Honors in Biology

The Department of Biology will award honors to a biology major based on the candidate’s entire undergraduate biology program. This includes:

All courses required for the major and grades: Minimum grade point average of 3.0 is required in those courses that count towards the biology major, including Chemistry 131-132 (or Chem 141) and transfer courses that receive biology credit.

Nature of the curriculum selected.

Successful completion of an Honors research project:

1. The project may be performed in two semesters of independent research (Biol 550) or student-faculty research (Biol 560) on campus, or in a summer plus one semester of independent research, under the supervision of a biology faculty member.
2. Research projects of comparable scope performed off-campus under the supervision of a mentor who is not a biology faculty member may also be proposed for departmental honors, subject to the procedures described below.
3. The honors research project should be distinguished by the originality and definition of the research problem, the sophistication of the experimental design, its execution, analysis and presentation of the results. 
4. Generally, honors reports should be of publishable or near publishable quality. The Honors Committee will consider all these factors in its recommendation to the faculty, and the faculty should be cognizant of all these factors when voting honors.