An Honors Thesis or Project is a sustained inquiry or application of a focused idea or skills, allowing the student to develop subject-matter expertise, thorough research or practice, and intensive project management skills. It represents the culmination of a student's undergraduate experience in the Honors Program. All students must complete 3 hours from HONR 498R: Honors Thesis and/or HONR 499R: Honors Project. Students may begin their Honors Thesis during their junior year if they are prepared. If a student's major department requires a comparable course (with substantial written component), students may complete the same project for both courses.

Topics should be determined by the student's interests and based on a background of adequate coursework or other preparation in the area of interest. Frequently, Honors Program students propose interdisciplinary theses, which bring together several areas of interest and represent topics which might not encompass a specific program. Students will develop a formal proposal for a thesis topic during the first semester of HONR 498R or HONR 499R.

The Honors Thesis or Honors Project is a two-semester endeavor, which results in 45-50 typed pages of research, analysis, and synthesis (or a similar time commitment to a project with some kind of public component, e.g., a performance, laboratory research, scientific poster session,conference presentation, a workshop, publication in an academic or creative journal, etc.) on a topic approved by the student's Faculty Committee.