Graduation with Distinction involves completion of one set of basic requirements with a selection of options available for completion of the advanced requirements for the major. Qualifying candidates will have the with distinction honor inscribed on the diploma. The student’s application must be approved by his or her major advisor, working in collaboration with the Department Honors advisor. Seniors who are candidates for graduation with distinction must also file their applications to graduate with the Arts and Sciences Honors Office in 207 Enarson Hall.
Basic Requirements
A student seeking graduation with distinction must complete a 48-hour major in Chinese, Japanese or Korean. See individual major requirements.
All course work must be completed with a 3.3 grade-point average. Note that as of Autumn Quarter 2006, the minimum grade-point average will increase to 3.4 for incoming students.
Advanced Requirements
- Because language skills are the gateway to distinction in East Asian-related fields a student seeking graduation with distinction is required to complete the equivalent of Level 4 language training This can be done through additional language course work at DEALL, approved study abroad programs, special and/or summer instruction offered here or elsewhere.
- In addition, in consultation with the student’s academic advisor and the Department Honors advisor, a student seeking distinction will take an additional ten hours of one or a combination of the following:
- level 5 training in modern language
- training in classical language*
- other upper-level courses directly related to the major
*Note: in the case of Chinese majors, (b) above entails ten hours beyond Chinese 5111, which is already a requirement for the major.
- Finally, a student seeking distinction is required to earn a minimum of eight credit hours working on a senior project. These credit hours, awarded as H4999, usually are spread over two quarters during the senior year. Along with completion of the research and final product, students must successfully defend their work in an oral examination. The nature of the senior project is as follows.
Senior project: this final project is the culmination of a student’s training in his or her major program. The content and the format of the senior project may vary depending on the goals of the individual student. These goals should be determined with the guidance of the student's major advisor and in consultation with the Honors advisor. The following is a representative list of the kinds of options available:
- Thesis: to introduce the student to the literature of the discipline, to develop methodology skills, and to have the student produce a scholarly thesis.
- Performance: to train the student in use of the target language in a specific cultural context. This may include such activities as a dramatic production, a speech, a translation, or a series of interviews. The student must keep a record of the progress of the project, and must complete a final paper that documents the achievement
- Field project: to train the student in approaches to cross-cultural fieldwork. This option primarily is intended for students who are enrolled in study-abroad programs and who have a strong interest in researching some aspect of life in the country in which they are studying. The student must keep a record of the progress of the project and must complete a final research paper that documents the findings.