To graduate with Latin honors, students must maintain a high GPA and accomplish some additional work within the department.  In political science, we have historically required students to write an honors thesis to earn honors. One of the exciting developments this year has been the creation of a two-track system for our students. Students can continue to write an honors thesis to be eligible for Latin Honors, but they can now also do it with through coursework.

To graduate with Latin Honors by coursework, students must complete an additional 9 credits that are at the 3000 level or higher (for a total of 39 credits in the major), write a paper that is 10 pages or longer in a course at the 4000 or 5000 level, and meet a GPA requirement set by the College of Arts & Sciences.

We have created this second track because we know that an honors thesis does not work for all students and we want to make sure they have more options and choices to do what works with them. Also, this gives them a chance to still dive into a bigger project in one of our small 4000-level seminar classes where they get more attention from our amazing faculty.

While we think this new option will be great for our students, we continue to be excited for the students writing honors theses this year (and beyond). In addition to our faculty who volunteer to mentor students, we have two great graduate teaching assistants who help students with analyzing the data they have collected and writing up the results. Good luck to this year’s great set of honors theses students!