Honors Program in Geography

The honors program in geography provides qualified students majoring in geography and global environmental studies an opportunity to conduct a major independent research project on a topic of interest.

Program Requirements

• Complete a two-semester independent honors project (thesis) or counterpart in accepted “selective” program, such as HERO, the final product of which is evaluated by a Honors Committee.
• Present a poster or paper related to the honors project at Academic Spree Day or at a relevant professional meeting.
• Project must be supervised by a geography faculty member and one additional faculty member; the two members constitute the student’s Honors Committee.

Program Candidate Qualifications

• Open to juniors with a minimum GPA of 3.25 overall and 3.5 GPA in the geography major by the end of first semester of the junior year of study, and who demonstrate the appropriate research background to undertake independent geographic research.
• Honors participants should have taken GEOG141 Research Methods, or its equivalent, before entering the program.

Applying for Honors

• Notification of eligibility and information about the program is forwarded to all junior students in November of the junior year.
• Students wishing to start their honors project in the spring semester of the junior year must notify the undergraduate program assistant by December 15. Those students wishing to start their honors project in the fall semester of their senior year must notify the undergraduate program assistant by March 15.
• Acceptance to the Honors Program is considered provisional until grades for the fall semester (junior year) are received. If these grades enable the student to continue meeting the GPA standards described above, she/he becomes formally accepted to the program.
• Honors students register for GEOG297 Directed Research (Honors), or HERO for two semesters -spring/fall of the junior-senior year or fall/spring of the senior year.