RESEARCH COURSEWORK AND PATHWAY
The Honors Program curriculum includes HP Classes focused on research and also includes courses (up to a combined total of six credits) offered by two premier Georgia Tech research partner programs--the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program, and the President’s Undergraduate Research Awards (PURA) program--and HP-Authorized Independent Research Courses (up to three credits). VIP courses and PURA salary-award audit courses share the characteristic elements of Honors Program classes and allow Honors Program students to pursue their research passion while earning credits counted toward the Honors Program curriculum. Honors Program students must apply and be accepted to the VIP program to enroll in VIP courses, and must apply and win PURA salary awards to enroll in associated audit courses. HP-Authorized Independent Research Courses allow students to pursue their research passion with Georgia Tech faculty members.
NON-HP RESEARCH CREDITS: VIP, PURA, AND HP-AUTHORIZED INDEPENDENT RESEARCH
Because our HP students have diverse research interests—beyond those we can offer as HP Classes—we encourage HP students to pursue the following three options for counting up to six non-HP credits toward HP requirements. Note that VIP courses, PURA research, and HP-authorized independent research courses all can count both toward the HP curricular requirement and to the HP Pathway in Research.
- Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) letter-grade course credits (up to 6 credits)
- For information on VIP teams: http://www.vip.gatech.edu/teams.
- To apply for a VIP team: http://www.vip.gatech.edu/how-undergraduate-students-apply.
- President’s Undergraduate Research Awards (PURA) course audit credits earned in departmental courses numbered 2698 or 4698 that are associated with a PURA salary award (up to 6 credits)
- PURA audit credits can count toward the HP curricular requirement and/or the HP Pathway in Research.
- For information on PURA salary awards & application links: http://urop.gatech.edu/salary-awards.
- Form to request authorization of PURA credit for the Honors Program.
- HP-Authorized Independent Research Course letter-grade credits (up to 3 credits)
The HP will recognize non-HP Independent Research Course credits (up to a total of 3) toward the 15-credit HP curricular requirement for research courses that are:
- offered as Georgia Tech courses (special problems, undergraduate research, independent study, or similar–typically have the course number 2699 or 4699),
- offered by Georgia Tech instructors in Georgia Tech academic departments,
- completed for credit (not for pay), and
- completed on a letter-grade basis ("B" or better).
HP students may count any combination of VIP (up to 6), PURA (up to 6), and HP-Authorized Independent Research Course credits (up to 3) credits toward the 15-credit HP curricular requirement or Distinction in the Research Pathway. For example:
- 6 VIP = 6
- 6 PURA = 6
- 4 VIP + 2 PURA = 6
- 3 VIP + 3 HP-Authorized Independent Research Course = 6
- 2 VIP + 2 PURA + 2 HP-Authorized Independent Research Course = 6
