Honors
Want to take your college experience up a notch? Central College’s Honors Program is for students who dream big, work hard and want more than the “typical” college path. You’ll team up with professors one-on-one, dive into projects that actually excite you and finish with a Senior Honors Project that’s totally yours — whether that’s research, something creative or a mix of both.
Graduate with Honors, and you’ll stand out for med school, law school, grad school — or for jobs in teaching, research, communications and the arts.
Got a 3.5 GPA at Central? You’re in the zone. You can even start exploring Honors your very first semester. If you’re curious, creative or love problem-solving, Honors could be your perfect fit. Our faculty can’t wait to see what you’ll bring to the table.
Beyond Central
Successful Careers
- Associate professor of Latin American Politics, Allegheny College, Penn.
- Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University
- Software Engineer at IBM, Houston, Texas
- Clinical Research Associate, Medpace Pharmaceuticals, Cincinnati
- Neurologist, University of Kansas Hospital, Kansas City
- Chief Creative Director and co-founder of ART NOT WAR, a creative agency and production company specializing in multimedia for social justice campaigns.
- Teen Librarian at the Rochester, Minnesota Public Library
- Small Mammals Keeper, Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines
- Applications Programmer, Henderson Manufacturing, Manchester, Iowa
Graduate Placement
- Drake University Law School
- D. Program, University of Iowa
- Dental School, University of Iowa
- D./Ph.D., Duke Medical School
- D. Program, University of Nebraska
- Palmer College of Chiropractic
- Master’s in Public Policy, University of Chicago
- D. Program, University of Kentucky College of Medicine
Honors Organizations
- Phi Sigma Tau, Philosophy Honor Society, Central College Chapter
- Beta Beta Beta, Biology Honor Society, Central College Chapter Pi Nu
- Kappa Mu Epsilon, Mathematics Honor Society, Central College Chapter
- Psi Chi, National Honor Society of the American Psychological Association, Central College Chapter
- Phi Alpha Theta, National History Honor Society, Central College Chapter
- Pi Sigma Alpha, National Honor Society of Political Science, Central College Chapter
- Alpha Psi Omega, Theatre National Honor Society
Recent Internships
- Federal Reserve, Chicago
- Computer Science Research Experience, Center for Educational Informatics, North Carolina State University
- Physics Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF), University of Maryland
- Biology Summer Research, Des Moines University
- Summer Research Intern, Chicago Botanic Garden
- Physics Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF), Oak Ridge National Laboratory + University of Tennessee
- Web Programmer Internship, Alliance Technologies, Des Moines, Iowa
- Medical Sciences Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF), Mayo Clinic
- Physics Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF), Center for Research in Extreme Scale Technologies at Indiana University
- Biology Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF), University of Iowa
- Conservation Laws and Applications Mathematics Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF), University of Wyoming
The Central Difference
Honors Seminars
Honors Seminars group students together from a variety of disciplines to explore topics from an interdisciplinary perspective. These one-semester-hour courses are often taken by first-year students as their introduction to the Emerging Scholars Program.
Honors Enrichment Credit
At Central, every course can be an honors course by adding an Honors Enrichment Credit to any course in which you have special interest. Through honors enrichments, you have the opportunity to work closely with a professor to dig deeper into a subject of interest. Generally taken in the second year of study, enrichments help build mentorship relationships that can lead to other opportunities such as summer research and senior honors thesis.
Senior Honors Thesis
The capstone of the Emerging Scholars Program is the Senior Honors Thesis, a significant research project spearheaded by the student, and supervised by a faculty member and second reader. Students who complete a thesis distinguish themselves when applying for graduate school, fellowships and employment.