Applying for Honors

The Department expects students to submit their proposals at the end of the second semester of the junior year, so that it may consider the projects during its last meeting in early May. The Department may approve, provisionally approve, or not approve the proposal. If the approval is provisional, students will be asked to revise the proposal and resubmit it for final approval; if not approved, students may still present a new proposal the following fall (however, without the benefit of time for revision).

At the latest, your application must be submitted one week before the first Department meeting of the fall semester (usually this meeting takes place before or close to September 15th). Once approved, proposals are sent to the College Subcommittee on Honors and Independent Programs (SHIP) for final approval (mid to late September). The final decision regarding admission to the Honors program rests with that committee.

All applications must include:

College form with GPA. Calculate, together with the thesis adviser, the separate grade point averages (GPAs) inside and outside the major for all courses on the official form, which you can request via e-mail at: honors@smith.edu. Instructions on how to calculate will be sent together with the calculation form. This process requires time, and requests for forms should be made well before the Art Department's deadlines.
Submit to the appropriate Director of Honors (ARH; ARS/ARU) a thesis proposal consisting of 500-1,000 words (2-4 pages) containing:

A description of the broader scholarly issue to be investigated
The specific question or hypothesis to be treated
An explanation of the approach to be taken and evidence of experience using this approach
In the case of ARS and ARU students, discussion of the expected end project: its form, scale and scope, and examples of relevant art work
Documentation of relevant background, preparation, special facility or skills necessary to undertake the proposed thesis (e.g., previous course work related to the thesis topic, quantitative skills, foreign language ability, etc.)

You do not need to register for the Honors course: If admitted, the Registrar will automatically add that to your roster of courses. However, you do need to register for the Honors course for second semester.

It is your responsibility to find a full-time faculty member in the Art Department who will work with you for the year as your Thesis Adviser and who has the relevant expertise. In consultation with you, the Director of Honors will appoint a second and/or third reader [for ARS/ARU students, the committee usually consists of two studio members and one art historian; for ARH students, a committee of two members is usually the norm but if the nature of the project requires further expertise it might include an additional member]. The committee members do not all have to be from the Art Department and might include faculty from the other institutions in the Five-College consortium. The committee needs to be in place by October 15.

Honors students must carry a minimum course load of 12 credits in each semester of the senior year.