UHP Curriculum Years 1 & 2: Courses

During Years 1 and 2 (On-Campus Admits complete one year) students complete two requirements. The requirements are listed below with further details on each at the bottom of this webpage.

1. Attending Group Advising during Fall Quarter.
2. Completing one UHP course per quarter (3 total in an academic year). 

Notes for Current UHP Students:  

1) Successful completion of these requirements is required to earn UHP transcript notation at the end of the academic year.  2) You are encouraged to find more details about the UHP requirements on the UHP Canvas Page.  

Group Advising

During Fall Quarter the University Honors Program advising team hosts Group Advising sessions to review the UHP curriculum and professional development content. These advising sessions will focus on helping you become familiarized with year-specific UHP curriculum, strategies to maximize your academic potential, and exercises to develop your individual professional goals.    

UHP Courses

For their first two years at UC Davis, UHP students take small, interactive classes with superb faculty that may fulfill University General Education (GE) and/or Major requirements.

UHP students are required to take six Honors courses in the first six quarters, one course per quarter. These courses allow students to build connections with professors and study in a group setting with like-minded students while completing university requirements for graduation.

One of the primary benefits of these courses is their small size: Honors GE courses are capped at 25 students, and Major required courses like Math and Biology have between 40 and 60 students.

While past syllabi of certain courses have been provided to help with students' decision making, please note that these are past syllabi and there is no guarantee that this syllabi will match the upcoming course's syllabi. In addition, not all syllabi have been uploaded, as the professor may not have sent a copy to UHP. We apologize for any inconveniences. 

Browse current honors program courses

Browse previous honors program courses

2026-2027 Honors Courses

• Fall 2026 Honors Courses
• CHN 09: Introduction to Chinese Language and Culture (Yutian Tan)
  CMN 123: Intercultural Communication (Feng Bo)
  ECH 1Y: Design of Coffee (Tonya Kuhl & Bill Ristenpart)
  ESP 198: Environmental Policy & Governance Research Seminar (Tyler Scott)
  EDU 100: Introduction to Schools (Sophia Mattingly)
  EDU 122: Children, Learning, and Material Culture (YuuKo Tonkovich)
  HNR 194: Transfer Seminar (Eleftheria Arapoglou)
  IST 8A: Cancer Cure: The science, stories, and surprises of cancer research (Sanchita Bhatnagar)
  IST 8A: Crack the Code of Veterinary Research (Cecilia Giulivi & Erik Fausak)
  IST 8A: Find Your Passion in Life: Learning about sustainability in global context (Ozan Gulacar)
  IST 8A: Land of little rain: Living in an Arid West (Thomas Coombs-Hahn)
  IST 8B: Persian Echoes: Rumi's mystical poetry and his Sufi predecessors (Navid Saberi-Najafi)
  IST 8B: Exploring Indian Spices: Cuisine, culture, and culinary traditions (Shagufta Fatema)
  NPB 17: The Path to Cyborgs: Introduction to prostheses & human machine interfaces (Mitchell Sutter)
  SOC 46: Introduction to Social Science Research Methods (Edgar Campos)
  SOC 195: Sociology of Mental Health and Illness (Ester Apesoa-Varano) 
  SOC 195: Introduction to Knowledge Discovery: Data mining and machine learning (Xiaoling Shu)
  SPA 169U: Immigration and the Law (Robert Irwin)
  STS 150: Gender and Science (Emily Merchant)
  
  Course-Based Research Seminars (Counts as Third-Year Project) 
  HNR 98: Student Cafe: Economics in our lives (Kristin Kiesel)
  HNR 98: Housing and Homelessness in International Perspective (Robert Wiener)
  HNR 98: Research Frontiers in Materials Under Extreme Conditions (Mingwei Zhang) 
• Winter 2027 Honors Courses
• Quarter scheduling for Winter 2027 will be available in Fall 2026.
   
• Spring 2027 Honors Courses
• Quarter scheduling for Spring 2027 will be available in Winter 2027.