The Honors Program at Swarthmore College

Sophomore Paper Packet, Class of 2005
Prepared by Craig Williamson, Honors Coordinator

This document is a brief history and description of the Honors Program at Swarthmore College. It is intended to give a general overview of the program and its current policies and procedures. For more detailed information about honors work in particular departments and programs, students should consult the appropriate chairs or administrative assistants. For a full description of Honors policies, see "Student Handbook of Policies and Procedures for the Honors Program" which is available in the Registrar's office and is also updated regularly on the Registrar's web page.

The Heart of the Program: The Honors Program was fashioned in 1922 under the leadership of Frank Aydelotte, seventh president of the college. It was modeled on the tutorial system at Oxford where Aydelotte had been a Rhodes Scholar. Many of the program's features remain what they were in 1922: faculty working with small groups of dedicated and accomplished students; an emphasis on independent learning; students entering into a dialogue with peers, teachers, and examiners; a demanding program of study in major and minor fields; and an examination at the end of two years' study by outside scholars. The Honors Program rests on the principle that judgment concerning the achievement of honors at the college should be based on an independent evaluation of a student's work, and it is from this principle that the external examination derives.

What makes the Honors Program special? What defines it? The answer to this question will depend upon the individual, the discipline, the idea of learning--but the answer we hear most often is that the Honors Program is built on the idea of dialogue: small classes or seminars where everyone has a chance to speak, a student's responsibility for beginning a discussion with a paper or presentation, the exercise of speaking and writing within and across disciplines, students sharing research results, an exchange between students and examiners who come not only to assess the work but to enter into a dialogue about it.

Geoffrey Chaucer's best student on the pilgrim road to Canterbury, a 14th century Clerk, studied under the same Oxford tutorial system which later inspired President Aydelotte to shape the Swarthmore Honors Program in 1922. Chaucer says of this clerk that he would "gladly learn and gladly teach." In the Honors Program, the dialectic of learning and teaching resolves itself into an exchange of ideas where everyone learns, and the authority of teaching floats naturally from one authorized and enabled voice to another. And in this conflict and collaboration of ideas we come to cherish the life of learning and be glad.

Application: Students normally apply for the program at the end of their sophomore year and must be accepted by the faculty. Students may apply as late as the end of the fall term of the senior year as long as they can still meet the requirements. Students may not drop their Honors Programs after December 1 of the senior year, as this is the time when departments are securing examiners. Students should check with major departments about their particular deadlines as these may vary according to the nature of the program.

Majors and Minors: Students choose a major and a minor in the Honors Program (or an inter-disciplinary major which incorporates work in at least two departments). Students who design their own special major Honors programs (not those in college-sponsored programs such as Psychobiology) must include work in four related preparations; such programs do not include a minor. Students may choose an Honors major from any department. They may choose a minor from a department or interdisciplinary program. Interdisciplinary programs normally offer honors minors but not majors. Students who choose an interdisciplinary minor must be sure to include at least two credits of work for the minor in a department outside the student's Honors major. Honors students who want to pursue a double major at the college must do one of their majors as the honors major. The other major may also serve as the Honors minor. Taking Honors examinations and completing the Honors program satisfies the college's comprehensive requirement for the Honors major only. For the second major, students must satisfy the regular course comprehensive requirement. Students are not allowed to have more than two majors.

Preparations: The Honors program begins with student preparations in a major and minor or in an interdisciplinary or special major. Each preparation must be at least two academic credits. About three-fourths of these preparations are small seminars. Preparations may also include course combinations, theses or research projects, study abroad, work in the arts, and community-based learning. Students are given a large measure of responsibility for preparing essays, doing research, and leading small group discussions. About half the departments require an Honors thesis or project. In planning their two-year schedule of Honors preparation, students should try to spread their preparations out as evenly as possible to avoid overloading any one semester. In particular, they should avoid having multiple Honors preparations during the spring semester of the senior year when they will be preparing for Honors examinations and may be working on SHS projects in some majors or minors.

Senior Honors Study: A student's Honors Program may include a Senior Honors Study (SHS) component intended to enhance and where appropriate integrate the work of the preparations. SHS is now optional at the discretion of departments. SHS may be an activity such as a colloquium for students to discuss their ongoing research or an opportunity for students to meet to revise seminar papers. It may center on the preparation of portfolio materials such as papers, projects, or reading lists to be sent to examiners. Credit and grading policies for SHS are determined by individual departments. SHS portfolio materials are not examined separately but are included in the examination of relevant preparations. In some cases students may combine SHS work in the major and minor. The college word limit for SHS portfolio papers is 4,000 words (about 13 pages) for a paper drawing on a single preparation and submitted to that preparation examiner (as in the case of revised seminar papers) or 6,000 words (about 20 pages) for an integrated paper drawing on the work of two or more preparations and submitted to all the relevant examiners in the major (or major and minor). Departments may set lower limits. For more details, consult the major and minor advisors.

Honors Special Majors who design their own programs (not those in college-sponsored programs such as Psychobiology) will be required to (a) include four related preparations in the major; such programs do not include a minor, and (b) write a thesis (drawing upon their cross-disciplinary work) and/or have a panel oral examination as part of their Honors programs. Honors Special Majors will follow the SHS activity and portfolio procedures of the various departments whose offerings they use as preparations. Individualized Honors special majors now require the approval of all departments involved in the major and of the Honors Coordinator.

Evaluations: At the end of senior year, Honors students are assessed by outside examiners--scholars and teachers in the relevant fields--by means of both written and oral evaluations. The college believes that the surest test of learning is to be able to enter into a dialogue not only with fellow students and teachers but also with outside experts. Each examiner gives the student an examination or other written assignment, reads a thesis, or examines some other form of project. Honors students may now use computer word processing for taking their written exams in departments where faculty deem this to be appropriate. Some departments are using a model in which examiners give out questions or topics during the fall and ask students to respond with essays in lieu of the traditional "sit down" examinations. The College is mindful of the fact that some students may not be able to take Honors examinations on specific days for religions reasons; students in this situation normally inform the Registrar early in the fall term of the senior year so that the Honors schedules can be planned accordingly. During Honors week in late May, all of the examiners come to Swarthmore to orally examine the students on each preparation and on any required SHS work. Swarthmore faculty host the examiners but do not discuss the students with them. Oral exams for regular preparations are from 30 to 45 minutes; oral exams for theses are from 45 to 60 minutes. Panel exams are normally 90 to 120 minutes. Each examiner evaluates a student's preparation on the basis of the written examination or thesis (or similar project), the oral examination, and the SHS material where it is relevant to the preparation. Examiners then meet in departmental caucuses to discuss the students' performances and afterwards attend the meeting of all examiners where the decision about each student's overall honors evaluation is finalized. A student may receive Highest Honors, High Honors, Honors, or may not be granted honors. The recent distribution of such marks has been about 9% HHH, 49% HH, 40% H, and 2% receiving no honors. The outside examiners determine the only graduation honorifics available to Swarthmore students.

Honors Marks and Transcript Grades: For the purposes of the student transcripts, grades are now given by Swarthmore faculty for all course and seminar preparations. Theses and other similar projects are given grades for the transcript by the examiners.