Presidential Scholars Program
Broaden your horizons, challenge yourself, and explore a wealth of new learning opportunities. Apply to enter the Presidential Scholars honors program at FIT.
Are you intellectually curious? Looking for ways to take advantage of New York City as your campus? Eager to network with students from other majors?
Then become a Presidential Scholar!
The program will inspire you through liberal arts honors courses, a monthly speaker/event series, and a senior seminar. You’ll also share extracurricular experiences such as a first-year retreat, community service activities, and more.
As a result, you’ll learn to take charge of your own growth—intellectually and culturally.
Additional Benefits
As you begin the first year of your associate’s or bachelor’s degree, you can apply to be a Presidential Scholar and reap a number of benefits:
- Permission to substitute an honors course for a required Liberal Arts course
- Priority registration for honors and non-honors courses
- Leads on internships and jobs from the Presidential Scholars Alumni Network
- Guaranteed access to housing in FIT’s residence halls
- Recognition as a Presidential Scholar on your college transcript
- An annual merit stipend of $1,000, plus the chance to apply for exclusive scholarships
- Interaction with a diverse community of highly motivated student leaders like you
Courses for Presidential Scholars
Honors courses are intimate, rigorous, and diverse. A few examples:
- Black in Paris
- New York City and the Invention of America
- Happiness and Human Flourishing
- The Uncanny
All Presidental Scholars also participate in a first-year course, Composition and Rhetoric, as well as a senior seminar, in which you will research and present a topic of your choice.
Program Highlights
Topics at the monthly dinner series have included underwater photography, the Harlem Opera Theatre, and award-winning documentaries.
Every fall, first-year honors students participate in a fun and stimulating excursion, which includes team-building activities and explorations of New York City neighborhoods.
The Presidential Scholars Senior Seminar provides you an opportunity to explore topics of your choice in a culminating academic project. You will narrow topics, develop research questions, employ research methods, and produce a thesis/creative project with an accompanying presentation of your findings.
See a Broadway show, take in a ballet, or follow in the steps of Edith Wharton on a walking tour of Greenwich Village.
You will take part in community service each semester. Volunteer at a soup kitchen, work on craft projects with young mothers and their children, garden in Riverside Park, or select your own way of giving back.
Interested in Becoming a Scholar?
Find out how to join the Presidential Scholars program by reading about our eligibility requirements, deadlines, essay submissions, and more.
