The department offers students the opportunity to graduate
in philosophy with departmental honors. The requirements to achieve this
distinction are as follows:1. At the time of graduation, the student must have
an overall grade-point average of at least 3.0; a grade-point average within
philosophy of at least 3.5; and grades of B+ or better in four 400-level
courses, excluding 01:730:495 and 01:730:496.
2.
The student must write a senior honors thesis of
25-45 pages (double-spaced, 12 pt. font) in order to be considered for honors.
a. The student must enroll in two semesters of the
Senior Honors Thesis course (fall 01:730:495 and spring 01:730:496) in their senior
year. At the time of registration for the fall Senior Honors Thesis course, the
student must meet the grade-point requirements outlined in item #1, meaning students must have a minimum overall GPA of 3.0 and 3.5 within philosophy.
b.
The thesis must be supervised by a tenured or
tenure-track faculty member of the department or affiliated member of the
department who will approve the topic and work with the student in developing
his or her thesis.
c.
The thesis may be a new project or based on the
student's own prior research or written work for an upper-division philosophy
course. If the student chooses to write a thesis based on prior written work,
it is expected that the senior honors thesis be a very substantial enhancement
of this prior work.
d.
The student's thesis adviser will assign a letter grade to the thesis. The thesis grade along with the current GPA at the time of graduation will determine the level of honors.
e.
All theses are due, without exception, to the
thesis adviser, undergraduate director, and undergraduate program coordinator in
electronic form by April 1 (or the last Friday of March if April 1 falls on a weekend) of the graduating year for May graduates, and by the last day of classes of fall semester classes for January graduates.
