Criteria for Continuing Membership

The basis for membership in the Arts and Sciences Honors Program is a rigorous curriculum and high achievement. Fundamentally, membership in the Honors Program means that the student must constantly commit to taking challenging work. Depending on background, this may translate into all honors courses in some quarters and no honors courses in other quarters. In general, however, this will mean five to seven honors or upper-division courses during the freshman and sophomore years, and nearly all advanced courses and research during the junior and senior years. In addition, students will be expected to maintain a minimum 3.4 grade-point average. Although most honors students finish their undergraduate careers with a grade-point average somewhere between 3.5 and 4.0, the Honors Committee has set the minimum grade-point average at 3.4 so that students who do not perform up to expectations early in their undergraduate careers will not be penalized.

In practical terms, the Honors Committee requires that all honors students commit to an Honors Contract (with honors in the Arts and Sciences) and/or an Honors Research and Thesis Project (with research distinction) no later than the beginning of the junior year. Consequently, students who have not submitted an Honors Contract or preliminary research proposal by the end of the sophomore year will be required to submit one of those two documents by the end of Winter Quarter of their junior year as a condition for continuing membership in the Honors Program.

The Honors Committee recognizes that students will alter their Honors Contract and often change thesis topics. Changes to a contract can be easily accommodated if they are supported by the faculty adviser(s) and do not significantly alter the strength of the approved contract. Likewise, a change in thesis topic is routinely accommodated when it has the approval of the faculty project adviser(s). Early planning and consultation with faculty honors advisers and an Honors Office counselor is, however, essential to constructing a strong honors curriculum or research project, and the Honors Committee wants to ensure this consultation will begin early.