Honors Program

Every year a few computer-science majors choose to go beyond the normal major and enter our Honors Program. Honors students engage in independent work culminating in the writing of a senior thesis, and are considered for graduation with honors in the major. The experience of participating in an independent research project and of writing a senior thesis can be particularly important for anyone who intends to study for the Ph.D. degree in computer science.

From the ORC

Eligibility requirements

Please see the online ORC for all the eligibility requirements for the CS Honors or High Honors programs.

Honors Application

thesisform_0.pdf

You can fill out this form from within Adobe Acrobat.

  • Type into the following fields: Last name, First name, Middle initial, Class, HB, Thesis advisor, Thesis title, and all Course fields that apply. If the thesis title does not fit on the first line, use the additional lines.
  • Select the appropriate grade for each course. When you click elsewhere, the GPA field will be computed automatically and then updated.
  • Print out the filled-in form when you are done. You will need to sign the hardcopy, as will your thesis advisor, before you give it to the Undergraduate Program Director.

Handing In Your Honors Thesis

CS honors theses are due at 9:00 AM the day of the CS faculty meeting at which honors are decided. The Undergraduate Program Director will announce this date to the CS honors thesis students each year as soon as this date is determined.

An advisor has the right to require the thesis to be handed in to her or him in advance of the department's deadline. (For example, the advisor might require the thesis to be handed in to her or him before the public presentation, if the student is going for high honors.) The actual deadline, therefore, is the earlier of two times: whenever the advisor requires the thesis to be handed in, and 9:00 AM the day of the CS faculty meeting.

No extensions beyond 9:00 AM the day of the CS faculty meeting are ever possible. Never. Nunca. Won't happen. Don't even think about it.

Your thesis should be archival quality. In other words, it should be good enough that we will archive it in the Dartmouth Digital Commons. Although you are not absolutely required to archive your thesis in this public repository, we encourage you to do so. The Undergraduate Program Director will send you specific instructions at the time.