Purpose: The purpose of the Honors Program is:

1. To recognize department majors who show outstanding academic performance.
   
   
2. To allow such students to pursue a special interest in their major field with the help and supervision of a faculty member.
   
   
3. To share the work of outstanding students with the department and the larger university community.

Requirements:

1. Candidates must apply for admission to the honors program no later than the sixth week of the first semester in their senior year.
   
   
2. Candidates must have a GPA of 3.4 in their major. However, this requirement is not absolute, and students whose GPAs are close to 3.4 and whose upper division work shows improvement over lower division work are also encouraged to apply.
   
   
3. Each candidate must complete an advanced research project working closely with a faculty member. This project can represent an expansion of earlier work in a course or UROP; it may represent a collaboration with a faculty member; or it may be an independent project.
   
   
4. Honors candidates must register for two credits of Honors Project (Anthropology 4699 or Sociology 4999) in each semester of their senior year, or four credits in one semester. If a student registers for two semesters, they will ordinarily they will receive an "X" [a UM grading notation indicating that a course is continuing over one or more terms] for the first semester and a A - F grade for both semesters only upon completion of the project.
   
   
5. Honors candidates must complete a written report and must present their work to the larger university community in one of several ways: a. A web page; b. A poster presentation; c. An oral presentation to a department colloquium.

Recognition:

Successful Honors candidates will receive a Department Honors certificate, and the transcript of successful Honors Students shall bear the notation, "Graduated with Distinction in Criminology (or Sociology or Anthropology)."

The Department Honors award is made independently of College of Liberal Art Honors, and is intended to recognize the best who have majored in anthropology, criminology, or sociology at UMD. Interested students are encouraged to pursue collegiate honors in addition to those awarded by the Sociology-Anthropology Department.