Bing Honors College (BHC)

Bing Honors College Overview

BHC was inaugurated in 1993 as part of the Bing Teaching Initiative, a series of curricular innovations designed to improve the quality of undergraduate education at Stanford. Begun as a pilot program with 28 students, BHC has grown steadily each year. It currently accommodates over 100 students from the following undergraduate programs:

• American Studies
• Comparative Literature
• Communication
• Economics
• Education
• English
• Ethics in Society
• Feminist Studies
• History
• Human Biology
• Humanities
• International Relations
• International Security and Cooperation
• Philosophy
• Psychology
• Public Policy
• Religious Studies
• Sociology
• Symbolic Systems
• Science, Technology and Society

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BHC Goals

BHC seeks to achieve the following three main goals:

• To accelerate progress on honors theses by offering students an uninterrupted block of time in which to focus on their work
• To enhance opportunities for students to form mentoring relationships with faculty and advanced graduate students in their field
• To foster a sense of intellectual community among students pursuing honors work, both within and across academic disciplines

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BHC Activities and Course of Study

The BHC program balances college- and discipline-sponsored activities with ample time for writing, library research, individual conferences with advisors and informal interactions among students.

Each Bing Honors College disciplinary group organizes collective activities to impart skills needed for successful scholarship and to counter the isolating aspect of individual research. Discipline-sponsored activities, organized by faculty supervisors may include the folllowing:

• Oral presentations by students for one another and peer-reviews of writing and research plans
• Seminars with reading assignments and discussion on research approaches in the field
• Review of previous honors theses and development of a model thesis
• Library orientations, including meetings with curators and demonstrations of research tools
• Special skills workshops, such as statistical analysis and software applications
• Thesis writing or prewriting workshops
• Oral communication workshops
• Faculty presentations on their own research and writing process
• Field trips to local archives and bookstores
• Written assignments for the end of Bing Honors College
  

The college sponsors several activities, which include the following:

• Cross-disciplinary workshops on topics such as research methodologies, cultivating positive working relationships with faculty advisors, PhD studies and postbaccalaureate fellowships
• A Bing Honors College banquet for students and their research advisors, which takes place on the final evening before Autumn quarter begins. This is a spirited evening where the BHC faculty supervisors "pass the baton" to faculty members with whom students will work throughout the year.

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BHC Living Accommodations

Students participating in BHC live in a single campus residence, receive free room and board and enjoy special access to computers and a photocopier. The College residential staff organizes social activities, such as outings to plays, movies, beach picnics, and Bay Area concerts and museums. Social activities help students form new friendships and reinforce social bonds as they begin their senior year. For students with demonstrated financial need, summertime earnings replacement funds are also available.

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Enrolling in BHC

Students enroll in Bing Honors College through participating honors departments and programs. For a list of participating programs and departments, consult your honors director or undergraduate student services administrator.

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