The Emory College Honors Program is intended to give a highly qualified group of students more extensive experience in conducting research. Students with an overall grade point average of at least 3.5 in the first three years and with at least a 3.5 GPA in their major courses will be notified by the Program in Linguistics in the Spring of their junior year that they are eligible to participate in the Honors Program. After receiving notification, students will be invited to an orientation meeting which will fully explain the program.

Students participating in honors are responsible for defining a project and finding a faculty member who is willing to serve as advisor.
During the senior year, each Honors student will conduct an independent research project focused on the study of human language.

A list of our recent honors students and their thesis titles can be found on the Student Awards & Recognition page, under student honors here.

** Beginning Fall 2024, GPA Changes **: The minimum cumulative GPA required for Honors across the College will rise from 3.5 to 3.7. This change will be implemented for students entering the program in Fall 2024. For students in a three-semester program, the new GPA requirement will take effect in Spring 2024.

Linguistics Majors

The project may consist of an experimental or observational study of language, or may involve a linguistic analysis of archived transcripts, recordings, or language corpora. In collaboration with a faculty advisor, the student will collect, analyze and interpret data, compose an Honors thesis based on the data (also showing understanding of the relevant bibliography), and defend the thesis in front of a committee of three faculty members. The faculty advisor may be any core or affiliated faculty member in the Program in Linguistics. A second member of the committee must also be a member of the core or affiliated Linguistics faculty, while the third member of the committee must be from outside the Program.

In the fall semester of their senior year, Honors students will enroll in either a) Linguistics 495A Honors Directed Research or b) a relevant graduate seminar. In the spring semester all Honors students will enroll in Linguistics 495B Honors Research. The normal course load for Honors is four hours each semester (note: only 4 credit hours of Honors work may counted towards completion of the Major requirements). In the fall semester students will focus primarily on developing knowledge of the relevant bibliography, gaining IRB approval (if needed), and collecting data. They will meet regularly with the faculty advisor in order to discuss their project and related research issues.  In the spring, students will continue to work on their Honors project, completing their analysis and interpretation of the data, and presenting their results in appropriate written form and during an oral defense before the designated thesis committee.

Psychology and Linguistics Joint Majors

In concert with a faculty advisor from the Psychology Department or the Program in Linguistics, the student collects and analyzes data, prepares an Honors thesis based on the data, and defends the thesis in front of a committee of three faculty members. This committee recommends Honors, High Honors, or Highest Honors to be granted to the student's degree. During Commencement weekend, Honors students will participate in a college-wide Honors ceremony.

Honors students who are joint majors must have completed the Statistics and Laboratory Methods classes by the end of their junior year. In the fall of their senior year, Honors students enroll in Psychology 495A, and receive 3 hours of credit for participating in this weekly class. In the spring, they may receive variable credit under Psyc 495BWR for continuing work on their Honors project. Honors students are also required to take a graduate level course in Psychology during their senior year. Visit the Psychology Honors webpage for more information.

** NOTE: Joint Psycling majors invited to participate in honors may choose either Linguistics or Psychology Honors but may not enroll in both. Students choosing to participate in the Linguistics Honors program must take LING 495A in the fall and will enroll in LING 495B in the spring. He/she may not enroll in any psychology honors course (PSYC 495B) in the spring. This is the same for students choosing the Psychology Honors program; if the student is enrolled in PSYC 495A for the fall, he/she may not enroll in LING 495B in the spring.

Spanish and Linguistics Joint Majors

Spanish and Linguistics joint majors invited to participate must choose the Spanish or the Linguistics honors program. Students cannot participate in both programs.

• for Spanish Honors: To qualify students must be a Spanling major and have a cumulative GPA of 3.50, a 3.50 in all Spanish classes, and two semesters left before they plan to graduate. Students taking part in Spanish honors will enroll in SPAN 495A in the fall and SPAN 495BW in the spring. Visit the Spanport honors webpage for more information.
  
• for Linguistics Honors: As mentioned above, students participating in Linguistics honors will enroll in LING 495A in the fall and LING 495B in the spring. More details are listed above.

College Honors website