Honors Program Requirements
Note: Except in the case of students enrolled in the College Honors Program, admission to the Spanish Honors Program is by faculty nomination only. Students interested in doing the major with honors in Spanish may express their interest to any member of the Spanish faculty. Only officially-admitted Spanish majors are eligible to undertake our Honors Program.
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To be invited to do Spanish honors, the student must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.5, and a Spanish GPA of 3.5.
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Departmental invitations are usually extended one quarter before the student has completed 300-level work, to allow adequate time to contact faculty with whom the student hopes to do Ad Hoc and honors thesis (SPAN 490) work. For course prerequisites and other restrictions, please see the Major Requirements page.
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The Departmental Invitation must be completed by the faculty honors associate and the student, and then turned in to the undergraduate adviser in Padelford C-104F. The undergraduate adviser will make the appropriate DARS exception to the student’s record.
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The student must take 10 of the 25 required 400-level credits as honor credits in the last year, which will be done via Ad Hoc Contracts with individual faculty in conjunction with regularly scheduled 400-level Spanish courses. Detailed step-by-step instructions and deadlines can be found on the Ad Hoc Honors webpage.
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The student must take 5 additional credits of Spanish 490, beyond those required for the major, in the form of a senior Honors Essay. This is done under the supervision of a consenting faculty member scheduled to teach a 400-level SPAN class in the quarter in which the student plans to complete the project. (See number 6 below for specific essay requirements). Students are encouraged to obtain approval for their honors essay during the quarter prior to the one in which they plan to complete their project. After the student discusses a possible research topic and gets permission from the 400-level sponsoring professor, s/he must meet with the faculty honors associate for her approval and signature. The form to use can be found here: Honors Essay Form (PDF). Permission from both the professor who will supervise the essay, and the honors faculty associate, must be obtained no later than the Friday of the second week of the quarter in which the student plans to complete his/her honors project. The student should register for the regular 400-level Spanish class, and then contact Humanities Academic Services (HAS) to register for SPAN 490.
To reach HAS, you may email the general HAS email address at has-center@uw.edu.
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The honors essay will be a 12-20 page essay in standard MLA format, which will grow out of the student's independent research on a topic in some way related to the 400-level course being taught by his or her supervisor. The essay must be written in Spanish. Honors students are required to attend class regularly, although they are not expected to complete any of the regular course assignments. Exceptionally, a qualified honors student will be invited by a faculty member to undertake the 490 project in conjunction with a 500-level graduate seminar (rather than a 400-level course). Most 400-level courses in Spanish are eligible for honors credit.