Honors Program

Director for 2007-2008:  Leslie King

The Program: The honors program is designed to enable qualified students to devote a substantial portion of their senior year's course work to an extensive research project, culminating in the writing of a thesis and the completion of an oral examination. Each year a member of the department is appointed to be director of honors. Some students feel that a four course load with a set syllabus does not leave enough time for the depth, completeness, intensity, and independence they would like in their studies in the major. The honors program is designed for such students. The program allows students to prepare their honors theses (for 8 credits) either in one semester (normally in the fall), or in two semesters. Students are expected to work within a field in which they already know the general literature (e.g., the Honors work should not be the first contact with a particular area of study). Students on campus junior year are strongly encouraged to take a special studies to develop the proposal.

Requirements for Admission: A student majoring in Sociology who intends to submit an application for candidacy in the honors program should first meet with the Departmental Director of Honors for the relevant major (see the Catalogue) to obtain the application form and the College's regulation sheet and to make sure that the procedures for admission are understood. Students are admitted to honors by the College's Subcommittee on Honors and Independent Programs, upon recommendation from the department. To be admitted to the program a student must have a B+ average in courses in the major and demonstrate the ability to do independent work.

Advisers: A student should arrange to have one faculty member from the department serve as her Thesis Adviser. Whereas the job of the Director of Honors is to be the "official" mediator between the student, the department, and the Subcommittee on Honors and Independent Programs, the job of the Thesis Adviser is to supervise the planning, research, writing, and evaluation of the thesis. Because the adviser and candi-date will work closely together throughout the duration of the program, a student must make sure that her adviser will not be on leave or on sabbatical during the relevant semesters. In addition, students are encouraged to contact other members of the faculty who have relevant expertise; the department may ask them to serve as "readers" for the thesis. Upon admission to the program the Director of Honors automatically becomes the student's "major adviser" and is responsible for signing course cards and other official forms.

Application Deadlines: Applications for honors may be made after the start of the second semester of the sophomore year and no later than the beginning of the first semester of the senior year. Whenever possible, students are encouraged to submit proposals during the spring semester of the junior year. The College's deadline for application for both one semester and two semester honors is September 20 (or February 1 in the case of students completing the college program in January). In order for the department to complete its review process, however, applications and proposals must be submitted to the Director of Honors no later than one week before the regularly scheduled departmental meeting prior to these two dates. Students who have not received approval for their projects by the end of the spring semester of their junior year must register for a four-course load for the following semester; if they are admitted to honors they can then drop one or two regular courses during the year and substitute honors.

The Proposal: In addition to filling out the College's application form, each student will submit a Proposal for Honors. The proposal should be five double-spaced typed pages and should include a statement detailing the specific theoretical and empirical issues or problems to be considered, a description of the methods to be used, and a concise survey of the most important literature on the topic. A working bibliography of all significant sources should be appended to the proposal. The department may ask a student to rewrite her proposal and to submit it again, but this cannot be done after the College's official deadline. In order to prepare for the honors program and for writing the proposal, students are strongly encouraged to enroll in a Special Studies course in the semester prior to admission to the honors program. A student completing a one semester thesis may also enroll in Special Studies in the second semester in order to explore her focused topic more generally.

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