Graduation Requirements and Honors

General Academic Requirements

Academic credit toward the Bachelor of Arts is expressed in terms of course units. Most Clark courses are awarded one unit (equivalent to four semester credit hours). To earn a bachelor’s degree, a student must complete a minimum of 32 course units (128 semester credit hours) with a minimum overall (cumulative) 2.0 grade-point average (GPA). He/she may receive no more than four D or D+ grades. Bachelor’s degree candidates must also successfully complete all institutional, major departmental and Program of Liberal Studies requirements for graduation.

Full-time study is defined as a minimum of three units in a given semester; normally, however, undergraduates enroll in four courses per semester. Students should consult their faculty advisers, or in some cases, the Academic Advising Center or major departments when questions about course or program selections arise.   While first-year students and sophomores may choose any course designated by a department as open to them, 200-level courses are normally designed for juniors and seniors. Juniors and seniors may elect any 100- or 200-level course, provided they have met all required prerequisites and have the permission of the faculty member, if necessary. Undergraduates may be admitted to 300-level graduate courses with the approval of the instructor.

Advice about balancing your courses and meetings Clark’s requirements can be found in The Blue Book: Academic Advising handbook. Transfer credit for students with fewer than 32 course units in residence is established by the Transfer Evaluation Committee. Students may accelerate their progress toward graduation by no more than one semester without special approval of the College Board.

Departmental Honors

Students may be admitted to a program leading to a bachelor’s degree with honors in a particular major at the beginning of the junior year or, in some cases, at the beginning of the senior year. In most cases, each student will work with a faculty member who serves as his or her honors adviser and assists with planning the honors research and thesis during the student’s junior and senior years. The program may include a maximum of six courses in which the student works under the adviser’s supervision. In some cases, students must pass a comprehensive examination given by the department in the senior year.

Students should check with the major department to obtain guidelines for the specific requirements for honors before the end of the sophomore year (although in some departments, applications for honors may be made in the second half of the junior year).

Admission to an honors program does not relieve students of any of the standard major requirements. A student’s candidacy for honors will be terminated at the end of any term in which he or she has not maintained a standard of work satisfactory to the department. If candidacy is terminated for any reason, the amount of course credit to be allowed for honors courses will be determined by the College Board.

The department may recommend that a student graduate with honors, high honors or highest honors. Consult individual departments for details concerning acceptance into their honors programs.

University Honors

Dean’s List

Each semester, the Dean of the College publishes a list of students who have distinguished themselves by outstanding academic performance in the preceding semester. Honors are awarded to the top students in each class based on semester grade point averages.  To be eligible, students meet the following conditions:

• register for and pass at least four units
• have at least three units of normal letter graded credits
• have at least three units in the undergraduate college
• have received no grade lower than a “B-” including NR, NC, CP-, or FCP

Latin Honors

Upon graduation, Latin honors are awarded at three levels: cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude. Latin honors are based on the following cumulative grade-point averages: summa cum laude, 3.80 and higher; magna cum laude, 3.60-3.79; and cum laude, 3.40-3.59.  GPAs are not rounded up for Latin honors calculations.  To be eligible for Latin honors, students must have completed at least 75 percent of their Clark courses with a letter grade.

Honors Societies

Honor societies at Clark include the Society of Phi Beta Kappa, founded at the College of William and Mary in 1776 and dedicated to the recognition and encouragement of outstanding scholarly achievement in liberal studies. The Clark chapter, Lambda of Massachusetts, was established in 1953. Every year a select group of seniors, who exemplify what the constitution of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa describes as “high scholarship in the Arts and Sciences and good character” are invited to join the Chapter. Selection is made on the basis of overall academic achievement, as well as breadth and depth of studies in the liberal arts. To be eligible, students must have studied a second language and have done course work in science and math that satisfies Clark’s perspective requirements for the Program of Liberal Studies. Elections are held in the spring semester. A committee of faculty members who are members of PBK determines the final selections on the basis of the academic records of candidates and recommendations from the faculty at large.

Gryphon and Pleiades is the senior honor society at Clark. Its 12 members include students who have outstanding records of academic achievements and leadership in campus extracurricular activities.

The Fiat Lux Honor Society was created in 1988 as a student honor and service society recognizing combined qualities of scholarship and citizenship among Clark juniors and seniors. Qualifications for selection include a minimum 3.3 grade-point average and significant community service.