Honors Study Abroad

The Honors Core Abroad

Honors students may count one 200-level course abroad as part of their second Humanities core requirement for English, History, Philosophy, or Theology without writing an additional paper to elevate the level.

Additional 200-level courses to be counted toward the second Humanities core requirements in Honors will require an additional paper, as outlined below.

Honors students may not fulfill their Honors Fine Arts core requirement abroad.

Honors students slated to study abroad in the near future will receive (or will have received) an email from Prof. Birgit Albrecht, Associate Director of the Honors Program, who advises our students studying abroad. Students should read Dr. Albrecht's emails carefully and make sure to send her a list of the courses they plan to take while abroad. If Honors students need to make changes to the approved schedule subsequently, they should run those by Dr. Albrecht, as well.

Honors Paper Guidelines

In order to ensure that courses taken for Honors credit during study abroad programs meet Honors Program requirements for rigor and scope, certain courses will require an additional Honors paper. The paper should be an integral part of the student’s exploration of the course material, and it should be undertaken as part of the semester’s work rather than as an assignment tacked on at the end. Students should be aware of this requirement at the time of registration. (See rubric of courses that require the Honors paper.) 

The Honors paper should meet these basic requirements:

• 10-14-page research paper
• Engages primary and secondary sources
• Articulates a clear argument

The paper should adhere to these basic guidelines as well as discipline-specific guidelines:

• English Department Guidelines
• History Department Guidelines
• Philosophy Department Guidelines
• Theology Department Guidelines

Timelines/Procedures

The paper must be read and graded (pass/fail) by a Loyola faculty member.  The Assistant Director of the Honors Program will help students identify an appropriate Loyola faculty member, based upon the course being taken and the student’s ideas about what topic(s) she or he might wish to explore. 

Once the faculty member has been identified, the student should be in touch with the Loyola professor to determine a suitable topic. This topic must be agreed upon by the student and the reader no later than the mid-point in the Study Abroad program. (The Honors Program highly recommends that the topic be chosen as soon as possible.)

The paper must be submitted to the Office of International Programs (OIP) and the Loyola faculty reader by the time the Immersion Research Project is due to OIP (within 30 days of the last day of the program). The student is responsible for timely communication with the Loyola faculty reader. If revisions of the paper are necessary, the student must resubmit the paper with requested revisions within 2 weeks of the response by the Loyola reader. 

If a paper (or the requested revision) is not completed on time, or if the paper is not ultimately given a passing grade, the course cannot count for Honors and becomes an elective. 

Courses that Require the Honors Paper

Courses taken abroad are given an equivalency by the Loyola department in which they will count. The list below refers to the course number assigned by the Loyola department.

The table below details courses that require the Honors Paper in order to count as the second core Humanities course in HN:

Department	HN paper required	HN paper NOT required
History	Any 300 level course	Any course 410 or above
English/Literature	Any 200 level course	Any 300 level course
Philosophy	Any 200 level course	Any course 321 or above*
Theology	Any 200 level course	Any course 321 or above*

*cannot be a Logic or Ethics course