In addition to the Davis Honors Challenge, the campus-wide honors program, the German & Russian Department offers the opportunity for motivated students to earn high or highest honors within their major. The requirements for earning high and highest honors are in addition to the regular requirements for the major.
Graduating with Honors
Eligibility Requirements
Students, at the end of their junior year (135 units), must have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 in all courses satisfying the major (except elementary foreign language courses) .
Honors Requirements
- Write a senior thesis under the direction of a faculty member.
- Enroll in at least six units of German/Russian 194H (research) distributed over two quarters.
The honors program consists of two quarters of research and writing terminating in an honors thesis. Final revisions occur during the following quarter. Graduation with high or highest honors requires participation in the honors program. Normally, a student will undertake the honors project during the first two quarters of the senior year; other arrangements must be authorized by the department chair.
How to plan and complete a senior thesis:
1. Junior Year: Meet with the undergraduate advisor to discuss your plans by the end of the quarter before your final year of study.
2. Discuss with the undergraduate advisor one or more possible thesis advisors. Meet with the one who is the best match for your project and ask her/him to be your thesis advisor. If he/she does not agree, notify the undergraduate advisor.
3. If the prospective thesis advisor agrees to supervise your project, decide on the subject of your project, a schedule of meetings, and a deadline for the complete draft of your thesis. The deadline should be the first week of the last quarter of study at UC Davis or earlier.
4. Enroll in six units of GER194HA/GER194HB/RUS194H over two quarters (usually Fall/Winter of your senior year). Contact undergraduate program coordinator to request the form and CRN needed to enroll.
5. Notify the undergraduate advisor that you are moving forward with the project.
6. Meet with your thesis advisor, normally once a week during the first quarter of work on the project and twice a month during the second quarter.
7. Turn in your thesis, normally about forty-fifty double-spaced pages (this may vary as arranged by the student in consultation with the advisor) by the deadline, usually during the first week of your final quarter of study.
Suggested timeline to ensure evaluation of the senior thesis within one quarter
Week 1 of student’s final quarter at Davis (usually Spring Quarter): Student turns in complete draft to thesis advisor and notifies the undergraduate advisor. The complete draft should be typed double-spaced in Times Roman twelve-point font (unless otherwise arranged by the student in consultation with the advisor) with one-inch margins on each side (allowing space for binding), a title page, page numbers on all but the first page, a table of contents, footnotes or endnotes in the format agreed upon with the thesis advisor, and a bibliography in the format agreed upon with the thesis advisor. At this time, the undergraduate advisor arranges for two readers, at least one of whom is a faculty member in the Department of German & Russian.
Week 3: Thesis advisor suggests any revisions necessary.
Week 5: Student turns in the revised draft to the thesis advisor, the thesis advisor approves the final draft, and the student turns in two bound copies (spiral copy-shop binding with one-inch margins on each side after binding) to the undergraduate advisor, who distributes them to the two readers.
Week 7: Each reader sends a reader's report, including a recommended grade of Highest Honors, High Honors, Honors, or no honors, to the undergraduate advisor and the thesis advisor. The thesis advisor meets with the student and provides copies of the readers' reports. The thesis advisor recommends a thesis grade to the Chair.
Week 8: The Chair reviews the readers' reports and the thesis advisor's recommendation and assigns Honors, High, Honors, Highest Honors, or no honors based on the GPA and the recommended thesis grade.