Honors Program

The Honors Program is designed to provide sociology majors with the opportunity to sharpen their research skills and deepen their understanding of the discipline through a two-semester program of directed independent research and writing. The program also offers the opportunity for formal recognition, through Departmental Honors, of those undergraduates who have demonstrated unusual competence in sociology by successfully completing a sustained independent research project.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the program, a student must have taken at least four sociology courses beyond SOCI 101 (formerly SOCI 203), and must have maintained an A- average in all sociology courses taken. During the first semester of their junior year, students are invited to consult with members of the faculty to submit, no later than two weeks prior to registration for the spring semester, a written description of their proposed research project to the departmental advisor, Professor Gorman. The Undergraduate Honors Committee, chaired by Professor Gorman, will meet with the student to evaluate and strengthen the proposal in terms of both its feasibility and its sociological significance. Upon acceptance into the program, the student is assigned a primary faculty advisor who will work closely with him or her, to offer guidance on the two semesters of independent research, and to recommend other courses relevant to the project. It is expected that participants in the Honors Program will have completed SOCI 290 (Research Methods, formerly SOCI 390) and SOCI 241 (The Craft of Sociology, formerly SOCI 421) before beginning the second semester of the program. If their project requires statistical analysis, students should also have completed SOCI 298 (Social Statistics, formerly SOCI 398) before beginning the second semester of their honors research.

Program

Students in the Honors Program register for two successive semesters in Directed Honors Research (SOCI 492, 493). The first of the two courses, normally taken in the spring semester of the junior year, is typically devoted to a thorough review of the relevant literature, the formulation of hypotheses growing out of the literature review, and a proposal consisting of a research design that clearly describes how the data are to be collected and analyzed. To receive a grade for the first semester the student must submit to the primary thesis adviser by the last day of classes a paper containing the literature review, hypotheses, and research design, along with a bibliography. The research itself is usually carried out in the fall semester of the senior year (and sometimes in the summer following the junior year) and is analyzed, written up, and defended as a completed Honors Thesis during that semester. (Students are urged to examine several previously written theses, which are available from Patsy Garcia, the department coordinator.)

An honors thesis typically involves much discussion over both semesters between the student and the primary thesis adviser. Students should meet early in the first semester with their adviser to agree on ground rules for the project, to choose the other members of the thesis committee, and to set up a schedule for discussions and submission of written work. It is the department's experience that students who work alone without much consultation with faculty are far less likely to succeed in their project. Students are also encouraged to include other members of the committee in discussion of the thesis, especially as the project nears completion, so that their feedback can be incorporated before the final draft of the project is submitted.

In addition to the student's primary adviser, the thesis is read and evaluated by at least two other faculty members, sometimes from other departments, who make up the student's thesis committee. The thesis is defended before the committee near the end of the second semester of the thesis year in an oral examination open to the public. The committee determines Departmental Honors on the basis of the student's performance in the program as a whole.

To complete the thesis and obtain honors in a timely manner, the student must submit a penultimate draft of the thesis to the committee at least a month before the end of the second semester. The committee will respond quickly, in order to give the student time to revise the thesis and to be examined on it by semester's end.

Departmental Honors are conferred, and indicated on the student's official transcript, upon successful completion of the Honors Program.