The Honors Program is designed to give deserved recognition to outstanding achievement in the field of East Asian Studies. Covering the two semesters of the senior year, the program is planned as an intellectual exercise focusing upon an area of special interest to the candidate.

1. Admission to the Honors Program will be by invitation of the East Asian Studies Faculty. Students interested in being considered for Honors are encouraged to indicate their interest and discuss the details of the program with any member of the East Asian Studies Faculty. Faculty are encouraged to urge qualified students to consider the Honors Program. Students will be expected to have completed all relevant coursework, including foundational courses in appropriate disciplines. A file of Honors prospectuses will be maintained in the East Asian Studies office for the perusal of East Asian Studies faculty and students.

2. The Honors Project should be original. Except in special cases, it should also make use of primary language sources.

3. No later than May 1 of the junior year, the candidate will submit to the East Asian Studies Faculty a tentative written proposal (10 pages) and bibliography compiled in consultation with the potential thesis adviser. Continuance in the Honors Program will be contingent upon faculty acceptance of these documents. The Program will also designate an official Honors Supervisor and a Second Reader from among the East Asian Studies Faculty at this time.

Students studying abroad in their junior year will submit the tentative written proposal and bibliography no later than the first weekend of the ensuing fall semester. It is in the best interest of such students to consult with the potential thesis adviser during the spring and, if necessary, over the summer in preparing these documents.

4. By the end of the second week of the second semester of the senior year, the candidate will deliver an oral presentation to the East Asian Studies Faculty. This progress report is not to exceed thirty minutes in length, and will be followed by a discussion period designed to benefit the candidate. One week before the scheduled presentation, the candidate will submit to each member of the East Asian Studies faculty an outline and annotated bibliography dealing with the Honors project.

Should the candidate’s progress be deemed unsatisfactory as a result of the oral presentation, the Honors credit may be turned into Private Reading credit.

5. By a designated date in late April of the senior year, the candidate will submit four clean copies of the Honors Thesis (40-60 pages) to the EAS faculty. The thesis will be evaluated by two readers whose mutual consent is a prerequisite for the holding of the senior Oral Examination. If one reader judges the work to be unsatisfactory, a third reader will be appointed. If the third reader judges the work to be unsatisfactory, the Senior Oral Examination will not be held, and the Honors project may be converted to Private Reading credit.

6. A member of the East Asian Studies Faculty other than the first and second readers will serve as the official chairperson of the Oral Defense.

7. The Senior Oral examination is not to exceed sixty minutes and will focus on the content of the Honors Thesis. The time designated for the oral defense will be divided according to the following schedule for purposes of questioning the Honors candidate:

First reader 20 minutes
Second reader 10 minutes
Other faculty 30 minutes

8. After the defense, the candidate will supply two clean, revised, unbound copies of the Honors thesis to the director of the East Asian Studies program for deposit in the Special Collections and the General Information Collection of Mudd Library.
The revised thesis must adhere to the following regulations:

1) the title page must include the candidate’s full name, the department or program, the degree for which the thesis was submitted and the year of submission

2) no correction fluid or tape can be used

3) all pages must be numbered

4) there must be a one-inch margin at the top, right and bottom, and a 1-1/2 inch margin on the left side of each page

5) the format described in the Modern Language Association, University of Chicago or other standard style manual must be used.

9. In determining the degree of Honors to be awarded at graduation, the East Asian Studies Faculty presupposes as a minimum the following guidelines from the Committee on Honors at Graduation: “The Committee on Honors at Graduation suggests that averages in major areas typically should not be below 3.1 for Honors, 3.5 for High Honors, and 3.8 for Highest Honors. Exceptional cases might, for example, involve a single poor year or semester attributable to unusual circumstances.”