Gwynedd Mercy University 2025-2026 University Catalog 91
Director: Patrick Messina, PhD
HONORS PROGRAM
Mission Students who are enrolled in undergraduate degree programs may be invited to participate in the Honors Program based on admission criteria. The Honors Program provides an academically rigorous and challenging curriculum, steeped in the liberal arts and sciences, to the University’ s brightest and most industrious students. The Program is committed to preserving an academic culture that inspires a genuine eros for learning. Honors courses are designed to delve deeply into their subject matters in a way that allows students and professors to enter into a conversation of discovery.
Program Description The Honors Program is a 6-course, alternative general education curriculum designed according to a modern interpretation of the original, medieval“ artes liberals( liberal arts).” Each course comprising the Program falls under one of the following categories: dialectic, rhetoric, grammar( trivium); math, science, music( quadrivium). There is a variety of courses within each category, all of which substitute for an appropriately corresponding general education course.
Type: Term Program Modality: On-Ground
Admission Requirements First-Year / Transfer Students
• 3.5 GPA
• Interview with Honors Program Director
Current Students
• 3.33 cumulative GPA
• One letter of recommendation from faculty
• Interview with Honors Program Director
Completion Requirements
• Six Honors courses
• 3.0 Honors Program GPA, plus 3.33 cumulative GPA in an undergraduate program
Curriculum Students in the Honors Program take six courses in these artes liberales: Trivium Dialectic: philosophy, religious studies, history Rhetoric: English, political science, communication, history, philosophy Grammar: English, communication, history, religious studies, philosophy, language Quadrivium Music: music, drama, art history, English, communication, philosophy, history, religious studies Mathematics Science: interpreted as physical and social sciences