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Senior majors in political science with outstanding records in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and in their political science courses are invited to enroll in the Department's Senior Honors Program. The Honors Program begins each fall, lasts for two quarters, and culminates in completing a Senior Thesis that involves creative theoretical analysis or original empirical research using primary sources--e.g., political documents, survey research date, archival records, census material, or interview and questionnaire data. The student may subsequently submit his or her Senior Thesis for consideration for Departmental Honors. It is possible to complete a Senior Thesis which does not qualify for Honors.

Invitations to the Honors Program are sent routinely each summer to all seniors who, by the end of their junior year, meet the minimum criteria of a 3.5 grade point average in all courses at Northwestern and also have a GPA of 3.5 in all their political science courses. Typically, more students apply for the Senior Honors Program than we are able to admit. Preference will be given to those who have already completed (1) their research methods requirement, (2) their 395 Research Seminar, and (3) their departmental requirements of three 200-level and seven 300-level courses in political science.

The Political Science Honors Program involves two consecutive quarters of 398 Honors Tutorial taken in the Fall and Winter quarters of the senior year. (These courses do not count toward the requirement of seven 300-level courses.)

The Fall Quarter involves participation in a regularly scheduled tutorial with a faculty honors coordinator. The tutorial sessions offer opportunities for coordination and discussion of research interests and provide direction for the Senior Thesis. During this quarter, students consider issues of research design appropriate to their inquiry and evaluate threats to the validity of their study. The Fall Quarter culminates in submission of a research design that guides the thesis to be completed in the next quarter.

The Winter Quarter centers on executing the research design and on discussing preliminary research findings. Students again meet in tutorial groups to share and critique each other's work under the direction of an honors coordinator. Students also meet regularly with their principal supervisor to produce the Senior Thesis, which is due at the end of the quarter.

In the Spring Quarter, tutorial participants may opt to pursue the additional distinction of graduating with Departmental Honors by polishing the senior thesis and submitting it to our Departmental Honors Committee. The student must address any readers' criticisms of the thesis in reworking for submission to the Honors Committee, which consists of the tutorial faculty plus the Director of Undergraduate Studies. The study is read subsequently and independently by two readers, and it is held to high standards of form as well as substance. Indeed, the Departmental Honors Committee only recommends honors to the Weinberg Committee on Superior Students and Honors. The Weinberg committee acts on the Departmental recommendation in light of the student's academic record and the body of work submitted for Honors.

Invitations to apply to the program are sent over the summer, and applications must be submitted before the tutorials begin in the fall. Students will be responsible for obtaining permission from the professors proposed to supervise their research.