Qualified students may apply to the honors program during
pre-registration in the spring semester of their junior year.
Qualified Psychology majors at Rice University may participate in the Psychology Honors Program. The Honors Program provides individualized and advanced instruction and experience in psychological research. The program generally takes two semesters to complete and is usually undertaken in the senior year. Students interested in participating in the Psychology Honors Program must work with a member of the psychology department faculty who can serve as their primary advisor. The student must submit a research proposal, signed by the advisor, and a copy of their transcripts, to the Psychology Department Undergraduate Committee for approval (see Requirements and Procedures, below). If approved, the student enrolls in PSYC 499 Honors Thesis.
The student must prepare a progress report on the research project and submit this to the Undergraduate Committee on or before the last day of classes of the first semester of PSYC 499 enrollment. The student must receive approval of the Undergraduate Committee to enroll in the second semester PSYC 499, Honors Thesis. If approval is not granted, the student may enroll for a second semester of PSYC 499 and complete the research project for course credit, but the project will not be eligible for departmental honors. The completed project must be presented as formal written research report in proper APA format to the undergraduate committee for acceptance. The student must also present the results in a public poster and/or oral presentation, at a time and location to be determined by the Undergraduate Committee. Upon completion of the requirements and acceptance of the research report by the Undergraduate Committee, the student will be awarded Psychology Department Honors.
Students can receive both Psychology departmental honors and Rice University honors (RUSP) for the same project, but, they cannot receive double course credit for the same work. Thus if you choose to enroll in RUSP (HONS470/471), you should not enroll in PSYC 499. If you elect that alternative, you may still receive departmental honors if you follow all the other requirements for psychology honors. Note that acceptance of a project by RUSP does not guarantee acceptance by the Psychology Undergraduate Committee for an honors project, nor does successful completion of a RUSP project guarantee departmental honors. You may turn in the same thesis for both Rice and Psychology honors, but you may have to make separate presentations of your thesis for RUSP and Psychology honors. Note, however, that the Psychology Honors thesis must be in recognized APA format, which will generally be acceptable as the RUSP final presentation.
Requirements
Submission of a final formal written presentation of the research project to the Undergraduate Committee 4 weeks (28 days) before the last day of classes of the last semester of PSYC 499 enrollment.
Submission of a revised written presentation (if necessary) to the Undergraduate Committee by 5:00 PM two weeks (14 days) before the last day of classes of the last semester of PSYC 499 enrollment.
The Undergraduate Committee may accept the proposal, reject it, or request
modifications. If the committee requests modifications, it will set a deadline
for submission of those modifications. Continuation in the honors program for
a second semester is contingent upon satisfactory progress in the first semester.
By the end of the first semester, the student must prepare a written progress
report detailing the steps underway and completed in the research plan (e.g.
surveys prepared, experiments coded, subjects run, preliminary results). This
report must be submitted to the Undergraduate Committee and the committee must
approve the report in order for the student to enroll in a second semester
in the Honors Program.
Successful completion of the project requires the acceptance
of the formal APA style written report of the project by the Undergraduate
Committee and a public presentation of the project. The committee can accept,
reject, or request revisions of the written report. The public presentation
may be a poster presentation, an oral presentation, or both, at the discretion
of the committee, and at a forum to be named by the committee (e.g. an oral
defense open to the public, a talk given to the psychology department faculty
and students, a psychology department poster day, etc.). A student whose written
report has been accepted by the Undergraduate Committee and who has made the
public presentation(s) of his or her project requested by the Committee will
have completed the requirements of the Honors Program and will graduate with
Psychology Department Honors.
The student may not enroll in PSYC 499 until their proposal has been accepted by the Undergraduate Committee. The wise student will submit the proposal and receive approval prior to the deadline, thus avoiding the late add fee. The Undergraduate Committee will review the proposal within a week of receipt, but cannot guarantee acceptance; if revisions are required, these may take another week to review. To ensure acceptance of a proposal prior to the free add/drop deadline, the student may want to have his or her project approved the semester before commencing the project.
A progress report is required by the end of the first semester in order to be sure that the student is making timely progress towards completion of the project. This allows the committee to voice concerns and for the student to take corrective measures in their experiment design or implementation. The last thing anyone wants is for a student to reach the end of his or her senior year at Rice with a project that can’t be finished on time. We want you to leave here with a success. We require a completed draft of the project four weeks before the end of the semester for the same reason: to allow the committee to review the manuscript and identify weaknesses that can be corrected by the student before the end of the semester.
Some of the greatest benefits from an honors project are its inclusion in applications for post-graduate education, presentation at meetings outside of Rice, and submission for various awards that may be available. Deadlines for most of these submissions are quite early, some as early as November, most before March. Thus a project that is not at least nearing completion well before the formal project deadline will not be eligible for these submissions. Though procrastination to the last possible deadline is a very human characteristic, the above may provide an incentive for getting things done ahead of schedule.
Rice University-Psychology Department | 464 Sewall Hall, Houston, Texas 77005 USA | 713.348.4856
