In many countries, the training of researchers who will be internationally competitive has become a primary objective, leading to extensive discussion of the curricula, educational content, and methods that may ensure a high level of student achievement. In this global climate, only the most excellent students have the potential to engage successfully in international competition and become leading-edge researchers in the world-wide marketplace of research. Thus, any country seeking to be internationally competitive must consider ways to further raise the level of excellent students. In this study, the authors investigate university programs, specifically honors programs, that take special measures for training the most excellent students. Honors programs can be found in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, China, Singapore, Chile, and other countries; among these, the highest number of honors programs in 2005 were in the U.S. (Digby) and China. Consequently, the authors chose these two countries as the objects of this study, surveying and comparing the characteristics of honors programs as training courses for excellent students. In both countries, the focus of the study was limited to higher-level universities. In the case of China, only universities identified by Kitagaki & Fuang in 2008 as "Key Chinese Universities" were investigated. A small sample of universities in the U. S. was selected from the 2006 America's Best Value Colleges (Owens & Meltzer et al.). The other major sources of information were university websites and the literature available through the National Collegiate Honors Council.