Most departments in the College of Arts and Sciences offer honors programs for outstanding students who have the opportunity to take advanced seminars as well as pursue independent study and research. Honors programs vary among departments; they may include comprehensive exams, theses, research projects, and creative endeavors.
Honors programs may require:
- Participation in some phase of honors coursework (seminars, tutorials, and courses of independent study) each semester of the last two years.
- An independent project of research, study, or creative achievement, culminating in a paper, laboratory problem, field research problem, or creative effort.
- A comprehensive examination, given in the last semester of the senior year, covering the work of the concentration group. It may be oral, written, or both, as the department desires. One faculty member outside the student’s major field is always asked to participate.
Students must meet the College's minimum requirements for Departmental as well as those set by the academic unit in which honors is being sought, including the honors program admissions requirements.
View the Departmental Honors policy
Note: Departmental Honors is distinct from the Honors Notation that students can earn through the Hutton Honors College.
The College recognizes outstanding performance in coursework by awarding bachelor's degrees with three levels of distinction: Distinction, High Distinction, and Highest Distinction.
View the Degrees Awarded with Distinction policy
Each regular semester (excluding summer sessions), the College of Arts and Sciences recognizes those students whose semester GPA qualifies them for the Executive Dean's List. Students who qualify will be notified of this honor.
View the Executive Dean's List policy
The Society of Phi Beta Kappa, founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, is the oldest academic Greek-letter society in existence. Throughout its history, Phi Beta Kappa has held as its primary objective the recognition of academic excellence of undergraduate students who are candidates for degrees in the liberal arts and sciences in U.S. colleges and universities. At present there are 283 chapters of Phi Beta Kappa. Indiana University's chapter, Gamma of Indiana, was established in 1911.
Members are chosen by faculty electors of Indiana University's chapter from senior degree candidates and recent graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences whose academic records have placed them among the top 10 percent of their class.
Learn more about PBK at IU