Byrne Seminars are part of a University-wide, high-impact first-year experience, designed as small, one-credit courses offered by exceptional faculty and based on their expertise.
Taught by Rutgers’ world-renowned faculty from departments and professional schools across the university, Byrne Seminars offer students the chance to experience the excitement of original research as faculty members share their curiosity, their intellectual passion, and how they develop new ideas and fields of knowledge.
Faculty also have the ability to add specialized field trips, site visits, guest speakers, unique projects, and other engaging components to the class, to help bring the learning to life.
Byrne Seminars are graded Pass/No Credit, providing a low-pressure opportunity to become familiar with a professor and subject area in greater depth. They are only open to first-year students.
Honors College students are able to choose from any traditional Byrne Seminar or one of several dedicated Honors College Byrne Seminars. To fulfill the Byrne Seminar option, students must receive a Pass grade in at least one Byrne Seminar in their first year and it will count toward your overall required honors hours and course requirements.
2025-2026 Honors College-specific Byrne Seminars
Modern Genocide: An Overview (Section 57)
Honors Master Class (Section 58)
Previous offerings have included courses on learning to play the ukulele, barbecue and soul food, the "city as text" model of learning by studying New Brunswick, the ever-popular Reading the Times, in which the text is the digital edition of the New York Times, which is free to all students, and more.
Past enrollees rave about their Byrne experience. The Honors College highly recommends you enroll in at least one.
For more information, visit: byrne.rutgers.edu