The honors program at Ohio State is designed to meet the needs of students with superior academic ability and to promote scholarly development throughout their college careers. By challenging themselves with advanced levels of study and enrichment programs, honors students can optimize the use of their creative abilities and develop a sustaining interest in advanced education and research. The College of Public Health offers honors students several ways through which they can distinguish themselves, including designation as an honors student, Graduation with Honors in Public Health, undergraduate research, and graduation with distinction.
Applying to the College of Public Health honors program
Students who have completed a minimum of 15 credits at The Ohio State University and have a minimum 3.4 GPA who are currently Bachelor of Science of Public Health pre-majors or majors can apply to the honors program using the honors application. The application will be reviewed by the honors committee, whose members represent the colleges of Public Health and Arts and Sciences.
Students who are already honors students in another college at Ohio State, and then switch to the College of Public Health (either as a pre-major or a major) do not need to re-apply to the honors program. These students are only required to complete an honors contract with a College of Public Health academic advisor.
Students directly admitted to the university honors program do not need to fill out the honors application, but they do need to complete an honors contract with a College of Public Health academic advisor.
The honors contract and program requirements
After students are admitted to the honors program in Public Health, they are required to meet with a College of Public Health academic advisor to complete the honors contract. The contract includes a list of courses that students will complete as part of the honors program as well as a preliminary selection of an honors capstone Experience. Download the honors checklist.
Public Health honors students are required to complete six honors or upper division (3000+) or graduate-level courses over the first three years of study. At maximum, two honors embedded courses may be completed. Students cannot apply upper division (3000+) courses that are required for the BSPH major towards honors requirements. Additionally, PUBHLTH 3180E will not count as an honors course.
Similar to all BSPH students, those in the honors program must complete a public health capstone experience. However, honors students must complete an honors version of the capstone, described below.
Maintaining honors status
Honors students must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.4 or higher at the end of every academic year. Additionally, to remain active in the honors program students must fulfill the requirements of the approved honors contract.
Honors capstone experiences
All honors students must complete an honors capstone experience. Regardless of the specific capstone type (e.g., study abroad, internship, research thesis), all honors students are expected to complete an independent project, write a report describing the project and present the project to a committee of two faculty members. Get information about the capstone requirements.
Graduating with honors
Students who complete an honors research thesis plus required honors course requirements, and maintain a minimum 3.4 GPA, are eligible to graduate with honors research distinction in public health. Students who complete the honors internship or honors field experience (study abroad) plus required honors course requirements, and maintain a minimum 3.4 GPA, are eligible to graduate with honors in public health.
