The Honors Program in the Department of History provides a small number of highly qualified and motivated history majors with intellectual enrichment, rigorous training, and recognition for unusual achievement, leading to graduation from NC State with Honors in History. Additionally, the History Department invites participating students to attend faculty seminars and other academic and social events, to meet visiting scholars, and to make their own contributions to the intellectual vitality of the University.

Admission to the Honors Program

Students may enter the formal course work of the Honors Program if they have:

• a cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) of at least 3.25 overall, and
• a GPA in History courses of at least 3.5 with a minimum of nine hours completed.
• For an applicant with a cumulative GPA between 3.0 and 3.25, the Director can make an exception if the GPA in History courses is over 3.5.

Degree Requirements

• As a part of successfully completing the Honors Program, students must achieve an overall GPA of at least 3.25 and a GPA in History courses of at least 3.5.
• Fall theses must be defended by November 15.
• Spring theses must be defended by April 15.

For most students, the first contact with the Honors Program in History comes with an invitation to participate in the Honors Seminars. These non-graded, non-credit seminars are conducted by various members of the History Department, and occasionally by visiting scholars. In these sessions, usually three evening meetings each semester, students and faculty gather informally to discuss a common reading. The assignments are chosen so as to represent the very wide range of topics and approaches that historical inquiry encompasses — from established classics to some of the most recent and controversial works.

Attendance at the Honors Seminars is required of all students graduating with Honors, but all interested students whose Grade Point Averages (GPAs) would qualify them to participate in Honors course work are invited to attend.

The Department of History will, unless future financial constraints make it impossible, purchase the required books for those students (up to a maximum of 12 participants) who agree during the Spring pre-registration period to attend the Honors Seminars in the following academic year.

• Students completing Honors in History will take a two- or three-semester sequence of research and writing courses as part of their selection of Advanced Electives. The end product is the Honors Thesis, a substantial piece of original historical work.