Curriculum Planning and Example Plans

It is possible to graduate early with Interdisciplinary Honors, though it does depend on the major and how many credits a student brings in. Students must reach 180 credits to graduate, which means that students who graduate early typically come in with some AP/IB/Running Start credit or take summer courses. If a student completes their General Education requirements, major requirements, Interdisciplinary Honors requirements, and has reached 180 credits, they can graduate early with Interdisciplinary Honors!

Around 20 students graduate early with Interdisciplinary Honors each year. Most of these students are graduating 1-2 quarters early, but we routinely have a handful of students who finish their degree with Interdisciplinary Honors in 3 years or less.

Interdisciplinary Honors students graduate with double majors more frequently than the rest of the UW population: about 20% of Interdisciplinary and College Honors graduates graduate with a double major or dual degree (compared to about 11% of all UW graduates), and many more of them graduate with minors! That said, double-majoring and minoring with Interdisciplinary Honors is highly dependent on your chosen majors. Some majors or minors are much more credit-intensive than others, making it harder to fit in two majors or a minor and Interdisciplinary Honors. Likewise, some majors or minors might have a lot of overlapping requirements, which would make it easier to double major or minor.

If you have questions about your specific interests and plans for a double major or minors with Interdisciplinary Honors, schedule an advising appointment. Depending on your situation, you might choose to pursue a double-major or minors instead of Interdisciplinary Honors, and that’s okay!

Like double majoring, the feasibility of a dual degree with Honors depends on the chosen degrees (find more information about what constitutes a dual degree vs. a double major here). If you can count on some degree of overlap, or use Honors to fulfill a lot of your general education requirements in both degrees, then yes, a dual degree might be possible! Keep in mind that a dual degree requires you to complete 225 credits to complete your degrees, instead of the standard 180, so students coming in with no or few additional credits from AP/IB/Running Start should expect to take Summer Quarters and/or a 5th year at UW.

We occasionally jointly-list Honors-prefix courses with other programs’ courses, and these courses can count towards both programs’ requirements. However, to make sure you get Interdisciplinary Honors credit, students should always register for the Interdisciplinary Honors section of the course. You will need to contact your major/minor adviser to have your course counted towards your major/minor requirements. Look at the descriptions of courses on our Courses Webpage to see which courses are jointly-listed.

• Ex: In Winter 2025, HONORS 394: Indigenous Dispossession and Racial Slavery: Twin Tools of Settler Colonialism was jointly-listed with CHID 250. An Interdisciplinary Honors student majoring or minoring in CHID would register for HONORS 394 and contact the CHID adviser to have the course counted towards their CHID requirements.

Some majors and minors allow Honors courses to count towards their requirements, most often as electives, when Honors courses have a significant overlap with the content or educational goals for that major. Often, these courses are taught by instructors whose home department is in that major or closely related to that major. Restrictions on the amount of overlap is determined by the major. Honors does not have any restrictions on overlapping Honors-prefix courses with major/minor requirements. Please check with your departmental adviser about any possibility of overlapping Honors-prefix courses with major requirements. Note that, even if you can petition for courses to count towards your requirements, it is never guaranteed.

Absolutely! There are a few ways students might overlap their electives with their major or minor requirements:

• Honors-prefix courses: see above
• Honors Math & Sciences Electives: Honors Math & Sciences electives can count towards major requirements/prerequisites of majors that require those sequences. For example, students who need to complete General Chemistry can take the Honors General Chemistry series to fulfill both major requirements and Interdisciplinary Honors Elective requirements.
• Ad Hoc: students can complete up to 10 credits of ad hoc in 5 credit, decimal-graded courses to count towards their Honors electives. Students can ad hoc courses in their major or minor if they choose and if the course meets the requirements for Ad Hoc. Note that students cannot overlap Interdisciplinary Honors ad hoc requirements and Departmental Honors requirements and students cannot ad hoc courses that count towards their Departmental Honors requirements.
• Graduate-level credit: Students can receive Honors credit for 4-5 credit, decimal-graded graduate-level courses, so long as they meet the requirements listed on our website. Students who take graduate-level coursework in their major could have these courses count towards their major requirements, though they should check with their departmental adviser first.

Pre-health professional requirements can certainly be intensive and time-consuming. Your ability to complete these requirements with Interdisciplinary Honors might depend on your major. Please refer to UAA’s comprehensive pre-health planning website and planning guides for more information about many of the pre-health professional options you might be interested in pursuing. Note that AP and IB courses DO NOT count towards most medical or other health professional school application requirements, but Running Start and College in the High School courses might.

Some majors have a lot of overlap with pre-health courses. For example, Biology requires a lot of courses (Chemistry, Biology, Math, Physics) that are also required by many medical/health professional schools. Conversely, some programs have zero overlap. For Interdisciplinary Honors, many of the Honors Math & Sciences Electives will overlap with pre-health professional courses (ie. Honors Chemistry). Please refer to our Math & Sciences information to determine if some of these courses are a good fit for you. These courses can only count towards your Honors electives.

Examples of Honors-versions of courses that are often required for pre-health coursework can be found below:

• Honors General Chemistry
• Honors Organic Chemistry + Lab
• Honors Calculus
• Honors Physics
• Honors Biochemistry

Since Interdisciplinary Honors courses are intended to overlap primarily with your UW General Education requirements, students who have the vast majority of their general education requirements completed through AP/IB/Running Start might choose to graduate early or pursue Departmental Honors instead. However, if the Interdisciplinary Honors Program values, mission, and course offerings resonate with you, you can still choose to complete Interdisciplinary Honors!

It’s also important to note that, even if you are coming in with 45+ credits, you might still need courses in specific Area of Inquiry requirements or UW’s Skill requirements that Honors courses can count towards. Number of credits brought in doesn’t necessarily equal the completeness of your degree. Consider meeting with an Honors adviser to discuss your options and how Honors might fit into your degree.