Honors in Major
The Departmental Honors Program gives students an opportunity to work closely with faculty members, to explore their sociological interests more deeply, and to develop skills that will be useful in graduate school or in the professional world. Honors status is indicated on the diploma and signifies academic excellence to future employers or graduate school admissions committees.
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Jessica Bean, an honors in major student, wrote an honors thesis entitled "The Effects of Sociodemographic Variations and Strain on the Self-Concept of Rural Single Mothers." Jessica conducted telephone interviews with over 500 women in northern New England. |
A student can participate in the Departmental Honors Program by fulfilling the requirements listed below. Students wishing to participate in the University Honors Program (UHP) as well as Departmental Honors Program should contact the Honors Program Office. Information describing the University Honors Program is available in the Undergraduate Catalog and on the UHP website: www.unh.edu/honors-program.
1. To be eligible for Departmental Honors Program students are required to maintain a 3.2 grade point average overall and in their major course work.
2. A student must successfully complete a minimum of four courses (16 credit hours) of honors-designated sociology class work. With the exception of SOC 502-H, all courses must be at the 600 or 700 level (Note: SOC 502H cannot double-count for an honors general education and an honors-in-major course requirement).
Few honors-only courses are currently offered; therefore, students can receive honors credit for regular courses at the 600 and 700-level if they do the following: (a) Meet with the course instructor to determine extra work required to receive honors credit; (b) Complete a “Change of Honors Designation Form” for each regular course requested to be completed at the honors level, and return it with the instructor’s signature to the Registrar’s Office during the regular add/drop period.
3. A student must successfully complete an Honors Thesis (SOC 699H) as part of their 16 credit hours of honors-designated class work. The thesis may be completed in one or two successive semesters by registering for 4 to 8 credits of SOC 699H. (Note: Although 8 credits may be used to satisfy the Honors-In-Major requirement, only 4 credit hours of SOC 699H may be used to fulfill the Sociology major elective requirement.) The total number of credits should be proposed by the thesis director and approved by the Undergraduate Committee.
Thesis requirements:
a. The thesis will involve independent research in the library or in the field under the supervision of two faculty members, one of whom has agreed to direct the thesis, the other – selected by joint agreement of student and director – to act as reader.
b. Students must start work on their thesis the next to last semester of their undergraduate curriculum. For most students, this will be the fall semester of their senior year.
c. Students will present their analyses at the UNH Undergraduate Research Conference in the spring.
4. Students will submit a complete copy of the final draft of the thesis to the chair of the Undergraduate Committee by the end of their final semester of 699-H.
If you have questions about the honors in the sociology major, contact your advisor or call the Sociology Department at 862-2500.