Departmental Honors

Departmental honors are highly competitive.  Normally no more than 10% of the majors graduating in the department each year will receive departmental honors.  

In order to qualify for departmental honors in philosophy, a student must have a grade point average of at least 3.6 in the major.  

For students with a GPA of 3.6 or above, there are two possible routes to consideration:

1.      A student may complete a senior thesis; those students who complete senior theses will automatically be considered for honors without having to be nominated. 

2.      A student may be nominated by a faculty member early in the spring semester of the senior year; nominated students will be invited to submit a writing sample.  A nominated student who is also writing a thesis may submit their thesis as the writing sample, or may choose to submit a different work.

Both the senior theses and writing samples are due in early April.  The departmental honors committee will then review the submitted material and the academic records of the writers, and will report to the full faculty.  

The full faculty will then decide which students to recommend for departmental honors to the Columbia College and General Studies administrations.