CCBC Honors College

Feel supported from the moment you join.

As an honors student, you’ll receive advising to help you plan your time at CCBC and beyond. Our staff will help you prepare for graduation and/or transfer to a four-year institution. A faculty mentor will work directly with you to make sure your experience in the Honors College is a success.

Take advantage of special honors courses that challenge you to delve deeper into the subject matter. Smaller class sizes will give you a personalized learning experience and help you further develop writing skills, analytical thinking and creativity.

Utilize the Honors Centers on each campus to get work done or meet with peers. These exclusive student spaces offer a study area, free printing and even a kitchenette.

Baltimore County students in the Honors College can attend tuition-free. The program covers tuition, fees, books and even the cost of experiential learning trips, allowing students to focus on their education rather than how to pay for it. Out-of-county and international students are also eligible for competitive scholarship support.

Once you earn at least 12 honors credits and maintain a minimum 3.5 GPA, you’ll be awarded an Honors College Certificate!

Having completed the certificate, you can take advantage of transfer partnerships with local four-year colleges/universities. Terms of these partnerships vary but can include guaranteed admission, dual enrollment, admission to honors programs and discounts on tuition, fees or books.

Each summer, Honors Students step out of the classroom and into the world through immersive research experiences. From university labs to historic cities and fragile ecosystems, students gain skills, confidence, and perspectives that shape their futures. These hands-on opportunities connect academic learning to real-world challenges, creating the kind of transformational education that makes CCBC a national model for Honors experiential learning.

Honors Summer Research Experiences change more than what students know, they change how students see themselves and their place in the world.

Place as Text: Great Lakes

Students explored culture, history, and industry across Michigan using the Place as Text pedagogy. Highlights included the University of Michigan, Detroit murals, and Mackinac Island, where students connected leadership with history, art, and community.

I really appreciated that the experience was rich and unique. The amount of learning that happened and the ways it manifested was a cool experience. I learned no only about Michigan but more about my own heritage as well.

Digital Humanities: UMD

Students partnered with UMD faculty to explore digital tools for preserving and sharing community histories. Working with the Lakeland Community Archive, they learned to digitize stories and artifacts, gaining both technical skills and new perspectives on how history shapes identity.

One of the most impactful aspects of this project for me was working with archival photographs and oral histories. Seeing an image or hearing someone’s lived account in their own voice carries a depth of meaning that text alone often cannot convey.”

Honors Scholars “Food for Thought:” This experience for a cohort of Honors Scholars centers on the cultural and social significance of food. Field trips include the Smithsonian American History Museum's FOOD: America’s Table exhibit, and the Hershey’s Chocolate Lab and Museum. Monthly meetings feature guest speakers like Yahoo food blogger Stephanie Smith and chocolate expert José Ganem, as well as discussions on Chesapeake Bay aquaculture and college student obesity research. The program culminates with a symposium featuring Krishnendu Ray and provides students with engaging experiences that blend history, culture and food studies.