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In order to encourage independent work and scholarly investigation by students and to foster their intellectual curiosity, a number of departments have established programs leading to a degree “with honors” in the major. Such programs provide an enhancement of the regular program for departmental majors and also for interdepartmental and independent majors. Featuring a special profundity and intensity and characterized by a close rapport between student and mentor, the honors programs are designed as an enrichment opportunity for students who demonstrate superior aptitude and self-discipline in the pursuit of their major study.
Descriptions of the honors programs of individual departments or programs may be obtained from the respective faculty heads. Interested students should make inquiry by the time of declaration of major, in order to identify any special admission requirements or related standards that have been set by the department or program for its particular honors program.
Admission into Honors Work
A prospective honors student applies in writing to the department or program head or major adviser. In general, application should be made by May 1 of the junior year; in certain departments, earlier application is required (often to accommodate special coursework in the junior year).
Admission into honors work is subject to availability of advisory staff and assessment of the individual’s ability to profit significantly from the program’s special demands.
Many departments and programs have established eligibility requirements for their own honors programs, such as special academic standing within the department or program.
Students may apply through the faculty’s Committee on Courses and Degrees for interdisciplinary honors for a discipline without an honors program or to combine honors work (two majors, one thesis). See INTR 493: Interdisciplinary Honors.
Requirements for Honors in the Major
All honors programs require an honors thesis during the senior year, involving no fewer than six credits of independent work (numbered in the 490s), such as a significant report based upon field or laboratory research, a creative accomplishment in the arts, or a comparable scholarly undertaking, demonstrating more than simply a mastery of subject matter.
The student must begin work on the thesis at the start of the fall term of the senior year. Background work on the thesis topic normally is expected to be in progress by the end of the junior year, and the subject and approach for the thesis should already be established before the start of the senior year’s thesis work. Work on the thesis is to be accompanied by periodic conferences with the adviser and the submitting of interim reports showing the progress achieved to that point. (Only under extraordinary circumstances—not general practice—may the thesis work be assigned entirely to a single term, and in such an instance the student must be prepared to begin intensive work on the thesis itself by the first week of the term, the subject and approach already having been established in preliminary study.)
The final finished version of the thesis is due by May 1 (or by the end of the Winter term in certain departments or programs). A permanent copy of the thesis must be deposited in the Leyburn Library.
Remaining credits in the major are gained in regular coursework, honors seminars, internships, directed individual study or tutorials, or a combination of these as prescribed in the department’s program. Departments and programs may require a comprehensive examination (written and/or oral) and/or a formal oral presentation and defense of the completed thesis.
Upon successful completion of an approved honors program, the student is awarded a bachelor’s degree “with honors” in the major.
Credits and Grades
Degree credits and grades for the thesis work will be awarded on completion of the thesis and any honors examinations, in the manner customary for completed projects and courses. These credits will be spread over the fall and winter terms of the senior year, under the rubric 493 (3-3), Honors Thesis.
A student’s continuing eligibility as an honors candidate will be determined by subjecting that student’s work to periodic review based on the level of work to that point.
A student who resigns or is dropped from an honors program will not ordinarily be readmitted; completed work would in such cases be translated by the student’s advisers into alternate course credits, with grades, appropriate to a regular major. In this manner, a student not successfully completing all the requirements for the honors citation might still be able to graduate with the class but without receiving an honors citation.
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