First-Year Honors Program

Living and Learning Together

The First-Year Honors Program is designed for academically talented students from all programs and majors who want to be a part of a vibrant intellectual and social community supported by enriching extracurricular programming.

We support excellence in academic and extra-curricular endeavors designed to enrich the social, cultural and intellectual lives of our students. Students must apply for First-Year Honors. Admission is based on factors such as GPA and interest in the program. The minimum GPA for consideration is 3.50 (cumulative).

Intellectual exploration

Honors Seminars

While University of the Pacific is committed to excellence in teaching, our professors are some of the nation’s foremost scholars and researchers. The honors seminars are designed to showcase this aspect of our faculty. Once a month, our program hosts a distinguished faculty member from Pacific, who presents a lecture on their research or scholarship. The topics of the talks span every field from science and engineering to the humanities, arts and law.

Apply Now

To be considered for this community of scholars, please submit the First-Year Honors Application promptly. Applications will be accepted until the program has reached capacity. You may access the application using the same username and password that you use to access your application portal.

First-Year Honors Application

John Ballantyne Hall

Sense of community

Much of the success of our Honors Program is attributed to the honors residence hall, which gives students the opportunity to live among other high-achieving students.

First-year honors student moves into her room

John Ballantyne Hall

Living and learning together

Also living among the first-year students are the honors peers, who are sophomore or junior honors students. They organize study sessions, are available to answer questions and help build a sense of community. The honors peers' main goal is to make the transition to college life as smooth as possible for first-year students.

Enrichment Activities

Well-rounded experience

We encourage our students to be well-rounded individuals so their academic program is supplemented with enrichment activities, such as sports, performing or visual arts, audio-visual media, community outreach and culinary arts.

Susan Mannon

Meet our Program Director

Susan Mannon’s approach to teaching sociology centers on immersing students in the practice of the discipline. Rather than relying heavily on textbooks, she highlights sociological research through monographs, journal articles, and multimedia, helping students understand how sociologists generate and debate knowledge. Her courses emphasize core competencies like literature reviews and evidence evaluation, giving students hands-on experience with the tools of the field. Ultimately, she invites students into her “laboratory” — not of test tubes, but of dynamic social patterns that reveal the complexity of human life.

Learn more about Susan

Raymond Weber

Senior Assistant Director of Admission

Contact Raymond

Breadcrumb

First-Year Honors Program

Living and Learning Together

Sense of community

Living and learning together

Well-rounded experience