Below is a list of general frequently asked questions (FAQ). If you do not find the answer to your question here or need additional information, please feel free to contact us. We also maintain an advising FAQ page for current students.
The iCons program is open to first and second-year students with science-intensive, business, policy, and STEM-adjacent majors, such as those in the Isenberg School of Business, College of Natural Sciences, the College of Engineering, the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, the Elaine Marieb School of Nursing, the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and the Bachelor's Degree with Individual Concentration.
The application period for iCons website typically runs from late August through the second Tuesday in October.
No, there is no fee to apply or join iCons.
iCons currently accepts 108 students each year, split between the three academic tracks: Biomedicine/Biosystems, Food-Water-Climate, and Renewable Energy.
Completing iCons in three years can be done. You will need to take iCons 2 and iCons 3 during your junior year.
Yes, you are eligible to apply.
No, there is no penalty. We will keep a waitlist of interested students. If you are a first-year/freshman, you may apply the next year as a sophomore.
This depends on your major. In all cases, iCons 1 counts as an Interdisciplinary General Education course. In almost all cases, iCons 2 fulfills the Junior Year Writing requirement. For participating majors, iCons 3 fulfills an upper-level elective. Finally, iCons 3 (ICONS 389H and ICONS 390BH) combined with ICONS 489SH fulfills the IE requirement in most majors.
It most cases, yes, but it can depend on whether your new major has sufficient technical content. Contact @email to discuss.
Studying abroad will not interfere with iCons courses. The best solution is to study abroad in the fall of your Sophomore or Junior year. If that is not an option and you choose to study abroad during a Spring semester, you may take two iCons classes during one semester and not lose any momentum towards completion of the certificate.
You do not need to be in CHC to be in iCons. However, all iCons courses have an H designation that can be used to fulfill Honors program requirements. Students who are accepted into the iCons program with a 3.4 GPA or higher and are interested in joining the Honors program are encouraged to apply for admission. Please note that admission is competitive. More details about the CHC on-campus admission process can be found here.
No, but iCons students are strongly encouraged to complete at least one internship during their undergraduate careers - preferably two. The first to help you figure out what kind of organization you would like to work for, and the second to help you get your foot in the door of one that might lead you to a job after you graduate.
As iCons students, you are uniquely qualified for opportunities with organizations on the cutting edge of many disciplines, including a growing number of companies that offer exclusive opportunities just for iCons students.
We grade the product of the team and the collaborative process of the team. The product is a report, proposal, etc. and we grade for accuracy, quality of work, and does the product supply the required information for the audience intended. We grade the collaborative process based on peer and self-assessments.
The iCons program enhances whatever your major. The opportunity to work on real-world problems and to work with students from different majors with different points of view help you think about problems and coursework in a whole new way. A biologist may learn to think a bit more like a mathematician. A computer scientist can now see the viewpoint through a public health lens.
The time commitment is not different from any other honors-level course at UMass. The classes are part of your schedule and fill other class requirements, so you are not increasing your course-load in any way. Like in any class, your grade reflects the work you put in. There will be additional opportunities that will be voluntary, such as social events, additional research opportunities, and assisting the program.
Yes, iCons can assist with research. Contact icons@cns.umass.edu to discuss.
There has never been a traditional exam in any iCons course, ever. Because the motivation for iCons courses comes from unsolved real-world problems, there are no textbooks, standardized content-based curricula, or “correct” answers like you may be used to seeing in science classes. The objectives of the program are to help students grow into their potential as innovators, applying their skills collaboratively toward assessing and solving real-world problems and this takes the form of projects, presentations, and delivering the outcomes of this creative work to people who can benefit from the advances in science and technology we make.
This has happened in cases where an iCons student has individual collaborator(s) outside of the program. For example, a student working on a project in iCons 3 might reach out to people they know from their major or from other classes they have taken, if they need the expertise those peers offer in order to make progress on their project. However, there is no formal mechanism for this and you do not receive academic credits from iCons. Should you want academic credit through your department, you can explore adding an Independent Study to your schedule.