New Student Orientation

Welcome, Class of 2026! We can’t wait to meet you when you arrive on campus for new student orientation. Below, we’ve shared some helpful tips to help you maximize your orientation experience.

An Introduction to the Honors College

The Value of Honors
A Smaller Community Within a Larger Campus Community
  • Trains students to engage critically with the world for decades to come
  • Students learn multiple analytical methods and have opportunities to integrate knowledge across disciplines
  • Students are deeply engaged in a broader scholarly community
  • Access to a team of devoted mentors and endless opportunities
Advising and Mentoring Support
  • Four-year advising model
  • We will pair you with an Honors Advisor who will develop a long-term mentoring relationship with you.
  • Each student will be paired with a Career Success Coach from the Career Center.
Honors Curriculum
Honors Core (22 credit hours)
  • HONS 100: Introduction to Beyond George Street
  • HONS 110: Academic Writing
  • At least one Honors foundation course
  • A quantitative literacy course
  • At least two courses from the Exploring Complexity and Diversity Colloquium series
  • At least one advanced studies HONS course at the 200-level or above
Honors Directed* (9 credit hours)
  • Honors Immersed
  • Bachelor’s Essay
    *These requirements do not need to be HONS and can be completed within your major.
Honors Engaged
  • Civic engagement project introduced in Beyond George Street and completed with regular work through the end of the first year
  • Two tracks: Direct Service and Deliberative Democracy
  • Projects focused on critical needs and populations in the Charleston community
  • You will be introduced to the projects, will complete an application in which you indicate your preferences, and then will be matched with a project
  • You will prepare a proposal that incorporates academic research related to your project and that outlines your engagement through second semester
  • You will submit a reflective narrative and final project report at the end of the second semester
Some of Our Honors Engaged Direct Service Partners 
Our Honors Engaged Deliberative Democracy Themes 
  • Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Food Security
  • Affordable Housing
  • Health and Wellness
  • Liberty, Justice and Democracy
  • Education
  • Environmental Sustainability

Honors College Advising Session

PRE-REGISTRATION
  • All incoming students have an assigned advising time on day two of their new student orientation (8:30, 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, etc.).
  • Honors advising takes place in the Rita Hollings Center, upstairs in room 200/202. Please plan to arrive ten minutes before your scheduled advising time.
  • Our office manager Mary Moser will help you through the pre-registration process, and will introduce you to your Honors advisor.
THE REGISTRATION PROCESS

You’ll register for classes using the Registration Tools tile on MyPortal (https://myportal.cofc.edu).

The College’s IT team has detailed instructions for registering through MyPortal.

USING DEGREEWORKS

DegreeWorks is a platform that helps you track your academic progress and plan out your courses for the next four years. You can learn more about DegreeWorks and how to conduct a DegreeWorks audit with the help of this article and this quick guide.

DECLARING A MAJOR

At this time, students still use our old platform, MyCharleston, to declare a major. You can login to MyCharleston using the same credentials you use for MyPortal. Navigate to the Academic Services tab, and scroll down to the Program of Study Management (POSM) system.

The Program of Study Management (POSM) system is where you can declare, change, and undeclared majors/minors. There’s a webpage dedicated to using the POSM system, along with an FAQ to help you through the process.

TIPS FOR A SMOOTH REGISTRATION PROCESS

The Classes You’ll Sign Up For

  • All of you will sign up for HONS 100 (Beyond George Street)
  • You will then sign up for one additional Honors class:
    • HONS 110: Honors Academic Writing
    • An Honors natural science Foundations course
    • An Honors humanities or social science Foundations course
  • You’ll round out your schedule with:
    • General Education classes
    • Courses in your declared major, if appropriate

Waiving AP/IB/Transfer Credit

  • BIOL and MBIO who qualify for HONS 151+L should strongly consider waiving their AP/IB BIOL credits
  • Pre-med students with AP Chem credits should strongly consider waiving them as well
  • PHYS, CSCI, ASTR, MATH students with AP Calc AB/BC should strongly consider waiving them as well
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