Schreyer Honors College

Overview

Pennsylvania State University’s Schreyer Honors College was founded in 1997 to create the next generation of leaders to tackle the world’s most pressing problems. Schreyer is widely recognized as one of the most selective undergraduate honors programs in the United States. The Honors College student mission promotes academic excellence with integrity, building a global perspective and creating opportunities for leadership and civic engagement. The Smeal College of Business helps to support this mission by offering a top-ranked undergraduate program with opportunities to get involved, study abroad, and connect with leading faculty and the world's top companies.

Less than 1% of all students admitted to Penn State are selected for admission to the Schreyer Honors College, and of this population, less than 1% are selected for Honors designation by the Finance Department at Smeal. Each year the Finance Department graduates between 20-25 scholars. The Finance Department graduates the largest cohort of Schreyer Scholars within Smeal each year and is second only to the Mechanical Engineering Department across all of Penn State.

Frank Bruni, in his New York Times 2015 op-ed entitled, "A Prudent College Path" described the Schreyer Honors College as one of the "striking developments" in higher education, noting that it offers "some of the virtues and perks of private schools without some of the drawbacks." He cited it as receiving “highest praise” from John Willingham, author of A Review of Fifty Top Public University Honors Programs, who maintains the website publicuniversityhonors.com. Bruni emphasized that honors colleges at public universities can provide a "supporting, challenging haven" with "sprawling resources" and "considerable socioeconomic diversity".

Honors Education & Pedagogy

All Smeal scholars work closely with a specially trained Smeal honors adviser to help them formulate an academic plan that incorporates their learning goals and objectives, including fulfilling honors requirements, major selection, minors and study abroad opportunities. Professor Brian S. Davis has served as the honors advisor for the Finance Department since 2014.

The purpose of an honors course is to show students how knowledge in the field is discovered, developed, evaluated, argued, tested, compared, and applied. Class size is limited to 25 students in the Finance Department. Honors students learn what research looks like in the field of finance and understand the scholarship behind the discipline’s core principles. Honors courses often are multidisciplinary and may also emphasize internationalization or diversity. Typically reading of more depth than ordinary is required, along with original interpretation, writing and research. Honors courses emphasize reading primary source material and the analysis of real economic and financial data. Students are asked to confront these sources in discussion, writing and analysis. More information about the Schreyer Honors College can be found at: Penn State - Schreyer Honors College (SHC).

Senior Year Honors Thesis

As part of the requirements for graduation as a Finance Honors Scholar, students must complete a research thesis under the direct supervision of the Finance Department honors advisor and another Penn State faculty member by the end of their senior year. This past Academic Year, the Finance Department graduated 22 Scholars. A list of the 2025-2026 graduates, thesis topics and their advisors can be found below. The complete database of Finance Department Theses can be accessed at the following website:

Area of Honors: Finance / Year: 2026 - Blacklight Search Results