Honors Program
If your experiences in classes and other activities have left you wanting to dive into research more deeply, we encourage you to pursue an independent project and to write an honors thesis in your senior year. The core of this experience is designing and executing a project, then writing a manuscript that reports your findings in the standard format for professional journals in a relevant discipline. With guidance from your faculty Research Mentor, you will lead all steps of the project including communicating your results to the Cornell community.
Completing a novel research project and reporting the results in a professional manner are ideal preparation for graduate school or a research career. However, each step of the process will demand considerable time and energy, so you should think carefully about your time budget and level of interest before committing. Please talk through scenarios with your mentor(s).
Senior theses can report work in any domain (arts, social science, physical and life sciences, humanities, and more) as long as they focus on environmental and/or sustainability themes.The E&S Honors Program is open to any E&S major from the College of Arts and Sciences, and to all students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Applicants must have a cumulative Cornell GPA of 3.0 or higher at the time of both entry and completion of the Honors Program.
Please do not hesitate to reach out if you would like to explore whether your research interests are a good fit for the E&S Honors Program.
Program Overview
It is ideal to launch thesis research before or during your junior year so that you have at least one summer to focus on your project. For students doing research off campus the winter and summer breaks are often essential for collecting data.
Your final thesis must be submitted by mid-April in your senior spring semester for May graduates (very early December for December graduates). After approval by your faculty Research Mentor, your thesis manuscript is submitted to the E&S Honors Committee for formal review. In addition, all Honors candidates are expected to give a public presentation (oral or poster) in their final semester.
Your final thesis must be completed by mid-April in your senior spring semester for May graduates (very early December for December graduates). The thesis manuscript is submitted for formal review to the E&S Honors Committee. Candidates give a public presentation (oral or poster) in their final semester. Latin Honors in CALS is awarded separately based on GPA. In Arts & Sciences, candidates are awarded Latin Honors on their diploma for successful completion of a thesis.
Theses can encompass the broad range of E&S concentrations. Accordingly, E&S theses represent this broad range of intellectual disciplines and have a variety of formats in alignment with the typical scholarly products of those respective disciplines. You can see examples of honors theses on eCommons, a public Cornell database. Only theses for which authors have given a Release to Publish will be found on eCommons.
Honors Timeline
The E&S Honors application has two parts: 1) the application and 2) thesis proposal (1 - 2 pages) consisting of a description of your thesis question, what is known about it (reference a few key papers if possible), and your methodology for studying the topic (e.g. literature analysis, experimental work, case studies, personal interviews, etc.).
APPLY HERE.
Junior Year
- Identify a thesis advisor and research topic.
- Apply to the E&S Honors Program no later than the start of your senior year (September 25 deadline for both December and May graduates). If it is difficult to submit by this date, please contact Prof. Peter McIntyre (pbm3), Chair, E&S Honors Committee, to discuss.
Senior Year
- There are no formal or required classes associated with completing an honors thesis in E&S. However, some honors candidates enroll in Special Studies 4990 - Undergraduate Research, in consultation with their thesis advisor, to receive credit for research work done in fall and/or spring.
- To enroll in research credits use the CALS Special Studies form available online.
- You may select the home department of your thesis supervisor to enroll in 4990 related to their field (e.g. NTRES 4990), or you may choose ENVS 4990. [Note: On the Special Studies form, choose ENVS as the home department of your supervisor in order to enroll in ENVS credits.]
- If your faculty advisor is not listed under ENVS 4990, please contact the E&S program office at environment [at] cornell.edu (environment[at]cornell[dot]edu) and we will add the advisor to the system. Typically an update will take ~24-48 hours.
- Arts & Sciences candidates, enroll in ENVS credits to receive AS credit!
- REMINDER, it is NOT required to enroll in research credits to submit a thesis.
- Attend one fall and one spring honors cohort meeting with the E&S Honors Coordinator. Dates TBD.
- Submit a progress report and annotated bibliography in late fall. Due date will be announced at the start of fall semester.
- The date for the formal thesis submission is April 15. You do not have all of spring semester to finish your final manuscript.
- By the end of classes, candidates will receive thesis feedback and have an opportunity to revise their writing.
- By the end of finals, candidates have the opportunity to submit an updated version of their thesis.
- Honors candidates participate in and present the findings of their thesis project in a public forum in their semester of graduation.
- Authors may volunteer to publish their original honors research on eCommons, Cornell’s digital repository, as long as doing so does not interfere with other plans, such as patenting or publishing in a professional journal. A permission form to allow a thesis to be made available online in eCommons can be obtained from the E&S honors program coordinator.
