Montgomery Scholars

 

 

The Montgomery Scholars Program is a selective-admission two-year interdisciplinary honors program designed for high school graduates as the first step in completing a four-year degree.

Montgomery Scholars will launch their college studies at a fraction of the cost of most four-year schools. Each student admitted into the Scholars program is awarded merit scholarships that cover the cost of tuition and fees for two years of study at Montgomery College (30 credits per year at the in-county resident tuition rate).

As a Montgomery Scholar, you’ll be part of an exciting community of honors students sharing common intellectual and cultural experiences over the course of your two years at Montgomery College.

We emphasize interdisciplinary discourse and encourage students from all academic disciplines to apply.

 

Faculty and Staff

From New Orleans to Taipei, Taiwan, from studying the archaeology of animal bones in Iceland to being named “Jazz Percussionist of the Year” by Washington City Paper, our faculty are an intriguing and diverse company. See the complete story on first-year and second-year faculty, and our honors counselors.

 

Student Life and Scholars in the News

Opportunities abound for new community, retreats, picnic, leadership, and service learning: on campus and off, at planned events and at spontaneous gatherings, you’ll experience the camaraderie that has become the special hallmark of the Scholars program. There's our traditional retreat for incoming students, and the Annual Picnic in the Park, where Scholars who have graduated and transferred to four year colleges and universities return each year to catch up with one another, meet new Scholars and share updates and special news. And Scholars complete Service Learning in the first two years of the program and during summer study. Read more about student life in the Montgomery Scholars' Program, Scholarly Pursuits, our award-winning program newsletter, and compelling alumni success stories and testimonials .

Curriculum

At the heart of the program is a general studies curriculum designed to fulfill many of the general education requirements at MC and prepare you for transfer to a four-year school. Montgomery Scholars have successfully transferred as anthropology, art, biological sciences, business, computer science, economics, engineering, history, mathematics, political science, pre-med, psychology and world language majors, to name a few. Read more about it.

Counseling and Transfer

Special honors counselors work with each class of Scholars to provide academic advising, personal counseling, and transfer advising. Find out more about counseling and transfer for Montgomery Scholars.  

Mission Statement

The mission of the Montgomery Scholars Program is to recruit 25 diverse Montgomery County High School seniors each year and to teach them in an intense, nurturing and stimulating learning community. We are committed to an interdisciplinary approach to post-secondary education, providing a first-year core curriculum which blends together the three disciplines of history, literature, and world music. This first-year core is team-taught and has an emphasis on Global Perspectives: Early Modern to Post Modern. In the second year of the program, another team-taught interdisciplinary capstone project links the students’ speech with an honors seminar and International Relations class. The capstone emphasizes independent research and public speaking, culminating in a Scholars Colloquium. A number of other honors classes are also tied to the core curriculum and enable students in the program to continue making cross-academic links. The aim of the Program is to encourage students to think critically, independently and globally. We believe a study travel experience also encourages such thinking, as do co-curricular activities including museum and art gallery visits and service learning. Fundamentally, we aim to facilitate students in the program to graduate in two years and to pursue their major at a four-year school; to that end, we also believe in personal advising to enable students to pursue and fulfill their aims.

What People are Saying

The Montgomery Scholars Program was a very special time in my academic career. Thanks to the mentorship from professors and friends, I gained new perspectives on life which eventually guided me into the career that I am passionate about. The program became a community for me, one that has continued even after graduation.

Cecilia Nicolich, BS, Business Administration, American University; AA, Montgomery College