Advising
Like all UMW students, Honors scholars will receive first-year or pre-major advising from their FSEM instructors, and will transition to a disciplinary advisor when they declare a major. Additionally, however, Honors scholars will be assigned as advisees to Dr. Kelli Slunt, Director of the Honors Program, and Dr. Mara Scanlon, Associate Director of the Honors Program, throughout the entirety of their undergraduate experience. It’s one of our greatest pleasures in these positions to help guide students through meaningful course selection, talk through plans for in-depth research and creative projects that they are passionate about, and assist as they develop themselves as young citizens and professionals ready to bring their gifts to the broader world.
Advising from the Honors staff is just one of the ways that the program offers close mentoring by faculty, which is reinforced in small Honors-designated course sections and, in your final year, through the dialogue with and guidance from your personal faculty mentor for the capstone project.
Priority Registration
One of the most practical benefits of being in the Honors Program is access to priority registration for classes. This accommodation recognizes that Honors scholars may well be balancing unusually demanding academics with other campus and community activities, and that such students may be prepared even early in their undergraduate education for the intensive courses that are otherwise accessible through registration only to advanced students. Priority registration takes place on the Thursday and Friday prior to the start of general preregistration each semester.