Introduction

The University Honors Program offers excellent faculty and talented, motivated students the opportunity to form a community of conversation about great books and enduring questions. From Socrates to Sartre and Homer to T.S. Eliot, in a two year course of studies, our freshmen and sophomores investigate the Western tradition and its increasingly global expression in seminars that offer multiple perspectives on each of six historical periods. The disciplines of philosophy, literature, and history are the common threads in our curriculum; courses in the arts, and social sciences complement and broaden our vision--and also insure that program graduates have satisfied almost all University Core requirements. Honors students learn to read perceptively and critically; they defend, clarify and adjust their ideas in the give and take of class discussions; and they develop skills in research, analytic and interpretative writing which they share, critique and edit in small groups. Honors students are thus excellently prepared for whatever major they may choose upon completion of the Program--or whatever career they enter after graduation.

The students form a close community at Seattle University. Whether working and studying together, attending cultural events, reading and seeing a play, joining together in a service project, or honoring each other at a year end dinner, students share an intellectual odyssey and celebrate the life of the mind.

Upon admission to the University, selected students are sent a letter of invitation to apply to the program.