English Honors Program
The English Department Honors Program is designed for selected members of the senior class who have demonstrated excellence and an aptitude for independent research in their studies of English or American literature. Candidates for honors in English, who are customarily admitted to the program in their junior year, must take a course in literary theory and a seminar, in addition to writing a two-semester senior English honors thesis. Admission to honors is by invited application to the English Honors Committee in the junior year. Students may be members of both the College Honors Program and the English Honors Program. Such students need write only one English thesis for both programs.
This program, which officially began in the 1998-99 academic year, is designed to offer additional challenges and opportunities to the most academically successful English majors at Holy Cross. Each fall, junior English majors who have a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or higher in English courses, or who have been particularly recommended by their professors, are invited to apply. The program is especially appropriate for students who are considering graduate studies in English literature or creative writing.
Admission to the program is competitive. Each year approximately a dozen juniors are selected to participate, based upon their performance in English courses, the recommendations of their professors, and their application essays.
Once a student has joined the program, he or she must complete the following requirements, in any order, without exceeding the maximum of 14 courses in the major, in order to graduate with honors in English from Holy Cross:
- Take a course in literary criticism or theory (in English or in another department, if appropriate)
- Take an advanced seminar in English
- Write an original two-semester senior honors thesis (the equivalent of 2 courses in English) on a genre, period, author, or topic of the student's choice, or in a creative literary genre of the student's choice, assuming that the student has attained an appropriate background in previous coursework.
For more information on this program, contact Ms. Shirley Adams, the English department secretary, in
Fenwick 210.