College and Departmental Honors

In Fall, Winter, and Spring Quarters, a Dean’s List is compiled of students in Weinberg College whose grade-point averages (GPAs) during the previous quarter was 3.70 or above based on no fewer than three courses taken for a regular letter grade. The student receives notification that the work of the previous quarter was completed with "Distinction." Inclusion on the Dean’s List is not noted on the permanent record.

Students with sufficiently high cumulative GPAs graduate with Latin Honors. Cut-offs are recalculated once each year based on GPAs of June graduates. These cut-offs then apply to students graduating through March of the subsequent year. Here are the three levels:

• Summa cum laude: students whose cumulative GPAs are in the top five percent of their Weinberg College graduating class;
• Magna cum laude: students in the next eight percent ;
• Cum laude: students in the next twelve percent.

These percentages may be shifted slightly up or down at the discretion of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs to take into account ties for a given rank. Due to FERPA policy, information about exact grade cut-offs is not released by the College. The list of students who earned Latin honors is included annually in the expanded commencement program published in late summer that includes honors and awards.  Please note that this is different from the program published online the weekend of commencement ceremonies.

Completion of a substantial research project or other integrative type of work is always required. The project must culminate in a written report or some other tangible record. Working on an honors project lets you learn more about some area within your major that you find especially intriguing and, in many cases, gain first-hand experience that resembles that of practitioners in your field. Often, you are not just learning what has come before; you are creating or discovering something new.

Complete with distinction the standard courses required for the major and at least two quarters of 398 or 399 or a combination thereof. (There are limits on counting 398 and 399 credits toward graduation requirements.)

Departments may add other criteria to the common requirements above.  Departments and programs offering an option to pursue honors in the major have a written honors policy that meets standards set up by the Weinberg Committee on Undergraduate Academic Excellence to preserve uniformity throughout the college.

Nomination Timeline

You must be formally nominated for honors by your department or program in spring of the year you complete your honors project and then approved by the Weinberg College Committee on Undergraduate Academic Excellence. Nomination to this committee does not guarantee the award of honors; the committee makes the final determination.

If you are working on a thesis in a Weinberg major during your senior year and hope to be considered for nomination for honors, you should not plan to graduate in Fall or Winter Quarter of that year. Decisions about honors are made in the spring, and students who have graduated are not considered. You do not need to register for classes during Spring Quarter, but should indicate a Spring Quarter graduation term on your Petition to Graduate. It is also fine to graduate in a term later than Spring Quarter of the year you pursue honors.

Planning Ahead

If you are considering pursuing honors in your major, you should speak with your College Adviser and your major adviser as soon as possible, even if you don’t have a particular project in mind.  There are several reasons to plan ahead. 

• Completing an honors thesis can influence a number of other decisions, such as whether to study abroad or complete a second major. 
• Departments have different timetables and methods for selecting students for their honors program and for when students begin work on their project, and you’ll need to know the protocol in your major.  For example, some select potential honors candidates in spring of the junior year.
• Since your overall record plays an important role in determining whether you can pursue honors, the more you can prepare and strategize with your advisers, the better.

Some students will propose projects that are quite distinct. These students should meet with the honors coordinator in each of the two departments to discuss their plans for completing two separate honors projects, and they should complete the Application to Pursue Dual or Interdisciplinary Senior Honors Projects with each honors coordinator; the proposal should clearly document the substantial difference between the two planned projects. The application should be signed by the research adviser and the honors coordinator in each department and then submitted to Director of Undergraduate Academic Affairs Ann Marshall via wcas-forms@northwestern.edu for review by the College Committee on Undergraduate Academic Excellence.

Applications and supporting documents should be submitted by May 25 of the student's junior year. If the student meets both departments' honors requirements, they can then be nominated for honors in each department the following year. Questions can be sent to Ann Marshall.

If a student proposes to write two papers that will overlap and inform each other (much as chapters in a book do) or, more dramatically, to do a single, synthetic project to be submitted jointly, a conversation must ensue between the appropriate members of both departments. It would be up to these faculty members to determine whether they are prepared to support such a project and, if so, to set some guidelines for the student (the length and scope of the paper, bibliography, research methods, and participation in the honors course work in each department, among other things). Because the finished project will be considered for honors in two departments, it should be somehow more ambitious than a regular honors thesis—such as in the number and variety of the sources consulted, the analytical methods used, or the sophistication of the problem being addressed. However, this does not necessarily mean that the finished paper or papers must be longer than a normal honors thesis. Supporting a request to write an interdisciplinary honors thesis (or theses) would also oblige the mentors in both departments to stay in touch with each other periodically during the preparation of the paper(s), especially in cases in which a single synthetic thesis is envisioned. Normally, students will be expected to register for and to successfully complete the honors sequences in both departments.

Application for Interdisciplinary Honors

Students with Adjunct Majors

Students with adjunct majors that have an honors program - African Studies, Geography, International Studies, Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences, and Science in Human Culture - can submit a proposal to their program director to pursue interdisciplinary honors between the adjunct major and (typically) their other required major by writing an interdisciplinary thesis.  For each proposal, the director will make sure that the appropriate faculty member(s) have helped with the proposal, approved it, and have agreed to advise the student over the course of the thesis-writing period.  Typically there will be two faculty members, one from each major.  If the director approves the proposal, the student will complete the appropriate form (Application to Pursue Dual or Interdisciplinary Senior Honors Projects) and obtain the necessary signatures (two Thesis Program Coordinators and two faculty adviser signatures). The signed form and the proposal will be submitted to Director for Undergraduate Academic Affairs Ann Marshall via wcas-forms@northwestern.edu.

Students with Free-Standing Majors

Students with two free-standing majors who wish to pursue interdisciplinary honors by writing an interdisciplinary thesis must submit a proposal to their two Honors Coordinators. Both coordinators will make sure that the appropriate faculty members, typically one in each department or program, helped with the proposal, approved it, and have agreed to advise the student over the course of the thesis-writing period. 

Once the coordinators have approved the proposal, the student will complete the form Application to Pursue Dual or Interdisciplinary Senior Honors Projects and obtain the necessary signatures.  The signed form and the proposal will be submitted to Director for Undergraduate Academic Affairs Ann Marshall via wcas-forms@northwestern.edu. Submitted documents will then be reviewed by the Weinberg College Committee on Undergraduate Academic Excellence (CUAE).

Evaluation of interdisciplinary theses: When the paper or papers are finished, they should be evaluated through the ordinary department channels, and if the work passes muster in both departments, the student should then be nominated for honors in Interdisciplinary honors in the two subjects. For example, a student could be nominated for graduation with "honors for interdisciplinary studies in Sociology and Political Science," rather than for separate honors in each department. If the departments disagree in their assessments, it would be possible to nominate the student for honors in one subject only.