Honors

Introduction

The American Studies Program is unique in that it admits only a small number of students through a competitive selection procedure, and requires all of its seniors to produce a senior honors project. This means that an unusually high proportion of American Studies majors are eligible for graduation with honors. Honors is not automatically awarded for mere completion of the requirements for the major, however, but only for distinguished work.

The American Studies Honors Program is administered by the Committee on Undergraduate Honors and Awards. The Committee is comprised of the Program Director and two members chosen from the general American Studies Program's Faculty Committee.

Minimum Requirement for Honors

Because all majors take the Senior Project Seminar and produce a senior project there is no separate procedure for admitting American Studies majors into the Honors Program. Nevertheless, successful completion of a distinguished senior project is a requirement for graduation with Honors.

Honors will be awarded only to those students who have successfully completed the requirements for the American Studies major.

Honors will be awarded only to those students who have maintained an overall GPA of 3.3 or higher and a GPA of 3.5 or higher in their American Studies courses. (In exceptional cases a truly outstanding thesis may merit a recommendation for Honors even if a student has not met the minimum GPA requirements.)

These are the minimum standards that must be met in order to be considered for Honors.

The Senior Project

Students are required to enroll in the three-quarter Senior Project Seminar (390-1,2,3) at the end of which they are required to submit a senior project. Most projects take the form of a thesis. To be awarded Honors, a senior thesis must be an original contribution based on substantial research. Research can include field studies, oral interviews, literary analysis, or archival work. The thesis must be well organized, clearly written, and it must present a serious and sophisticated interpretation of the research, informed by relevant scholarship or other related work.

The prescribed length of the senior thesis is 30-50 pages, but this is a flexible range, especially at the upper end.