Departmental majors with a minimum G.P.A. of 3.5 in history courses and related disciplines as specified in the major requirements and a minimum overall G.P.A. of 3.0 are eligible to enroll in the History honors program at the beginning of their senior year.

A student interested in enrolling in the History honors program should discuss plans with a prospective advisor to supervise a thesis. This should be done before the beginning of senior year. The student must present a transcript (unofficial will suffice) and a writing sample to the prospective advisor/sponsor. It is expected that the student will have already taken HIS 301 before initiating Honors.

The student, after gaining the consent of a supervising faculty member, must submit the Undergraduate Honors Program Application to the Director of Undergraduate Studies in History describing the merit of the planned research, the student must also submit a proposal to their supervising faculty member. The faculty advisor will then submit a statement supporting the student's proposal. These two actions must be done in the semester prior to the student enrolling in HIS 495.

The student must enroll in HIS 495 in the first semester of senior year and HIS 496 during the second semester of senior year. These two courses must be taken in addition to the total credits required for the major. Bear in mind that Honors does not substitute for the capstone seminar (HIS 401). It is therefore recommended that 401 be taken in the Fall semester concurrent with HIS 495 rather than in the Spring, when the student will be heavily engaged in writing the thesis. Under unusual circumstances, such as a student planning to student teach in the semester of graduation, the Undergraduate Program Director may approve their taking HIS 495 and HIS 496 in the two semesters prior to the semester of graduation.

Two faculty members from the Department of History (the advisor and one other chosen in consultation with the advisor) will read the honors paper resulting from the student's research. If the two referees and Undergraduate Director judge the paper to be of unusual merit and the student's record warrants such a determination, the Department recommends honors.

The student must submit a draft of the thesis to the faculty advisor/sponsor no later than March 15th, and a revised draft to the committee no later than April 15th for May graduation; for December graduation, the student must submit the draft no later than October 15th and revisions no later than November 15th. The honors thesis must be 25-40 pages in length and have footnote references and a bibliography in Chicago style. The student must submit a copy of the final version to the Director of Undergraduate Studies no later than Monday of the final week of classes (excluding final examination week).