The Department of History's honors program is a two-semester experience designed to provide well-qualified students with closer contact with faculty and more intensive training in historical research and writing than is normally possible.

The Program:
Students admitted to the honors program are required to complete a minimum of 36 credits in history, fulfilling all the "Requirements for the Major" listed above. Within the 36 credits, the student must complete the following three honors courses. Credits from these honors program courses (A His 495Z, 496Z, and 497Z) can be counted toward the above requirements and will be credited toward the concentration most appropriate to the subject of the student's honors thesis (for example, "American" or "European" or "World History.")

•A His 497Z Independent Research and Writing in History (4 credits), to be taken during the fall of the student's senior year under the supervision of a thesis advisor secured by the student.

•A His 495Z and 496Z Senior Honors Thesis Seminar (4 credits each). This seminar will meet throughout the year under the supervision of a department faculty member and will offer students a small-seminar format for learning about historical research and writing, as well as for sharing and critiquing their own work. By the end of the year, each student will, in conjunction with this seminar, produce a thesis based on original research that is no longer than 60 pages in length.

Students in the honors program will gain priority in registration for these upper-level history courses and will gain access to the History Department's computing workshop to assist in writing the thesis.

Department faculty members will evaluate the students' progress at the end of the spring semester senior year. Students will be judged eligible for graduation "with honors in history" based on the quality of their thesis as well as the satisfactory completion of all other curricular requirements with a grade point average of at least a 3.50 average in history and 3.25 overall. All theses will also be automatically considered for a prize for best undergraduate honors thesis in history. Students selected to graduate "with honors in history" will be honored formally at the departmental graduation ceremony in May.

•A cumulative grade point average of at least 3.25 overall and an average in history of 3.50.

Students may be admitted to the program in the spring semester of their junior year after formally declaring a major in history. Interested students should contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of History for more information on the application process. Completed applications should be submitted no later than March 15 of the junior year.