Latin American Studies Honors Program

To become a candidate for Honors in LAST, a major by the end of his or her sixth semester must have achieved a 90.00 or higher university grade point average and must have completed Stage I of the General Education Expectations. (Recall that completion of Stage II is expected for all Latin American Studies majors, whether or not they are Honors candidates.)

No more than one thesis tutorial credit may count toward the major.

The thesis tutor must be affiliated with the LAST program. Evaluations of the thesis are by (1) the thesis tutor and (2) a thesis reader selected by the tutor in consultation with the chair, with other core members of the program weighing in if the tutor’s and chair’s preferences for reader differ. The thesis reader has the option of remaining anonymous to the thesis-writing student.

In evaluating theses for Honors in LAST, program faculty do not utilize the “no bar” option (e.g., “Honors no bar to High Honors”). Each evaluation must be High Honors, Honors, or Credit/No Honors. If the tutor's and reader’s evaluations agree, the agreed-upon evaluation is the LAST Honors evaluation that the thesis receives. If the evaluations of the tutor and the reader differ, an additional reader, who must also be affiliated with the LAST program, will evaluate the thesis. That additional reader will be chosen by the LAST chair in consultation with the thesis tutor. If an additional reader is needed, there will be three thesis evaluations. If two readers recommend a certain evaluation and one reader recommends a different evaluation, the thesis is awarded the majority’s evaluation. If the thesis gets three different evaluations, it gets Honors.