Using External Review in the Honors Project Process (Senior Theses and Projects‪)‬

Understanding the competitive nature of applications to graduate programs, Ferrari and Davis (2000) surveyed psychology faculty to discover their level of awareness of resources for undergraduate research publication. They found that most of the psychology faculty members they surveyed were unaware of such resources. Their finding made me curious about how many honors directors, faculty, and advisors are aware of such resources for their students not only in psychology but in all disciplines across the curriculum. Most of us realize the importance of helping our students become competitive for graduate work, and we know that publication and/or presentation of research may add to their chances for acceptance into the program of their choice. For many of our honors students, the capstone project in their major, which is also typically their honors project, may represent opportunities for increasing their marketability in graduate and professional arenas. Aware of the requirements for both capstone and honors projects for our honors students, our social science department was faced with the task of finding a method for reducing duplication for honors students and mentors. The obvious solution was to join the senior research project (capstone) with the senior honors project, but we had to find a way to differentiate honors from non-honors student projects. The solution for this department was to introduce external review for honors students, and this may be a fairly easy option for collaborative efforts between departments and honors programs elsewhere. External review for this purpose takes three forms: review for undergraduate or research journals, for conference presentations, or for grants.