Graduation with
Latin Honors
"Latin
Honors" (summa
cum laude, magna cum laude, cum laude) is an award attached to the degree rather than to the major. Therefore, the
student's undergraduate school, not an academic department, awards
Latin Honors.
Latin Honors are awarded by the College of Arts & Sciences based on GPA and the
recommendation of a student's major department. Each department sets its
own standards for such a recommendation, and the department's recommendation is
usually followed by the College, provided the student has a sufficiently high
GPA (see below).
Other undergraduate schools at
Washington University
(Architecture, Art, Business,
Engineering) will have their own requirements for attaching honors to
the degrees they award. It would be very unusual (if even
possible) for students from those schools with a second major in
mathematics to use their work in mathematics as the basis for Latin
honors: work done for a second major in Arts & Sciences is
"outside the scope" of the degree being awarded by the other
school.
Students not eligible for Latin Honors from Arts & Sciences, or who do not wish to do an
honors thesis, might be eligible instead to graduate with Distinction
in Mathematics.
Requirements for Latin Honors
Beyond
the normal
requirements
for a major, students seeking a Latin Honors recommendation from the Department of Mathematics must satisfy
the
requirements
listed in I) and II) below.
I. A high
overall
GPA
and a superior record in mathematics. Specifically,
A)
For
honors degrees, the College of Arts
&
Sciences requires the following GPA's:
3.50 - 3.64
cum laude
3.65 -
3.79
magna cum laude
3.80 -
4.00
summa cum laude
(This GPA requirement
includes grades from the semester of graduation, so the exact level of Latin Honors can be in
limbo until the final semester’s grades are reported)
These GPA guidelines are necessary but not sufficient for a
given level of Latin Honors. These GPA cutoffs are just a
“floor” set by the College. For example, if a student has a
3.70 GPA, the College will not
award Latin Honors summa cum laude, even if the Department
recommends it. However, if the Department recommends only cum laude honors for the same student (perhaps because of a weak honors
project), the College will go along with the Department and not give the
award magna cum laude just because of the GPA.
B)
Students
must complete the following courses with grades of B or better (not B-):
1)
at
least
one
of the four sequences Math 4111-4121, 429-430, 493-494 or 449-450 and
2) and at
least 3 additional
regularly scheduled 400-level mathematics courses (not independent
studies). These must be L24 courses, home-based in mathematics
(not cross-listed with a different home department). Mathematics
courses taken abroad in WU-approved
overseas programs can count if the Department agrees to transfer the
credit to WU as 400-level work.
a)
in
the
case of
probability/statistics track majors, at least 2 of these 3 courses must
be on the probability/statistics list for electives in that major
track. The ability to use SAS is
also
strongly recommended.
b) in the
case of
applied
track majors, at least 2 of these 3 courses must be in the applied list
(see Applied Track requirements).
II.
Successful
completion of an honors project in mathematics.
Note: one of the purposes of an honors thesis is to work together with a W.U.
faculty
member during the final two semesters of study, exploring new material
and tying together skills acquired during the major. Work
done earlier in a student's study (for example, during a summer REU)
is not appropriate, by itself, as a honors project. But work done earlier can be an excellent starting point for a honors project.
An honors
project
may follow one of several formats:
A)
An
honors
thesis describing
significant work by the student on one or more nontrivial
mathematics
problems
B) An
honors
thesis in mathematical
statistics involving an in-depth analysis of a large data set
C) A
written
expository paper following independent
study on an
advanced topic under the guidance of a department faculty member.
Such a report would involve careful presentation of ideas and synthesis
of materials from several sources.
In
each
of A),
B), and C), completion of a project requires a properly written paper,
conforming to professional standards. For the finished product:
Students
should consult with their honors advisor about the proper conventions
for writing a mathematical paper. Among other things
- There should be a title page.
- There should be an abstract on the first page of the paper, following the title
and preceding the body of the paper. See Advice about abstracts from the MAA. - There should be a proper bibliography.
D) The student must also make a satisfactory oral
presentation on the
project before an audience which
includes
at least two designated department faculty members.
III. Calendar
Guidelines for Honors Projects (for May graduates)
A) Students planning to
do honors should talk with a faculty advisor about possible projects
during the spring semester of the junior year. This will allow
time to collect information and perhaps do some summer reading to "hit
the ground running" in the fall semester. The
student might also use the summer to become familiar with and practice using TeX.
B) By September of the senior year students should complete an Honors
Proposal Form and submit it to the Chair of the Undergraduate
Committee, Professor
Ron Freiwald
C) By the end of January, the student should be able to give his/her
advisor a draft abstract and outline of the paper.
D) The paper should be written during February. A rough draft,
including an abstract, should be given to the advisor by the end of
February. The target should be to have everything completed by mid-March.
E) Student and advisor should agree on a date for
completing the final draft and making the oral presentation in mid-March. After agreeing on a date and time, give the information to Professor
Ron Freiwald who will schedule a room and set up
a committee to hear the presentation. A near-finished draft should be given to Professor Freiwald at
least two days before the oral presentation so that copies can be
distributed ahead of time to any faculty who will be attending the oral
presentation. (Once the presentation
is scheduled, you should feel free to invite any friends who might be
interested. If scheduled enough in advance, the talk will also be
listed on the Department's Talk List for any interested faculty or
graduate students.)
The deadline for completing the work (written and
oral) varies slightly each year, but it is always near the third week of March. The deadline is sent out from the College Office, usually by early February,
and the Department has to mee the College's deadlline in
submitting the names of students recommended for Latin
Honors. Students can check the exact
date each year with Professor Freiwald.
The preceding calendar is meant as a guideline. The only hard
and fast deadline is the one set by the College. However,
meeting the deadlines will probably make
the whole process go more smoothly and with less last-minute stress.
Honors candidates planning a graduation in August or
December should talk with Professor Freiwald about deadlines.
Broadly speaking, the student should simply plan on shifting the
calendar guidelines accordingly to allow the same amount of time for
planning, writing, etc.
IV. Developing ideas for an Honors Project
By
the second semester of the junior year, students planning
honors usually begin to develop an interest in some broad area
(analysis, say, or combinatorics), or have found a faculty member whom
they've particularly enjoyed and might like to work with. At that
stage, the student approaches a faculty member for recommendations about a project advisor (if this faculty
member isn't the right one), suggestions about possible
projects, and some reading to get
started.
Sometimes another way to get a project started is to apply to a
"Research Experiences for Undergraduates" (REU) program for the
summer after the junior year. Work done at such a program can
often be continued at WU into the senior year to form an honors project.
(A project or paper completed at an REU is not, by itself,
sufficient for a Latin Honors project. A recommendation for Latin
Honors would require a significant amount of additional work on the
project being done at Washington University with one of our faculty.) There are links online for finding an REU site. Applications deadlines for REU's vary but are usually early in the spring semester.
Some faculty
members
have
listed some ideas online
suitable for honors projects (and other less demanding projects).
If any of these, or something related, seems to interest you, then
contact
the faculty member. This list also gives you an idea
of the sorts of things some faculty are interested in. Of course,
feel free to
approach
other
faculty with ideas as well.
Here is a list of
honors projects
completed by math majors over the past several
years. The list also shows the faculty advisor so you can
see who's been involved with honors projects in the past.
V.
Credit for Honors Work With faculty
permission, a student can earn credit for work on the honors project by
registering for L24-499 (Study for Honors), but enrollment in 499 is
not required. Note that at most one (3-unit) independent
study such as Study for Honors can count toward the fulfillment of
major requirements.
Very
rarely, the
department
may waive the completion of an honors project in considering honors
candidates.
This may be considered only at the discretion of the Undergraduate
Committee
and only for students having an extremely distinguished record going
well
beyond requirement I) above. Such students usually have published
original mathematical work or completed other comparable creative mathematical
projects.
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