Through the Honors program the History Department provides outstanding students with opportunities to enhance their History major. Honors majors who complete all requirements will graduate "with Honors"; this designation appears on their transcript. The basic requirement for admission to the departmental Honors program is the same as the requirement for the University Honors program: an overall 3.33 grade point average. (Occasionally, when a student's work in history courses is superb, the overall GPA standard can be waived by petitions; in practice this often happens when you are numerically really close.) Students who want to join the history Honors program should contact the department's Honors Advisor.

Honors students in history write an Honors thesis--an extended research paper (30-40 pages) ordinarily completed during the Spring of junior year and fall of senior year. The research for the thesis is done under the supervision of a faculty advisor whom the student has chosen and who specializes in the desired field of research. This is a voluntary relationship on both sides, and you, the Honors student, must initiate it. Your faculty advisor will aid you in the conceptualization and development of the research and will point you toward relevant primary and secondary sources. He or she will also read drafts of your essay as it is being written. The responsibility for meeting the firm deadlines for participation in the Honors program, however, falls on the student. This is made easier by the Honors Seminar.

While working on Honors theses, students attend the Honors Seminar, which they join by registering for Honors Research and the Honors Thesis (16:091 and 16:092), for three credit hours each semester over two semesters. The faculty Honors advisor directs the seminar. There is no Honors Seminar in the summer, but faculty advisors will supervise, or will share supervision with other faculty members, in research towards honors in the summer.

When the Honors thesis is complete, it is presented to an examining committee of three faculty members, one of whom is the faculty advisor. The student is asked to respond in person to questions about the thesis from this committee. The thesis is then graded and that grade becomes the course grade. Each year the Department awards a monetary prize for the most distinguished Honors thesis. Other prizes offered by the University are also possibilities.

Apart from the pleasure and challenge of researching and writing a paper that is more sophisticated and often more personally compelling than papers for other classes, applications to graduate and professional schools are strongly enhanced by submitting an Honors thesis as a writing sample. Honors graduates generally report that the experience of preparing a thesis was important to them--in strengthening their writing, honing their thinking skills, and developing a substantial independent project. Honors theses are bound and kept permanently in the library of the Shambaugh House Honors Center. We also keep copies in the Department.

The six hours of credit in the Honors Seminar count toward the 36 hours required for majors. For some majors, however, honors thesis will be done in addition to these hours of course work. In addition honors students may receive honors credit for any course they take by negotiating an additional assignment with the instructor and filing a record of this agreement on a special form supplied by the Honors Program office. Normally, the additional assignment involves writing a more sophisticated essay than is part of the regular course assignment. An extended term paper of this sort is also an opportunity to "try out" an Honors thesis topic before committing oneself to devoting a full year to it.