Policy for Graduating with Honors in CDS
1) Eligibility: 3.7 GPA in the major (Communication and Digital Studies, or any special major in the department)
2) Honors Project: An “A” paper or project from a CDS seminar or individual study, with approval of the faculty member who supervised the paper or project. The faculty member may, at his or her discretion, require further work on a graded paper or project before approving it as an Honors Project. The faculty member may also turn down the student’s request for approval of the paper as an Honors Project if the faculty member does not think it is worth Honors. Students intending to apply for honors should consult with the supervising faculty member as soon as possible after spring break. (December graduates should consult by the day after fall break ends.)
3) The deadline for notification of intent and process to apply for Honors is:
- Spring 2024 graduates should declare intent to apply by 5 p.m. on Friday, April 5, 2024, by completing this online form. It is important that students work closely with their sponsors throughout March and April to make sure that the paper is deemed worthy of honors by the sponsoring faculty member.
4) After this date, students may edit their papers for typos, etc.; however, all work must be completed and the final project must be submitted no later than 4:00 p.m. on Friday of exam week. Before the final deadline, students should give an electronic copy to the CDS Chair (arao@umw.edu) and are expected to submit their project in Eagle Scholar (https://scholar.umw.edu/) for publication as an undergraduate student research project. Note: Eagle Scholar submissions may require IRB approval (https://provost.umw.edu/irb/manual-of-procedures-and-policies/irb-review-process/) for research projects using human subjects. Past CDS Honors projects on Eagle Scholar can be found here (https://scholar.umw.edu/cds_honors/).
6) In addition, by Friday of exam week, students should provide the following:
- An electronic copy of a 150-word abstract of their paper. This should include 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 and should be submitted via email to the CDS Chair, Anand Rao (arao@umw.edu) with subject header “Honors Candidate”;
- A quality digital photograph, submitted via email to the CDS Chair (arao@umw.edu) with subject header “Honors Candidate.”
The abstract and photo may be displayed at the CDS Reception for Graduating Seniors (held the week before spring commencement) and will be posted in the CDS department and on the CDS social media accounts. Note: December graduates should submit the above by Friday of exam week in the Fall; it will still be used for the reception at the end of the academic year.