Honors Experience Petition
Occasionally, an Honors student will complete a noteworthy experience and not earn academic credit or pursue an experience that does not fit into the existing categories of Honors Experiences. When this occurs, the student may petition to include the experience towards their Honors credits.
Earn Honors Credit and a Digital Badge
The Honors College partners with UB’s Experiential Learning Network (ELN) to enhance honors experiences and the petition process. Through this partnership, you will earn both honors credits and an ELN digital badge.
By completing an honors experience petition through ELN, we’re ensuring our students will engage in thoughtful, well-researched preparation; produce tangible products from their experiences; and demonstrate their growth and value for potential employers or graduate programs.
How to Complete Your Petition
1. Is your experience eligible to be petitioned?
All petitioned experiences must meet all eligibility criteria, which includes:
- The experience must align with the student’s academic, career, and/or professional interests, goals, and development.
- The student must have completed at least 45 hours of work as part of the experience.
- The student cannot be receiving or have received academic credit (such as through your academic department) for the petitioned experience hours.
- There must be a mentor/supervisor for the experience that can verify the student’s role, responsibilities, and time commitment reported on the petition.
Final approval for any petitioned experience is at the discretion of the Honors College.
Some examples of successful petitions include:
- Supervised internship experiences completed without earning academic credit
- Being a tutor or PAL through UB Tutoring & Academic Support Services (TASS)
- Mentored research experiences completed without earning academic credit, such as Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) at another institution or UB’s CSTEP program
- Volunteering, such as at a hospital or nonprofit organization, or by participating in a UB Alternative Spring Break program
- Executive board positions in a UB-approved student organization. Executive board positions must be confirmed by a UB faculty/staff club advisor and students must be able to make a connection between their role and their academics and/or professional and career goals.
2. Complete the initial Honors Experience Petition & digital badge form
The Honors Experience Petition is embedded within the ELN Digital Badge, so you will submit your petition for approval in the sign-up form to begin the digital badge. You can petition through ELN even if you have previously completed the experience.
Click the button to get started:
In the “Starting the Project” section, when asked if you are completing this badge as part of a UB group or program, please select “yes” and choose “Honors College Experience Credit” from the list of UB programs.
Then, complete the rest of the form, including a specific explanation as to why you chose to pursue this opportunity and how it relates to your academic and professional goals.
3. Your petition is approved by Honors and ELN.
Your petition will be reviewed by both the Honors College and ELN separately. If your petition is denied, you will receive an email notifying you of the reason and if your petition can be revised and resubmitted.
While the review process typically only takes a few business days, please allow up to two weeks for your submission to be reviewed.
4. Complete your digital badge.
Once your petition has been approved, you’ll receive notice to begin earning your ELN digital badge. This includes goal-setting and reflecting on your petitioned experience, as well as uploading a tangible proof of output/completion. More information, examples, and templates will be provided by ELN when you reach this step.
You must complete the entire digital badge process and earn your badge to be awarded Honors Experience credit.
5. Your supervisor confirms your experience hours.
After you complete the experience and are awarded your digital badge, your mentor/supervisor will automatically be sent a request to confirm the number of hours you completed during the experience. Your supervisor will not receive your reflection or any other materials submitted.
We highly recommend following up with your mentor at this point to ensure they complete the confirmation step. Supervisors can often overlook the automated email, or it can be sent to spam.
Once this confirmation is received, your earned credits will be awarded in the University Honors College section of your Academic Advising Report (AAR). While most credit is awarded within a few business days, please allow up to two weeks for the credit to appear in your AAR.
Petition credit will not be added to your Honors record without supervisor approval.
How the Hours Count for Experiences
- The hours noted on this petition will only be applied to Honors Experiences and, therefore, will not count towards major or degree credit requirements.
- For every 45 hours invested in the endeavor, the petition process would award you one Honors Experience credit, up to a maximum of six credit hours.
- Students will not receive an additional honors credit for completing a digital badge.
Frequently Asked Questions
For research or internship projects, if you are not earning academic credit on your transcript for the experience, you can petition to have the experience count as in-house “credits” (we keep track of them in Honors, but they do not go on your transcript) by following the directions for petitioning on the Honors Experiences page.
- Make sure you indicate that you are petitioning for Honors Experience credit. Your “Project Mentor” is just your supervisor who will confirm the number of hours you will have completed.
- In the petition process, every 45 hours of work/research etc. counts as one in-house “credit”.
Research: Academic Credit
- The Honors College does not register students for research credits.
- If you are working with a faculty member on research, you can see if their department can register you for 498 credits (that is the course number for research credits in all departments).
- Any 498 credits on your transcript will automatically count toward your Honors Experience credits on your Academic Advising Report.
- You should consult your faculty supervisor and your department’s undergraduate academic coordinator about enrolling in 498 credits.
If you are not earning academic credit on your transcript for the research, you can also petition to have the research experience count as in-house “credits,” as explained above.
Internships: Academic Credit
- The Honors College does not register students for internship credits.
- You can potentially earn internship credit (496) through your department. Consult with your department’s undergraduate office about this option.
- Note that if you are doing a summer internship, you will need to pay summer tuition for the credits.
- Any 496 class on your transcript counts toward your Honors Experiences on your Academic Advising Report.
- SEAS majors, visit the Engineering Internship and Co-Op Advisement Guide for information on internship credit.
If you are not earning academic credit on your transcript for the internship, you can also petition to have the experience count as in-house “credits,” as explained above.
In addition to meeting all other petition eligibility requirements, e-board positions must be from a UB-approved student organization, have a UB faculty/staff advisor who can verify your involvement and hours, and involve leadership beyond simply operating club meetings.
When you submit a petition for an e-board position, you will be required to also include a detailed breakdown of how you spent your time in your role, including activities and hours worked.
The credit that you earn for TAing CSE 115 is CSE 495, and any 495 course automatically counts as Honors experience credit on your Academic Advising Report.
If you are only earning one credit of CSE 495 on your transcript, you can petition the experience for additional credits as long as the experience is at least 90 hours of work. In the petition process every 45 hours or TAing/internship/research is equal to one in house "credit" (we keep track of them here in Honors but they do not go on your transcript). So, if you spend more than 45 hours TAing (which you likely would), you can petition for the additional hours by following the directions for petitioning on the Honors Experiences page.
Yes! Paraprofessional roles (such as Resident Assistants) earn Honors Experience Credit automatically through enrollment in ELP 496 (3 credits). We recognize that the role also includes valuable training, leadership skills, and more that make it eligible as an Honors Experience. Therefore, RAs (and other paraprofessional positions that take ELP 496), may petition additional hours not encompassed in ELP 496 credit for up to 3 more Honors Experience credits. This would mean that students would ultimately be able to earn up to 6 credits total (3 from ELP 496 + up to 3 from petition).
For all summer orientation sessions, welcome weekend activities, and training, OLs may earn up to 4 Honors Experience credits.
In order to be eligible for an Honors petition, a job/employment position (and any primary duties of said position) must directly correlate with the student's professional or career interests/goals. This is determined by assessment of the petitioned job as it relates to the student's major, minor, reported career interests, and/or any other relevant information available to the Honors College staff upon review. A job may only be petitioned for Honors Experience credit once, for up to a maximum of 6 credits, regardless of the length of time a student holds the position.
Yes! Provided that you meet all other petition eligibility criteria, including working at least 45 hours (1 credits' worth) in the same role/site, volunteering can be petitioned for Honors Experience credit, even if it does not directly correlate with your major/career interests.
All week-long ASB trips are eligible to be petitioned for a flat rate of 1 Honors Experience credit per trip.
While we love to see our students engaging in diverse experiences throughout their undergraduate experience, we also applaud those who excel in an internship so much that they are invited to return for a second experience. In addition to the standard petition policy for the first internship (maximum 6 credits), we allow students who return to the same company/site/role for a second internship to petition the second experience for up to 3 additional Honors Experience credits.
Questions?
University Honors College