The Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University, which opened in the Fall of 1999, is the first public honors institution to be built from the ground up in the United States. Its intellectual foundation is a belief in liberal arts education as the best preparation for a full and productive life.
With one faculty for every ten students, classes are small, and learning is pursued in
formal and informal settings. Students have the opportunity to work on research projects one-on-one with outstanding faculty holding Ph.D.'s from leading universities. Student/faculty collaborations have resulted in publications in scholarly journals and our graduates have gone on to some of the top graduate and professional programs in the country..
A number of universities offer honors programs or honors colleges. But unlike the honors options at almost all of these other universities, at the Wilkes Honors College you are able to take all your classes within the Honors College, and your professors are faculty whose full-time appointments are to the Honors College: we provide an all-honors education at an all-honors college. The Honors College is built around the traditions of the classic American liberal arts education. Enrollment is limited to approximately 500 top scholars, while creative learning opportunities will know virtually no limits. Cross-disciplinary and customized courses of study, plus one-on-one student- faculty interaction, are key elements of the Honors College experience.