Harvard College recognizes students who have particularly distinguished records by awarding them degrees with honors. There are two types of honors. The first is a recommendation from a student's concentration for what are called English honors. Once the concentration recommends that a student receive honors, high honors, or highest honors for work in the concentration, then that student is also considered for the A.B. or S.B. degree with Latin honors. A small number of students not recommended for English honors by their concentration may still receive Latin honors, based on their overall grade point average.
Latin honors of summa cum laude, magna cum laude, and cum laude recognize the distinction of a student's overall record, including the work in the concentration. Beginning in June 2005, the determination of Latin honors will be made with attention to the overall number of students receiving honors in a graduating class. Latin honors of all kinds are noted on diplomas, in the commencement program, and on transcripts.
English honors recognize the quality of the student's work in the concentration and are noted on the transcript. They are not, however, noted on the diploma or in the commencement program. The only exception to this general rule is for students recommended for highest honors by their concentration who are not awarded the degree summa cum laude; these students may receive the degree magna cum laude with highest honors, and this is noted on the diploma and in the commencement program.
Concentrations may recommend students who complete the concentration's requirements with distinction for honors, high honors, or highest honors. Departments vary in the exact criteria by which they evaluate a student's work in the concentration; check with your tutorial office or your department's Director of Undergraduate Studies to find out how things are done in your program. Students are eligible to be considered for honors when they complete the specific requirements listed in the Handbook for Students for their concentration. Usually this includes a thesis or other senior project. It is important to understand that merely completing the required course work and other requirements is not sufficient to be awarded honors. A student's work must also be evaluated as especially distinguished.
Each June, between 4% and 5% of the graduating class will be awarded the degree summa cum laude. These students will have been recommended for highest honors by their concentrations, and will have outstanding overall records of achievement, including at least two half courses with grades of A or A- in each of the three main divisional areas (humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences). A subcommittee of the Faculty Council meets each June to look at the records of all students recommended for highest honors and determines the minimum grade point average for the summa degree for that graduating class, conforming to the 4% to 5% target. As noted above, students in this pool who are not recommended for the summa degree may receive the degree magna cum laude with highest honors in their field (if their grade point average is high enough).
Each June, the Faculty will recommend for the degree magna cum laude those students with the highest grade point averages who have been recommended for highest honors or high honors, and who have not already been recommended for the summa degree, so that the total number of degrees summa cum laude and magna cum laude constitute 20% of the graduating class.
Each June, the Faculty will recommend for the degree cum laude in field those students with the highest grade point average who have been recommend by their concentrations for highest honors, high honors, or honors, and who have not already been recommended for the summa or the magna degree, so that the total number of degrees summa cum laude, magna cum laude, and cum laude in field represent 50% of the graduating class.
Yes. It is possible to graduate with the degree cum laude based solely on your overall grade point average, if you were not recommended for honors by your concentration and your grade point average is at least equal to the lowest grade point average awarded the degree magna cum laude in field. This category of honors is limited to no more than 10% of the number of students graduating each June.
Until June 2005, Harvard will award honors to students recommended by their concentrations based in most cases on their overall grade point average. Until June 2005, to be awarded the degree magna cum laude, the candidate must have a minimum grade point average of 3.33. To be awarded the degree cum laude in field, the candidate must have a minimum grade point average of 2.83. For a student not recommended for honors by their concentration to be awarded the degree cum laude based solely on overall grade point average, the student must have a minimum grade point average of 3.00. The process of determining the degrees summa cum laude will be the same as described above.
The new procedures will apply. Latin honors are awarded to percentages of the group of people graduating at a given moment in time, and so the standards must be consistent at the moment the degree is awarded. They refer to an evaluation of a student's work at the end of the undergraduate career, and the student's standing with respect to all students who finish their degrees at that time. Therefore, the shift in the procedures will happen at one time, for all students graduating in June 2005 regardless of when they entered the College.
The standards from the previous June degrees will apply to the candidates in November and March. Each June, the minimum grade point averages for the levels of Latin honors will be determined anew.
English honors are a joint recommendation of the two programs in which the student has worked, based on their joint assessment of the student's efforts. Departments vary in their procedures for determining these recommendations, but the two departments must agree on a single recommendation. Once a student's recommendation for English honors is known, the process for determining Latin honors proceeds in the same way as for all other students.
No. Once this change takes effect, it is very likely that a number of students in "honors-only" concentrations will not receive Latin honors. Designating a concentration as "honors-only" describes the kind of work that the concentration requires of all its students, not the evaluation of that work. Most of these concentrations require, among other things, the completion of a thesis as part of the concentration work for all their students. When students enter the program, the expectation is that they will undertake a thesis in their senior year, and these concentrations are often structured to provide the right preparation for that task. The quality of the work that the student does over time is what is evaluated as the basis for whether or not to recommend a student for the degree with honors.
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences made this change after a year of evaluating grading and honors in the College. That study found that over 90% of all Harvard graduates received honors degrees. The Faculty was concerned that such a high percentage of honors degrees lessened the value of the honors designation. In particular, many faculty members and students reported that the magna degree was coming to be the expected norm for students completing honors requirements in their concentrations, and that the designation of cum laude was no longer seen as recognizing distinguished work. Several years ago, the Faculty faced the same problem with the growth of summa degrees, and decided to move from awarding the summa based on a minimum grade point average to a percentage system. The new system for determining all levels of Latin honors is based on a similar model.
Honors aside, seniors often find the thesis to be one of the most intellectually challenging and satisfying parts of their Harvard career. It offers a chance to work on a topic of one's own choosing, for a substantial amount of time, in a way that is distinct from the experience in other college courses. It prepares one well for the long-term projects that people commonly encounter in their work and study after college. The completion of a thesis indicates to employers and to graduate and professional schools that a student has the capacity to focus on a multi-dimensional project for a period of months, and understands the tasks of research, synthesis, and writing that are necessary components of all such work. A thesis offers a chance to work closely with an adviser on an advanced topic, and it provides a basis for some of the most satisfying intellectual relationships that can be formed during one's time in the College. In reflecting back on their time at Harvard, many graduating seniors comment that the work they did on their thesis offered them an opportunity to bring the strands of their academic experience at Harvard together in ways they had not expected at the start of their work, and this made the project valuable to them apart from how it was evaluated.
