Fall 2024/Spring 2025

HCOL 1000/HCOL 1500

The Patrick Leahy Honors College experience begins in the fall semester of the first year with a variety of special topic courses that all fulfill UVM’s Foundational Writing and Information Literacy (FWIL) requirement.  These courses are taught in a seminar format with a small number of students in each section.

In the spring semester, first-year HCOL students then continue on to a new selection of special topics courses, which fulfill either one of the University's two diversity course requirements (D1 or D2) or the Sustainability requirement (SU). Spring semester courses build on the writing-intensive experience from HCOL 1000 and additionally introduce students to public speaking and collaborative group work.

Through these first-year courses, students become well-acquainted with each other and the Honors College faculty. By living with fellow honors students, and attending social hours and other events, they create together an exciting intellectual community.

In addition to meeting two or three times a week in their individual seminar groups, first year students also encounter the following:

Summer Reading and Writing

Every summer, incoming first-year students read a book that is distributed to the entire cohort and complete an essay that is due on the first day of their section of HCOL 1000 in the fall.  In the summer of 2023, the students in HCOL 1000 will read a book yet to be determined. Here is more information about past First Year Summer Reading Assignment.

Common Hour

The entire first-year cohort additionally has Wednesday evenings from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. open on their schedules so that they are able to attend workshops and events related to academic advising and the first-year experience.  This is additionally a time when Honors College students all know that they are available to study together or collaborate on group assignments.