Liberal arts colleges expose students to a wide range of academic disciplines, including the sciences, as well as the traditional humanities subjects. These typically small colleges ensure that more individual attention is given to each student on a daily basis. Large research universities, on the other hand, have the world's leading researchers and scholars amongst their faculty, with vibrant, well-funded research programs that undergraduate students can also participate in.

University of the Pacific offers the best of both worlds. We are committed to a personal, student-centered approach and our faculty is dedicated to excellence in teaching. At the same time, with our high-quality graduate and professional programs, Pacific's professors are some of the nation's foremost scholars and researchers. The university prides itself on providing opportunities for students to conduct research at the undergraduate level, working closely with our distinguished faculty.

The Honors Seminars are designed to show this aspect of our University by introducing some of our best students to the research and scholarship of our faculty. Once a month, the Honors Program hosts a distinguished faculty member from Pacific, who presents a lecture on the latest and hottest research or scholarship accomplishments. The topics of the talks span every field from science and engineering to humanities, arts to law.