Undergraduate Study

Departmental Honors Program

1. Qualification

To qualify, a student must have attained at the end of the junior year a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.0 and a grade-point average of at least 3.4 in courses required for the major. Preferably by the end of the junior year, but no later than the first week of the senior year, the student should apply formally to the chemistry undergraduate vice chair for admittance to the chemistry honors program. A student with an undergraduate cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.0 and a grade-point average between 3.0 and 3.4 in courses required for the major also may be admitted upon review by the Undergraduate Research and Honors Committee.

2. Honors in Chemistry

In order to graduate with Honors in Chemistry, accepted candidates are expected to:

1. maintain a grade-point average of at least 3.4 in courses required for the major,
2. complete at least 3 credits per semester in an independent senior research project
   (01:160:497-498),
3. make an oral presentation at the end of the senior year.

3. Honors Thesis

In order to graduate with High Honors or Highest Honors in Chemistry, accepted candidates are expected to fulfill the honors requirements listed above and, in addition, write a thesis based on their independent research in chemistry and defend this thesis before a committee comprising their research adviser and one additional faculty member selected from the Undergraduate Research and Honors Committee. A successful defense of the thesis satisfies requirement 2(c).

The designations of High Honors and Highest Honors will normally require grade-point averages greater than 3.6 and 3.8, respectively, in courses required for the major. If the thesis defense is sufficiently meritorious, the Thesis Committee may recommend High or Highest Honors for a student who has excelled in research and has a lower grade-point average than listed above. In all cases, the final recommendation will be made by the Undergraduate Research and Honors Committee.

Students in the School of Arts and Sciences will be designated SAS Paul Robeson Scholars. An outstanding thesis qualifies a student for a Henry Rutgers Award.
(See http://sasundergrad.rutgers.edu/academics/opportunities/thesis.html for more details.)

As an alternate path to departmental honors, students in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences may elect to apply to the George H. Cook Scholars Program.
(See http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~cookhnrs/ghc_faq.htm for program and deadline information.)