The Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences offers an honors program. In order to graduate with “Honors in Geological and Environmental Sciences,” a student must:
1. have a minimum GPA of 3.45 overall and in Geological and Environmental Science courses, and
2. must take a total of nine semester hours of Geological and Environmental Sciences courses with honors at the 2000 level or above with a grade of “B” or better in each course (including GES 4501 and 4510).
Typically, students achieve these 9 hours by:
- completing an honors contract (links to PDF) for a 3 credit GES lab course at the 3000 or 4000 level (excluding field camp, student teaching, and some special topics). You must meet with the instructor first to see if their class is appropriate for honors contracts.
- For Departmental Honors, honors contracts are due to the Departmental Honors Director by the end of the second week of classes.
- For University Honors (must be in Honors College), a honors contract is due at the end of the first week of classes.
- enrolling in GES 4501 (Senior Honors Research) for 3 credits in your second-to-last semester at App (and passing with a B or above). In order to enroll in GES 4501, you must have a minimum GPA of 3.25.
- enrolling in 3 credits of GES 4510 (Senior Honors Thesis) in your last semester (and passing with a B or above). In order to enroll in GES 4510, you must have a minimum GPA of 3.25. The honors thesis must be approved by two readers, with the thesis director from the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences. Students also need to defend their thesis on Reading Day in a presentation to the entire department. You can find examples of Senior Honors Thesis presentations in AGES here.
Instructions for how to enroll in GES 4501 (Senior Honors Research) and 4510 (Senior Honors Thesis):
- you must complete the special course approval form (links to PDF) in conjunction with your research advisor.
- Once you and your advisor fill out the form, you will need to email it to the following (all in one email): Lauri Miller, the department chair, the faculty advisor, and casshforms@appstate.edu.
- Both the faculty advisor and the chairperson will need to REPLY ALL with approval verification.
- CAS will then send the form to the registrar for processing.
For questions about the Honors Program in GES, contact the Department's Honors Director - Dr. Adam Benfield.
Note that graduating with Honors in Geology or Honors in Environmental Science is not the same as graduating with University Honors, which requires completion of specific coursework through the University Honors Program.
