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The Undergraduate Honors Program In Psychology

The honors program is designed for exceptional students who wish to pursue an intensive and independent program of research in psychology. Successful participation serves as evidence of the student’s facility in the two most important skills required of an academic psychologist: namely, the capacity to acquire and integrate a substantial body of theoretical and factual material and the ability to devise and execute a creative empirical research project.

The honors program offers students the closest contact and consultation with faculty they will likely experience while at Cornell, and all qualified majors who are planning graduate work in any academic field should consider applying. However, it should also be noted that conducting honors research and completing a thesis is an extremely demanding undertaking, both in time and effort. Due to the demands of both research and writing, it is expected that after the Christmas break, honors students will return to campus as early as possible to continue their work, as well as remain on campus through all of spring break.

The focus of the honors program is conducting an experiment, analyzing the data that result, and describing the project in a thesis that closely approximates a professional-level research report both in form and quality. The research project is to be conducted under the close sponsorship of a faculty member. Subject to approval, the sponsor need not be in the psychology department per se. Students that successfully complete the honors program graduate with one of levels of honors, which is noted on their diplomas. The customary level is cum laude, awarded to approximately two-thirds of psychology honors graduates. Approximately one-third receive the next higher level of honors, which is magna cum laude. A student who has both an unusually strong academic record in psychology and completes a thesis of exceptionally high quality will be considered for summa cum laude, the highest level of honors. However, those are unusual cases. The T. A. Ryan Award, accompanied by a cash prize, is awarded to the student who conducts the best honors project in a given year. Students in the program register for 3 or 4 credits of PSYCH 471 Independent Study in both fall and spring semesters. Format and binding of the thesis follows guidelines for the doctoral dissertation and master’s thesis, outlined by the Cornell University Graduate School. Stylistic format is APA style. Alternative style formats are possible, if approved in advance.

For additional information on the program, please contact Prof. Melissa J. Ferguson, mjf44@cornell.edu.


 
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