Undergraduate Program Honors Thesis
An Honors track is available. Honors track students are required to enroll in PHP1070 in their senior year to write the Honors Thesis. Students who wish to be considered a candidate for Honors should discuss their plans with the Honors Thesis advisor, even before submitting the required prospectus.
To receive Honors, students must meet the following requirements:
- Submit a prospectus to the Honors Advisor by the end of the student's sixth semester. Students must identify a primary advisor for their thesis, who signs off on the thesis prospectus.
- Have grades of A or B in all concentration courses, with A as the majority of grades. A minimum of eleven (11) graded courses are necessary on the student’s concentration plan. (NOTE: an "S with distinction" is equivalent to an A, but an "S" is not counted as a graded course. If an "S with distinction" has been received, please tell the Concentration Advisor or Academic Programs Coordinator, so that this can be noted in your file. The internal transcripts we get do not indicate "with distinction").
- Submit an Honors Thesis judged to be of superior quality by each of two advisors.
- Deliver an oral presentation based on the Thesis, that is reviewed favorably by the Department faculty. For May graduates, Honors Thesis presentations occur in mid-April; for mid-years, the presentation is in November.
The Independent Study course number, PHP1970, is used to write the Honors Thesis. PHP1970 must be taken for a grade in both semesters, and can not have a grade of INC.
For students graduating in May, the final copy of the thesis is due by the first Friday in May. For students who are finishing in mid-year, (as ".5's"), the thesis is due in late November. In order to meet the deadline, students should plan to submit a next-to-final draft of their project to their advisors at least one month before the end of classes.