Prospective Students

Albion College's Honors Program

Our Honors Program is not like High School Honors, our classes are all discussion based, no tests or exams. Classes are not harder, it’s not more work, it’s about critical thinking, looking outside the box. Discussing topics that are interesting and enlightening and having that good conversation, along with learning what your peers think and maybe hearing a different take on something that you read.

Albion College’s Honors Program provides an exciting and unique variety of academic experiences for highly motivated and talented students. The Program’s mix of small discussion-based classes, independent research, and personal attention provides Honors students with special challenges and opportunities for growth. Many of the College’s finest teachers and scholars regularly contribute to the Program’s curriculum.

The Program provides honors students with opportunities to participate in museum and theatre excursions, our Honors Student Council, various campus symposia, the hosting of distinguished campus visitors and a variety of other social and intellectual activities.

The Honors Program at Albion was founded in 1976 and in August of 2004 it was renamed The Prentiss M. Brown Honors Program. The Honors Program is located in the historic Observatory building and contains a seminar room for honors classes, the Honors coordinator’s office, as well as meeting, lounge/library, computing and study areas for honors students and their guests.

Thank you for your interest in the Honors Program. Most students apply and are admitted to the Brown Honors Program in their senior year of high school. We invite you to come to campus and be a “Student for a Day” sit in on classes, meet with professors, coaches, lunch with students, have your Honors Interview – schedule your special day today! You may begin the process of applying to the Program through our online application. If you would like to learn more about the program just click on the link and sign up for a Virtual Honors Information Session.

Courses & Descriptions

Apply to Honors

Events for Spring 2024

  • Come be a “Albion College Honors Student” for day – schedule with Renee or Admissions
  • Ice Skating
  • Escape Room Trip
  • Murder Mystery Dinner
  • Movie & Game Nights
  • Trivia Pursuit Night
  • De-Stress Evening – Food & Activities
  • Elkin Isaac / Honors Convocation – Thursday, April 18
  • Study Dessert – Thursday, April 25 @ 6:00pm
  • More events are being planned throughout the semester – Any and all suggestions are welcome!

Events that honors students will have the option to attend in Spring 2024

Research projects our students are working on now:

Madison Brilley ’25 – I am currently helping start up our first Pre-Veterinary Medicine Club.  Through this club pre-vet students or prospective pre-vet students can learn what veterinary medicine is by club shadowing, workshops, and more!

Emily Abramczyk ’23 – My Summer FURSCA project, I started analyzing how ping pong proved to be an important catalyst in establishing relations between the U.S. and China during a time when the two countries had no formal diplomatic relations with each other and attempts by Chinese and American leaders to use traditional, high level political channels to try to establish talks with each other kept resulting in failure. Although some may argue that sports play a divisive role in international interactions due to highly competitive attitudes intensifying rivalries, through my research, I argue that ping pong diplomacy was beneficial to fostering positive U.S.-China relations, both politically and culturally, as the 1972 ping pong exchange intertwined political and athletic competition in order to elevate sports to a level of diplomacy. I wanted to demonstrate that sports competitions create mutual empathy between two groups of people and ease political tensions through people to people interactions, which in turn leads to the greater impact of two governments establishing political relations on the basis of friendship. Therefore, ping pong diplomacy created specifically sports based international contacts between the U.S. and China, and in doing so, sparked diplomatic conversations about global partnerships, efforts to bridge cultural differences, and the importance of athletic empathy as a central element in U.S.-China relations that transcended traditional political negotiations.”

Luke Rivard 24’ – Currently, I am in the process of my Thesis, it consists of three performance guides for Francis Poulenc’s flute, oboe, and clarinet sonatas as well as a theoretical analysis of the three pieces as parts of a whole. I am also in an honors class called Women in Media which has interesting discussions and readings. I’ve also been preparing for graduate program applications and auditions for which my thesis will be a large part of my portfolio.

 

 

Where our 2022 graduates are headed:

  • Working for Dana Incorporated as a Financial Analyst
  • PhD program at Penn State University in I/O Psychology
  • I plan on joining the work force now
  • Masters at University of Detroit-Mercy for clinical mental health counseling
  • I will be attending medical school at Central Michigan University.
  • Attending Michigan State University for a Master’s in Social Work, specializing in addiction treatment and veterinary social work.
  • I’ll be attending grad school at Western, and am currently working at SAFEPlace, a domestic violence shelter.
  • I plan to go to graduate school for genetic counseling. If I don’t get in this cycle work for a year and re apply.
  • I plan on working during my gap year while studying for the LSat before going to Law School
  • gap year working at the U of M hopefully!!
  • Will be attending MSU for a Masters in Social Work, specializing in addiction therapy and animal therapy
  • I start working for Ernst and Young LLP in their tax division in La Jolla, CA starting January 2021 until then I plan on studying and passing the CPA exams
  • I’m doing a service year with City Year DC
  • I will be taking a gap year. During that time, I hope to work as an English tutor or participate in internships for relevant career skills such as copywriting, editing, etc. I will also be pursuing the possibility of publication in journals relevant to my discipline and academic interests, whether they be peer-reviewed open journals, journals dedicated to undergraduate research, journals of literary criticism, etc. After that, I hope to pursue graduate degrees in English Literature, Education, or Advertising/Technical Writing.
  • Peace Corps
  • Attending The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law
  • Next semester I will be attending a Marine Science Masters program through San Francisco State University’s Estuary and Ocean Science Center known as RIPTIDES (Research Intensive Pedagogical Training of InterDisciplinary Estuarine Scientists). I will be studying the great white shark population at the Farallon Islands off the coast of California and looking into the effects of tourism and chumming.
  • Law school at Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law