Honors Program in Linguistics

There are a number of ways for undergraduates to graduate with Honors at UW.

If you wish to graduate ''With Interdisciplinary Honors,'' you generally have to have decided to do so before entering UW. (See the requirements for Interdisciplinary Honors on the UW Honors Program website.) You may also apply to the Honors Program at the end of the second quarter of your freshman year via the Honors Program Late Admissions Application Process. Graduation ''With College Honors in (some field)'' must also generally be planned before entering UW, as you are required to complete both Interdisciplinary Honors and Departmental Honors in order to receive the College Honors designation on your diploma.

If you successfully complete the requirements of a Departmental Honors program alone, you will graduate ''With Honors in (program/major)''. Other possible honors bestowed upon graduation include summa cum laude, magna cum laude, and cum laude. These are awarded on the basis of GPA. (The changing GPA cut-offs for each category are announced every spring; see the Baccalaureate Honors website for details.)

The following are the requirements for graduation ''With Honors in Linguistics/Romance Linguistics''.

For admission to the Linguistics Departmental Honors Program:

• GPA of 3.3 overall; 3.6 in Linguistics/Romance Linguistics
• Make the request of the Linguistics faculty you would like to have serve as honors faculty supervisor. You must have the permission of a Linguistics faculty before joining the departmental honors program.
• Appointment with Linguistics undergraduate advising to draft a degree plan for completion of Linguistics Departmental Honors requirements. We strongly recommend that students planning to complete Departmental Honors in Linguistics meet with an adviser no later than the beginning of their junior year to discuss the requirements and draft a degree plan.

For graduation from the Linguistics Departmental Honors Program:

• GPA of 3.3 overall; 3.6 in Linguistics/Romance Linguistics
• Coursework required for the regular major
• Successful completion of a graduate level (i.e., 500-level) Linguistics course in your intended subfield of specialization (see table below for specific courses). This course may be taught by a faculty member, an adjunct, or a visitor, and should be taken no later than one quarter before graduation. Normally this is the same person who agreed to be the honors supervisor. You should plan to complete the 400-level prerequisites for your graduate level course as part of your regular coursework for the Linguistics major. Before registering for the graduate level course, you must obtain permission from the instructor and complete the prerequisites indicated in the table below.
• You will write a term paper for the graduate level course. The next quarter you will revise and expand that term paper into a senior thesis, enrolling in 3 credits of LING 498 under the supervision of the faculty member who taught the graduate level course (or the most appropriate faculty member if the graduate level course was taught by a visitor). A list of recently completed undergraduate Linguistics Departmental Honors theses is available here.
  • Note: This portion of the Linguistics Departmental Honors Program may be modified in individual cases with the permission of your faculty supervisor. For example, if you wished to pursue a topic which is not ordinarily covered in one of our graduate level courses, or if you do substantial work with a faculty member on one of his or her own research projects, you may obtain permission from your faculty supervisor to substitute another course which is not listed below or to instead register for two 3-credit quarters of LING 498 (typically, the first quarter is set aside to carry out research and the second to write the senior thesis).