To be eligible to participate in the honors program, you need a minimum 3.33 GPA in the three core courses: ECON 251, 252, and 375.
If you're interested and eligible for pursuing honors in economics, we recommend that you discuss your plans with a member of the department by the end of your junior year. Professor
Takao Kato is the Honors Coordinator for 2012–2013.
If you're eligible, you must then take the year-long honors seminar (ECON 489 and 490) during your senior year. You will earn one course credit for the full year of seminar study, and complete an honors thesis. In addition to the seminar, you will also do research/work for your thesis under the supervision of an economics faculty member.
Upon completion, you will present your project to the seminar and act as a discussant of other students' projects.
Certification of honors and high honors will be based mainly on the quality of the honors paper. In addition, honors candidates must have, at graduation, a B+ average (A– for high honors) in the nine economics courses taken for major credit, and must receive a satisfactory grade in ECON 490.
Should you receive honors or high honors in economics, you will then be eligible for several departmental awards allocated to graduating seniors.
For more information about the honors program and a description of the honors seminar, please see the information on the
academic program page.
Because the mathematical economics major also includes the requirements for an economics program, special rules apply for honors. If you are a mathematical economics major, you have two mutually exclusive options:
- Qualifying for honors or high honors in economics by satisfying the honors criteria for the economics major (above)
- Qualifying for honors or high honors in mathematical economics by satisfying the same criteria (above); however, your departmental GPA is calculated for all 13 of the required courses. Under the first option, you will receive the honors certification in economics as a mathematical economics major.