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honors program

Honors Program
 

All application materials must be submitted by Friday, May 31, 2013

 

[DOWNLOAD APPLICATION HERE]

 
Outstanding undergraduate students may apply in the Spring of the Junior Year to participate in the Departmental Honors Program. The centerpiece of the program is the production of a Senior Honors Thesis. Students admitted to the program work on an original research project with an individual faculty advisor on a topic of their own choosing. The expectation is that the final product will be a research paper roughly 50 pages in length, to be completed by the end of the Winter Quarter.
 
To be eligible to participate in the Political Science Honors Thesis Program, students must meet the following criteria:
 
  • Eligibility for College of Letters and Science honors (i.e., an overall UCLA GPA of 3.5 or better – see http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/catalog/catalog12-13-41g.htm).
  • Completion of at least 5 Upper Division Political Science courses with a GPA of 3.5 or higher (some accommodation will be made for Transfer Students who have not had time to complete 5 UD courses).
  • Some prior experience with writing substantial research papers.
  • Completion of Political Science 191H with a grade of at least A-.
 
In the past, students accepted to participate would identify a faculty advisor and then enroll in PS 191H in Fall of the senior year, while beginning work on the thesis itself. Effective immediately, we have changed the procedure as follows. PS191H is now a prerequisite for the honors program, and will be offered each Spring Quarter beginning in Spring 2013. One of the final requirements for PS191H will be the submission of a contract with a faculty advisor and a thesis topic. Applications for the Honors Program will be due on the Friday of Week 10 of the junior-year Spring Quarter.
 
The senior honors thesis program, then, will consist of PS 198 (Fall) and PS 198 (Winter), and the completed thesis will be submitted at the end of Winter Quarter. The 198 course is a contract course with individual faculty advisors. The faculty advisor must be a member of the permanent faculty of the Department of Political Science or hold a joint/courtesy appointment with the Department of Political Science.
 
  • In Fall (PS 198), you will finalize the process of turning your research topic into a researchable question, determine appropriate sources of information, prepare a research proposal, set your research underway, and discuss progress reports or preliminary drafts to your advisor. It is recommended that student and advisor agree on a reading list for the summer before the Fall 198 course, so that the Fall quarter can be used as effectively as possible.
  • During the Winter Quarter (PS 198), you will complete your thesis under the supervision of your thesis advisor. The group of thesis-writing students will also meet as a group two or three times during the Fall and Winter quarters, along with the Honors Program Director, to report progress and share ideas.
 
PS 191H, then, is a stand-alone course on Research Design and Scope and Methods in Political Science. Students not necessarily intending to apply for the Honors Program may take PS 191H as an upper-division elective, but students who intend to write an honors thesis must have taken 191H in order to be eligible. It is expected that most prospective Honors students will take PS 191H in Spring of the junior year, but this is not strictly necessary – it is acceptable to take the course earlier, with the understanding that the Thesis program itself is reserved to seniors.
 
Please direct any questions to the Political Science Undergraduate Counseling Office, 4269 Bunche Hall. Students interested in writing an honors thesis in Fall-Winter 2013-14 should enroll in PS 191H in Spring 2013. If you wish to enroll in PS 191H but will be away from UCLA in the relevant Spring Quarter, please contact us about arranging a way to participate in the class remotely.
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