Honors Program
Graduation with honors requires completion of a senior research thesis. Students must enroll in BIPH 99d during their senior year to carry out a research project. Students wishing to join the honors program should apply to the honors adviser in the program during the spring of their junior year.
BIPH 99D Requirements
- A committee of two faculty will supervise the work.
- A written thesis proposal must be prepared at the beginning of the first semester and be approved by the committee and the advising coordinator prior to registration for the course.
- A midyear evaluation will be done at the end of the first semester and a report submitted to the advising coordinator. Students judged to have made insufficient progress will not be permitted to continue in the second semester.
- A thesis in a department-approved format must be submitted to the committee by the last day of classes of the second semester. At a minimum, the thesis must have a title page, a signature page, an abstract, description of the work performed and the conclusions reached, and references.
- Students must defend their thesis during a 30-minute public oral examination by the end of the final examination period of the second semester.
- Written evaluations of the thesis and the defense must be submitted by the committee to the advising coordinator by the Friday preceding the department degree meeting.
- The level of distinction will be determined from evaluation of both the thesis and the student's academic record.
- Students wishing to graduate in seven semesters must start their thesis research in the spring semester of their junior year, and follow the same rules moved forward one semester.
- The required forms for items (2), (3), and (6) are available from the Physics Department website, as is a sample thesis document.