Who is Eligible?

If you are thinking about undertaking a Senior Honors Thesis in the College of Arts & Sciences, or if you hope to graduate from the College summa cum laude ("with highest honors"), you should pay careful attention to the information provided on this page to learn more about minimum qualifications for proposing a Senior Honors Thesis.

Minimum Qualifications to Propose a Senior Honors Thesis

To qualify to submit a proposal for a Senior Honors Thesis in the College of Arts & Sciences, you must, according to the Registrar, have earned more than 89 hours of credit at the university level with a cumulative GPA of 3.60 or higher. If your cumulative university GPA will reach 3.75 or higher by the time you graduate, and you will complete at least 60 hours at this institution, you may be eligible to propose and complete a Senior Honors Thesis and graduate summa cum laude ("with highest honors") from the College of Arts & Sciences.

 

Eligibility to Graduate Summa or Magna Cum Laude from the College of Arts & Sciences

To be considered for graduation with college honors, you must have earned a minimum of 60 hours of degree credit in residence in the College of Arts and Sciences and completed all requirements of a degree program in the College of Arts and Sciences. Graduation summa cum laude requires a university cumulative GPA 3.9 or higher or 3.75 and successful completion of a Senior Honors Thesis defended and approved by the Senior Honors Thesis Committee. Your final semester's grades are calculated in this GPA. 


You may consider completing a Senior Honors Thesis even if you are relying on your final year's grades to achieve averages of 3.75 or higher. If your university cumulative GPA will fall between 3.65 and 3.75, you may graduate magna cum laude if you also complete an honors thesis successfully.

Latin Honors Honors upon Graduation Required GPA WITHOUT Thesis Required GPA WITH thesis
Summa cum laude Highest  honors 3.9 3.75-3.89
Magna cum laude Higher honors 3.75-3.89 3.65-3.74
Cum laude* High honors 3.5-3.74 N/A

*Only students who qualify for magna or summa cum laude are eligible to submit an initiation form and thesis proposal to the A&S Senior Honors Thesis Committee for consideration.