Evaluation of Senior Honors Project

 Honors are awarded on the basis of the student's work completed in the Seniors Honors Program, including: coursework in the Junior Honors Seminar (HON 491), Introduction to Research (HON 495), and Senior Honors Project (HON 496); cumulative GPA in the major or junior/senior years; and the work submitted as the Senior Honors Project.  Priority is given to the Honors Senior Project, or “thesis,” and the Honors Council recognizes that judgment of quality is best made by experts within the student’s particular field. 

Format and page length

Because of the variety of formats and styles across disciplines there are no standard criteria for formatting the  Senior Honors Project.  The Honors Council has established a minimum length requirement of 25 pages of text, exclusive of front matter, diagrams, tables, appendices and bibliography, but in practice there is a wide range in page length and again, the committee is in the best position to judge quantity as well as quality of the work.

Oral Defense

The Senior Honors Project culminates in a formal oral and poster presentation at the annual Undergraduate Symposium (Spring) or Honors Forum (Fall), and these presentations effectively function as the "defense" of the Senior Honors Project.  In some specific cases, however, there may be additional requirements: students in English, for example, have a "conversation" about their project with their committee and the Honors Director in the English Department; and students in programs that mandate defense of a required thesis, such as Global Environmental Sciences, are expected to defend their thesis like others in their major. The Honors Program encourages "conversations" or informal defenses as students seem to appreciate the opportunity to talk about their work and get critical constructive feedback.

Evaluation process

The committee should meet to discuss its evaluation of the Senior Honors Project.  Committee members should concern themselves only with assessment of the final project and not of the process of its production (research, drafts, rehearsal etc.) which is separately assessed through a grade submitted for HON 496 by the primary advisor. 

The evaluation form is to be completed by the advisor and should be signed by each committee member, though other committee members may wish to use it as the basis for discussion.  Please note that the form is designed for the assessment of a conventional thesis.  If this is not appropriate in your field in or if you prefer, please submit a separate narrative assessment endorsed by each committee member. We hope that the committee will be able to form a consensus, but if not we suggest that individual members submit separate forms or letters. 

    Standard evaluation form (research)

At the end of the report we ask that the committee make a collective judgment of the Senior Honors Project, and give it an appropriate honors designation. 

Designations of honors

As a rough guide to the designations, we offer the following definitions:

No Honors: the quality of work is not substantially better than that you would expect to receive from an average undergraduate student.    

Honors: this is a well-conceived and competently executed piece of research or creative work.  It is well-written according to the standards of the field.  The quality should clearly surpass work that you receive from average undergraduate students in the field.   

High Honors: the research or creative work is well executed and well-written according to standards of the field. It is of excellent quality well beyond standard undergraduate work in the field.

Highest Honors: the research or creative work is outstanding and exceptional for undergraduate work work in the field.  It approaches professional quality and is publishable subject to review and revision.