Awards
Dean's List
Full-time students who complete at least sixteen units for a letter grade in a fall or spring semester and have a semester GPA of 3.5 or better are eligible for the Dean’s List. This honor will appear on the student’s transcript for each qualifying semester.
Latin Honors
Students that have excelled in their coursework will be awarded Latin honors. Grade point averages for Latin Honors are based on work completed at Occidental College and are rounded to the nearest hundredth. Latin honors are awarded only upon completion of the degree requirements for the Bachelor of Arts degree. No exceptions will be made.
Summa cum Laude: Grade point average of 3.90 or above
Magna cum Laude: Grade point average of 3.75 or above
Cum Laude: Grade point average of 3.50 or above
Study-abroad courses taken in the fall and spring and approved by the International Programs Office are considered Occidental College courses and are calculated in the GPA for honors. No transfer courses are calculated in the Occidental College GPA (study-abroad courses taken in the summer are considered transfer courses).
College Honors
The Honors Program at Occidental is designed to allow the superior student’s attention to be focused on an independent investigation for a sustained period of time. It is expected that students admitted to the College Honors Program will have established themselves as outstanding prospects for individualized work in the department of their major and also will have established themselves by submitting work of very high quality in all that they have undertaken at Occidental. Student admission to the College Honors Program will be by formal action of the faculty in the student’s major department. Ordinarily no student will be admitted to the College Honors Program who does not have an overall grade point average of 3.25. No student will, under any circumstances, receive Honors who has not maintained this grade point average by the end of spring semester of the senior year. Individual departments may set a higher minimum grade point average, both overall and within the major.
Students accepted for the College Honors Program are exempt from the 8-unit limit in Independent Study and may take Advanced Research (499) courses on an independent study basis. The purpose of such research is to prepare a special project to be submitted to the major department for evaluation no later than the 10th week of the spring semester of the student’s senior year. Evaluation of the completed project will be made by a committee of department faculty and may include readers from outside the department or College. Students wishing to be considered for participation in the Honors Program should contact the chair of the appropriate department during the spring semester of their sophomore year for more detailed information.
Honors in an Independent Pattern of Study:
College Honors may be awarded to graduating seniors who demonstrate excellence in Independent Pattern of Study coursework and in an honors thesis/project. To be eligible, students must have a 3.5 or better grade point average in courses taken for their IPS and an overall 3.25 grade point average.
Qualified students who wish to pursue Honors must consult with their IPS committee during their junior year and submit a proposal for their honors thesis/project no later than mid-term of the second semester of their junior year.
Completion of an Honors project does not in itself guarantee the conferring of College Honors.