Honor Thesis

Catalog description

The Honors Seminar of the Public Policy Program is designed to assist honors students in researching and writing the honors thesis, a thirty-page original piece of work that proposes a new policy to manage or solve a public problem, explains the historical background to the policy problem, and provides a real-world strategy for implementing the proposal. The Seminar begins with group discussions and one group project to hone questions and research strategies for the thesis. With the assistance of the instructor, the students then design their own individual research projects. For the remainder of the seminar the students meet one-on-one with the instructor or present their findings to the group. The course ends with a short thesis defense and the submission of the thesis. Students must earn at least a B+ in the seminar to achieve honors.