Honors

Detailed Requirements

• Advanced Languages
• Curriculum
• GPA
• Great Works
• Portfolio
• Service
• Thesis

Advanced Languages

Honors students must gain experience in both a foreign language and math by completing coursework up to a 200-level placement in a foreign language or the equivalent (a placement exam showing ability past the first-year level is acceptable for example), and at least one course from Math 112, 112H, 113, 113H, 119, Stat 221, 221H, 321, Phil 305, Psych 301 or an acceptable substitute. Fulfillment of this requirement meets the General Education Advanced Languages Requirement.

Curriculum

To fulfill the Honors curriculum requirements, students must complete 22 credit hours selected from honors courses and honors sections of department courses, subject to the following limitations:

• Three of the 22 credit hours must be from one of the following writing courses: HONRS 150, PHIL 150H, or ENGL 150H
• A minimum of 10 credit hours must be from the "HONRS" type of course (Honors Program courses)
• No more than four credit hours can be from honors sections of religion courses
• No more than four credit hours of HONRS 100, 290R, and 292R can be used to meet this requirement

All BYU students must complete up to 41 credit hours to meet general education requirements and 14 credit hours to meet religious education requirements. Honors options are available for all of the General Education requirements (except the Wellness requirement). Honors 499R (Thesis Credit) does not count as credit for the Honors Curriculum Requirement but can be used as credit for completion of the Thesis Requirement if your major department does not have a 499R undergraduate thesis number.

GPA

Honors students are not necessarily those with the highest GPAs, although most perform very well in their classes. Rather than select easy courses to receive high grades, Honors students tend to seek challenging courses taught by excellent professors, and they participate in a variety of activities. Honors students are expected to perform well academically, defined as a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5 at the time of graduation.

Great Works

For over a millennium the study of classic texts has formed the foundation of education in the western world. During the Renaissance these canonical texts derived almost exclusively from one particular tradition – that of ancient Greece and Rome. This practice has persisted for hundreds of years, and students have studied the classics for two primary reasons: (1) such works of genius represent, in Matthew Arnold’s phrase, “the best that is known and thought in the world”; and (2) they create a common ground for thoughtful discourse in the western world. Similarly, other cultures also value “classic” texts – works that endure the test of time, provide the foundation of education, and inspire further thought and creativity.

In the Honors Program we strive to continue this venerable tradition, though we have adapted it to meet the demands of a later, more multicultural and multidisciplinary age. First, we have broadened the notion of a classic to include works in other media and a variety of disciplines, including music, theater, the visual arts, film, and science and technology. Second, we have included examples from cultures throughout the world and from diverse historical periods while retaining some of the most notable works from ancient Greece and Rome. Notwithstanding these modifications, the fundamental goals of our Great Works requirement remain the same: (1) to expose students to works that represent “the best that is known and thought in the world” and (2) to allow students to gain familiarity with primary works of literature, theatre, visual art, film, music, and science and technology in western and other cultures. These are works that have influenced – and continue to influence – our basic assumptions about the world. In addition, we hope that this requirement will help students develop a life-long habit of seeking out the greatest and most influential works of human history.

Students must meet this requirement while they are undergraduates. (They may not count works they studied in high school.) Students will find it easiest to meet this requirement if they spread it out over four years, rather than attempting to fit it in one year alone.

BYU proffers multiple opportunities to meet this requirement both within its course offerings and through the numerous concerts, plays, exhibits, films, and lectures that are sponsored every semester and term. The Honors Program also provides a Great Works card that entitles enrolled Honors students to discounts to many campus performances. In addition, many recitals and exhibitions are free and open to the public.

The Honors Program has produced a packet that provides detailed information about the Great Works Requirement as well as a log that will enable students to keep track of their progress in completing it. The packet is available through the Honors Advisement Center (102A MSRB). It may also be downloaded as an electronic document (in pdf format) by clicking on the link below.

Download/view Great Works materials

Portfolio

The portfolio represents primarily a collection of the student's best work throughout his or her tenure as an undergraduate student. However, the portfolio is not a scrapbook; it contains samples of the student's best work, which may include class papers, exams, laboratory reports, musical compositions, paintings, designs of equipment, articles submitted for publication, etc. Depending on a student's major, the portfolio may contain other appropriate evidences of academic progress or achievement (e.g., artwork). When submitted for examination at defense, the portfolio should contain, but is not limited to:

• A one-page outline or summary, semester by semester, of the major highlights and achievements of the student's undergraduate experience.
• A one-page description and assessment of the student's most memorable service experience while a student at BYU. Why or how was this experience formative for the student? How does the student plan to serve the larger community once he or she has left the university?
• A current transcript or ABC report indicating a GPA of at least 3.5.
• A list of three faculty members who know the student and can recommend his or her academic record.
• A representative collection of the student's best academic work that reflects his or her educational progression throughout the undergraduate years.
• The Great Works requirement: the Experience Log with a list of 72 Great Works and 12 Great Works response papers.

Deadlines

These dates are final deadlines. All materials should be turned in to the Honors Advisement Center, 102A MSRB--they will not be accepted if they do not have the proper submission forms and signatures, so please make sure they are complete.

Service

Students who participate in Honors are invariably gifted and highly motivated. The Honors Program encourages students to share their gifts with others through meaningful service.

To complete this requirement, students must participate in some form of service that draws upon their unique talents and abilities during their undergraduate years. This requirement is flexible in that it allows students to define the form of service they plan to use to meet this requirement. Their contribution may be in a single project or spread out over several projects.

Examples of service projects that students have used to complete this requirement include volunteer tutoring of high school or college students; assistance in programs that benefit people who are differently abled, elderly, ill, or impoverished; service as a volunteer in museums, hospitals, parks, or other public faculties; and participation in restoration or conservation projects. Service can be part of activities sponsored by educational, religious, government, business, or charitable organizations, including BYU and the LDS Church, or students can plan and carry out service on their own.

For those students who serve full-time LDS missions, the service that meets this requirement should be carried out while a student and should be in addition to any service while a full-time missionary. Missions often provide students with skills and opportunities that they can use to provide significant service after their full-time missions are completed.

Thesis

The Honors thesis requirement gives students the opportunity to participate in original research or creative work in the discipline of their major. Honors students typically complete the thesis requirement during their junior and senior years after they have obtained sufficient training in their major to conduct independent work in a specialized academic field. Each student chooses a faculty advisor in the department of his or her major and in consultation with the advisor chooses a thesis topic.

Students should complete significant course work within the subject area of the thesis (usually at least 30 credit hours, several of which are from 300- or 400-level major courses). The thesis is intended to acquaint students firsthand and in depth with the type of scholarly work that characterizes the field they intend to pursue professionally. For these reasons, only under rare circumstances is an Honors thesis topic outside the major area approved. (In most cases students who complete a thesis outside the major do so in fields cognate to their majors.)

Forming an Honors Thesis idea

A good portion of past honors theses are available to view in the Honors Reading Room of the Harold B. Lee library. The call number for Honors theses is AS 36 .B752 and then they are arranged by the author's surname and the date. They are not arranged by academic department. (Although a copy of every thesis is sent to the academic department, so they should have a collection of them in their respective conference rooms as well.)

The LC subject heading for the library is "university scholar project.". If you go to the online library catalog and use Open Advanced Search, place on line one "university scholar project", and and on line two the academic department (i.e. "Social Work"), you can find theses within a certain discipline.

Thesis Proposal

Before students begin work on an Honors thesis, they must submit a written thesis proposal and have it approved by the Honors Program Office. Guidelines for writing the proposal are available in a packet entitled Thesis Proposal Guidelines. Additional guidelines by discipline are avalable below. Students can request financial support as a part of the thesis proposal. Many honors students obtain competitive undergraduate research grants from BYU's Office of Research and Creative Activities for Honors thesis work. Also, many professors and departments have research funding that can be devoted to research on an Honors thesis. Personnel in the Honors Program can help students explore the various opportunities available to support their work on an Honors thesis.

After completing thesis research and writing the thesis, each student must conduct a thesis defense. The defense committee consists of the thesis advisor, a faculty referee, and a representative of the Honors Program administration, who chairs the defense. After the thesis defense is completed and all final changes are incorporated into the thesis, the Honors Program will have the thesis bound and add it to the collection of Honors theses housed in the Harold B. Lee Library.

Deadlines

These dates are final deadlines. Plan to have your thesis proposals approved before the deadline, preferably more than two semesters before defending the thesis. Thus, those graduating in April should have their thesis proposal approved no later than the previous April. All materials should be turned in to the Honors Advisement Center, 102A MSRB--they will not be accepted if they do not have the proper submission forms and signatures, so please make sure they are complete.

*June graduation is only allowed in special circumstances--check with your college advisement center for more information.

Download information on the thesis on the Downloadable Forms and Information page. Sample thesis proposals can be viewed in the Honors Advisement Center.

Honors Thesis Coordinator Guidelines

The following guidelines are intended to serve as a more specific set of information in addition to the Honors Program Thesis Proposal Guidelines. You should consult both the guidelines for your field as well as the official thesis proposal guidelines while writing your proposal. Please note that we do not yet have guidelines for every discipline. If you cannot find the guidelines relating to the field of your project, please contact your Honors Coordinator or consult guidelines from a related department. The current list of Honors Coordinators can be found in the Personnel section of this website.

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Computer Science

Electrical and Computer Engineering

English

Exercise Sciences

French and Italian

Fulton College of Engineering and Technology

History

Humanities, Classics, and Comparative Literature

Linguistics and English Language

Marriot School of Business

Math

Microbiology/Molecular Biology

Music

Nursing

Plant and Wildlife Sciences

Political Science

Psychology

Social Work

Teacher Education

Visual Arts