Guidelines for Graduating with Honors in CDS
Students demonstrating academic excellence in their major are eligible to graduate with departmental honors. This page outlines the eligibility policies and requirements for earning this distinction: a minimum 3.7 Major GPA and a successful Honors Project.
Eligibility
Students must earn at least a 3.7 GPA in their Major Communication and Digital Studies or any special major sponsored through the department.
An Honors Project is a paper or project completed in a CDS capstone seminar or individual study. That work must receive an A, and the faculty evaluating the project must agree that the work merits distinction as an Honors Project. The faculty member may turn down the student’s request for approval of an Honors Project, or they may require further work on a graded paper or project before approving it. Students intending to apply for departmental honors should consult with the supervising faculty by the mid point of the semester to ensure that the project is worthy of honors.
Once approved, the project will be archived and published through Eagle Scholar, the UMW Library’s digital repository. There, it will be featured among our growing archive of undergraduate research, including past CDS Honors Projects.
Please note: research projects that involve subjects may require IRB approval before they can be published in Eagle Scholar.
Applying to Graduate with Honors
The deadline for Spring 2025 graduates to declare their intentions is 4:00 PM on Wednesday, April 9. It is important that students communicate with their sponsoring faculty as soon as possible and before submitting this formal declaration of intention.
After the project is completed, evaluated, and approved, students must submit it for publication in Eagle Scholar no later than 4:00 PM on Friday, May 2.
In addition, students must e-mail the following items to the CDS Department Chair (zwhalen@umw.edu) by 4:00 PM on Friday, May 2:
- The final version of the project.
- A 150-word abstract of the project that includes the paper’s title, the name of the sponsoring professor, and information on the course (field, number, and name) or independent study for which the paper was written.
- A high quality photograph of the applicant.
The project’s abstract and student’s photo may be displayed at the CDS Reception for Graduating Seniors (held the week before Spring commencement), and they will be displayed in the CDS Department areas in James Farmer Hall. They may also be featured on our social media accounts.