Undergraduate Honors in ENVS

The department of Environmental Studies awards three types of honors to students graduating from our majors. These honors designations are recognition of outstanding acheivement by ENVS students and are printed on their transcripts and diplomas. Please read below for information about each type of honors.  

Department Honors:

• 3.5 GPA in all courses used to satisfy the ENVS upper division requirements. Students are limited to no more than one pass/no pass upper-division course requirement in order to remain eligible for department honors consideration. 
• Students do not need to apply for department honors -- they are calculated and awarded after grades are posted at the end of the student's last quarter.
• ENVS Department Honors are generally awarded to the top 10 to 15 percent of ENVS graduating seniors, but that percentage may vary. 

Highest Department Honors:

• 3.75 GPA in all courses used to satisfy the ENVS upper division requirements AND the student must also receive senior comprehensive honors (see below).
• Students are limited to no more than one pass/no pass upper-division course requirement in order to remain eligible for highest department honors consideration. 
• ENVS Highest Department Honors are generally awarded to the top 5 percent of ENVS graduating seniors, but that percentage may vary. 

Senior Comprehensive Honors:

• Products from all senior exit requirements may be considered for senior comprehensive honors. These products include final research papers from capstone and senior seminars; senior theses; and the final product for senior internships, which may be solely a longer research paper/professional report or a combination of a shorter research paper and another professional product (e.g. video, curriculum, field guide, museum display, built project). In the latter case, both the short research paper and the professional product (or a picture and detailed description of a built project or display) must be submitted. If students conduct a group project there must be a minimum of an 8-page individually-written research paper for each student involved.
  
  
• Honors must be nominated by the student's faculty sponsor who recommends two potential faculty second readers to the Undergraduate Program Coordinator (UPC). The UPC then chooses one of the two faculty to be the second faculty reader who reviews the paper and decides whether they concur with awarding honors. Faculty typically decide whether to nominate student papers for comprehensive honors, but students can ask their senior exit instructor to consider their final senior project for honors determination. 
  
  
• Senior exit products are considered truly outstanding (top 10% or less) by the nominator/evaluator with respect to the following criteria:
  • Articulates original and achievable research questions/aims/thesis*
  • Outlines and justifies tangible objectives that meet the needs of an internship agency+
  • Includes an appropriate review of the literature and/or prior actions addressing a similar problem 
  • Utilizes appropriate methods and/or analytical approaches to answer their research aims/questions/thesis or meet the objectives of their internship project
  • Makes a contribution to the work of an agency, to the academic literature, and/or to environmental problem solving.
  • Critically analyzes the results of research and places them in the context of the broader literature on the research topic*
  • Represents outstanding writing skills
  • Cites and formats references correctly and consistently using APA or another discipline-specific citation format
  • Student demonstrates independent research and problem solving skills during the research and writing process (evaluated by nominator only)
  • Student responds to and carefully incorporates feedback (evaluated by nominator only)

*Capstone papers, senior seminar papers, and theses only.   +Senior internship projects only.

Honors in a combined major (ENVS/BIO, ENVS/EART, ENVS/ECON) will be awarded when the student's course work meets the honors criteria in both departments. Students are encouraged to contact advising if they have any questions about this.