Thesis/Capstone

Your entire honors career leads to this – your Honors Thesis/Capstone.

The Honors Thesis/Capstone is a personalized experience that serves as a stepping stone toward the next stage of your academic or professional career. It allows you to work one-on-one with a faculty member to produce a long-term, in-depth project in an area that you’re passionate about.

It is expected that you obtain a level of depth within the thesis/capstone topic equivalent to a point between a large undergraduate research paper and a master's thesis. Not only should it synthesize and build upon existing scholarship, but it should also further the discipline's understanding of the subject in some way. As such, the thesis/capstone is a two-semester commitment that demands a minimum of six units of work.

Students may complete a thesis/capstone and graduate with honors in their major or minor. Students may graduate with honors in more than one major or minor by completing two distinct theses.

This personalized experience includes exploring a concept while incorporating the knowledge and investigative techniques you learned during your undergraduate career. The capstone may take any form appropriate to your discipline and approved by your capstone advisor (e.g. research paper, performance, video, artwork, etc.). Many of our alumni say it was their favorite part of their Honors experience.