student and Faculty Responsibilities:
  1. The student lets their professor know that they’d like to complete an Honors Contract for their class. The student and professor go over the Honors Course Objectives and choose at least three to focus on in their Honors work in the class.
  2. The professor will go to their College Faculty Dashboard landing page, navigate to their “College Faculty Schedule.” 
    1. Click on the Class Number and select “Follow-Up” from the pop-up menu. 
    2. Under the “Follow-Up Reason” column, select “Honors” from the drop-down menu.
    3. Enter comments (optional)
    4. Click the “Follow-Up” button to confirm.
Student Responsibility:
  1. Shortly after the professor does their part, the student will be notified to sign up for an honors contract via “My To-Do List.” This will appear as "Apply for honors." 
  2. A pop-up notification will direct the student to the “My Classes” section of their "College Student Dashboard” landing page.
  3. The student will then click on the class number to access the pop-up menu. From the pop-up menu, select "Apply for Honors" to access the honors contract. 
  4. The student will need to review and fill out the application for the honors contract. To complete this step, students will need to:
      1. Select Three honors objectives.
      2. Fill out the comments field (optional).
      3. Check the acknowledgment box and click Submit.

That's it. It's that easy. 

Remote/Online Learning 

The Honors Program is now accepting Honors Contracts in REMOTE, HYBRID, and WEB (fully online) classes. In order to complete an Honors Contract, talk to your professor during the first two weeks of class.

Contracts are made at the discretion of the professor and with the assistance of campus honors coordinators. All contracts will be verified with your professor, so please be sure that your professor is in agreement.

If you are interested in the City College Honors Program please contact the Honors Program Office or one of our Coordinators:

We look forward to hearing from you!

Transfer Agreements 

The City College Honors Program offers access to several transfer agreements with partner universities including UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, Pomona College and more. For more information on our agreement with UCLA please follow this link: UCLA TAP. For more information on agreements with other universities, please click here: Honors Transfer Council of California. If you would like to talk to an Honors Coordinator about your transfer options, please contact Hector Martinez at hmartine@sdccd.edu