All students graduating with at least a 3.8 GPA in the
linguistics major are designated as graduating with departmental honors. Only
those students completing a senior honors thesis are eligible for high or highest
honors.
To be
considered for a senior honors thesis, a student must have a cumulative
grade-point average of 3.0 or better and a grade-point average of 3.6 or better
in courses counting toward the linguistics major. Linguistics majors intending
to write a senior honors thesis who have an agreed-upon faculty advisor must
then submit a written proposal to the undergraduate program director and their
faculty advisor no later than May 31 of their junior year. This proposal should
clearly indicate the proposed thesis topic, the faculty advisor, and a general
plan for working together with the advisor over the summer (optional) and into
the next academic year. These details may be rather general, and specified at
a later time.
Students selected to participate in
the program enroll in 01:615:495 and 496 and spend two semesters researching
and writing an honors thesis under the supervision of a faculty member in the
Department of Linguistics.
The thesis must be submitted by
March 31 of the senior year. An oral examination on the thesis is given by a
thesis evaluation committee consisting of at least two linguistics department
faculty members and a possible graduate student in linguistics in the first two
weeks of April. The committee does not include the student's thesis supervisor.
On the basis of the thesis
committee's report and if necessary, in consultation with the undergraduate program
director and the faculty advisor, the department determines whether the student
is to be recommended for high or highest departmental honors.
All honors thesis students are
designated as Paul Robeson Scholars. Only those thesis students earning highest
honors are nominated for the Henry Rutgers Scholar Award, evaluation of which
is conducted outside of the department by a separate School of Arts and Sciences
committee.
