Honors Program

The honors project is a substantial, independent, research/creative endeavor. Students who complete an honors project earn six academic credit hours.

Honors students initiate their own project after identifying a full-time faculty mentor who has agreed to advise them.

Honors projects are discipline-specific and representative of scholarship in the student’s own field. Students work closely with their mentor to craft a thesis that meets the discipline's standards for original research. The faculty mentor grades the project and assigns the final letter grade.

The University Honors Program is here to help! The Director of Undergraduate Research, Dr. Dorian Borbonus is happy to meet with students to explore possible options, including connecting students to UD's top talented faculty.

Each student who is completing an honors project will receive a timeline specific to their endeavor. However, this is a general timeline:

Junior Year

• Identify a faculty mentor.
• Complete the "Honors Project Intent" document (November).
• Attend the Junior Honors Project Proposal and Fellowship Request Workshop (January).
• Complete the CITI Responsible Conduct of Research Training.
• Complete and submit the "Honors Project Research Proposal and Fellowship Request" (March).

Senior Year

• Continue research and preparation of project materials.
• Attend Senior Honors Project Workshop (October).
• Write manuscript and complete preparation of project materials.
• Present research at the Honors Student Symposium at Stander Symposium (April).
• Complete project and submit manuscript (April).

Full-time UD faculty members are eligible to serve as honors project mentors*. The faculty mentor should have scholarly expertise in the honors project subject. For most honors students, the mentor is a faculty member in the student's major department. Occasionally, an honors student may choose to work on a project outside their major. In that case, the faculty mentor's discipline should align with the thesis topic.

The honors project mentor performs the following roles:

• Mentors the project from its inception.
• Determines the academic threshold the student must meet.
• Provides feedback until the project is completed.
• Provides interim progress reports to the University Honors Program.
• Grades the completed project (a grade of "B" or better is necessary to count towards the completion of an Honors diploma option) and submits the grade to the Registrar during the semester grading period.

*On rare occasions, a student may have an honors project mentor who is not a UD faculty member. Examples include: a UD staff member; an expert from another college, university or research lab; or a mentor from a community or service organization. In these cases the student will also need an advisor of contact, who is a full-time UD faculty member. The advisor of contact will coordinate with the student's honors project mentor by submitting interim progress reports and course grades. Typically, the department chair or program director for which the project credits are being pursued serves as the advisor of contact in these cases. The advisor of contact does not have an active role in the oversight of the project and does not set the expectations for content or completion.

Yes. Honors students may apply for funding to support their honors project.

Patrick F. Palermo Honors Program Founders Fund

The Palermo Founders Fund was established in 2004 and provides annual support for honors students undertaking honors projects that involve international research, service and leadership in the community, or which advance the realization of a just society. All of these are characteristics of the University's distinctive approach to enhanced higher education in the Catholic and Marianist tradition. The endowed Dr. Patrick F. Palermo Honors Program Founders Fund is an example of the generosity of our alumni.

Daniel P. Arnold Memorial Scholarship

Danny Arnold was a distinguished member of the Honors Program who exemplified servant leadership on campus. He was also a scholar who understood how laboratory research for his honors project would prepare him for his vocation in the field of medicine after graduation.

Supported by contributions from the family and friends of Danny Arnold, the Daniel P. Arnold Memorial Scholarship provides a senior-year scholarship for one honors student from the College of Arts and Sciences who exemplifies Danny Arnold's qualities of character. Applicants must be rising seniors working on a thesis and demonstrate financial need.

The honors project is a single, extended learning experience, and a letter grade will be assigned only when the project is completed. Honors students working on an honors project earn six academic credits and will be enrolled in one 3-credit thesis course in each of their last two semesters at the University.

Mentors will grade the first course as "satisfactory/unsatisfactory" progress as the project is not yet completed. Once the final project is submitted in the student's last semester, the mentor will determine a letter grade for the entire project.

Students should always review grading standards and criteria very carefully with their mentors during the early stages of the project.

Occasionally, a student decides to discontinue the honors project. That's okay. The student should just formally withdraw from the project by contacting their mentor and the Honors Program.