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The Politics Department Honors Program offers an
opportunity for students to do sustained, independent
reading and research under the supervision of the faculty.
Students choose to work in American politics, comparative
politics, international politics, or political theory. In
the second semester of the junior year they do a "junior
project," which is a research paper done in the context of a
seminar or other course. In the senior year they take honors
reading/research courses, and possibly seminars or
workshops, each semester, in the course of which they write
a thesis and prepare for written and oral examinations
composed and evaluated by outside examiners.
Admission to Honors
Each January, the Department selects students for the
program according to the following criteria:
- Students whose College GPA exceeds 3.3, whose
Politics Department GPA exceeds 3.5, and who have
completed three or more courses in Politics, are
automatically invited to candidacy.
- Students who meet this criterion but who have only
two courses in Politics may be invited at the
Department's discretion.
- Students whose College GPA is between 3.0 and 3.3,
and whose Politics GPA is between 3.2 and 3.5, and who
have completed three or more courses in Politics, may be
invited to candidacy at the Department's discretion.
Junior Honors Project
Students accepted into the program at the beginning of
the second semester of their junior year will do a "junior
project," which is a research paper done through a seminar,
private reading, or other advanced course. The nature of the
junior project should be worked out in consultation with
faculty in the student's primary area of interest.
Successful completion of the junior project will qualify the
student to begin senior honors work in the following year.
Students who are off campus during the second semester of
the junior year, or whose record in that semester shows
significant improvement, may in unusual cases be asked to
join the honors program at the beginning of their senior
year. In either case, evidence of scholarship, analogous to
a seminar paper, is required. At the beginning of the senior
year, the Department reviews the work of each candidate over
the previous semester. Those whose junior projects suggest
that they will be able to complete senior honors
successfully will be encouraged to continue in the
program.
Senior Honors
Senior honors candidates take honors private
reading/research courses for three to five credits each
semester. They may also be required to take a seminar or
workshop, as determined advised by the honors adviser. Both
honors private reading/research courses are graded at the
end of the spring semester, with an interim grade of *
recorded in the fall.
The Honors Thesis
The honors thesis is a major piece of original research,
often based on primary sources, as appropriate. It is
normally a minimum of 15,000 words (roughly sixty pages) in
length. Drafts are presented to the honors adviser in the
early spring semester, and subsequently rewritten for
submission in late April or early May. They are evaluated by
the honors adviser and another member of the department
faculty serving as "second reader". Second readers are
chosen by the student in consultation with the honors
adviser.
The Honors Exam
Senior honors candidates also take written and oral
examinations in the late spring over the work they have done
in their field of specialization (not over the field in its
entirety). This process begins with candidates preparing a
resumé of the work they have completed in all the
courses they have taken in their field, including but not
restricted to that done in the honors program. This also
includes a précis of the thesis. On the basis of
these resumés, outside examiners prepare written
examinations that test both the student's general knowledge
of the field of concentration and the more specific work
done in the honors reading-research courses, seminars and
workshops. These are four-hour, closed-book tests. They are
subsequently typed and sent to the examiners. A week or two
later, the examiners journey to Oberlin to conduct
forty-minute oral examinations with each candidate. The
orals cover issues raised in the written examination, and
also may cover issues of the field that are related to the
thesis. Faculty members may sit in on the oral examinations
as observers, but do not participate in the examination.
Evaluation of Honors
Based on the written and oral examinations, the
examiners recommend to the Department that students graduate
with highest honors, high honors, honors, or no honors. The
Department in turn makes recommendations to the College
Faculty Committee on Honors at Graduation. A recommendation
of no honors does not necessarily entail a failing grade in
any of the honors courses or loss of credit.
Students are also graded in each of the courses of the
honors program, which are evaluated without regard to
performance on the honors examinations. In general, honors
work correlates with a grade of B+ or A-, high honors A- or
A, and highest honors A or A+. When granted, honors
evaluations appear on the transcript. It is the Department's
experience that most honors candidates complete the program
successfully and with a sense of accomplishment. Students
are urged to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of
honors work in their own case with their adviser, the chair,
or any other faculty member in the Department.
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