To qualify for departmental honors, students must apply by the end of their seventh semester and meet the GPA requirement:

  •  A cumulative GPA greater than or equal to 3.5

OR

  • cumulative GPA greater than or equal to 3.0 in addition to contributions to the Information Science Program through research or other means, as detailed in their application.

Students intending to pursue honors must complete the following coursework in addition to their IS major courses:

  • Three additional credit hours of IS course work at or above the 5000* level; (graded courses only; no one or two credit seminar or two-credit project courses)

  • Six credit hours of INFO 4900 Independent Study and Research with one or more IS faculty members, spread over at least two semesters and with grades of A- or better (except that for courses taken in the Spring 2020 semester, a B+ (but not an S) will satisfy this requirement); it is expected that the INFO 4900 research will result in a project report.

To have research honors confirmed with the Information Science advising office, the faculty member overseeing the research must email ISAdvising@cornell.edu no later than the final grades deadline at the end of the student's final undergraduate semester. The email must include a copy of the student's project/report and confirmation that the student met the research requirements as defined for INFO 4900.

*When registering for dually numbered courses (e.g. 3000/5000 or 4000/6000 level), undergraduate students must enroll for the 3000 or 4000 level option. As a result, dually numbered courses will not count towards fulfillment of the 5000 or 6000 level requirement. Please submit a ticket to the Bowers CIS Enrollment team to request to be switched into the 5000- or 6000-level version of a course.

Latin designations (appended to the degree) are based on final cumulative GPA, as follows:

  • cum laude, 3.50 or above

  • magna cum laude, 3.75 or above

  • summa cum laude, 4.00 or above

For information about applying for honors, email the Undergraduate Coordinator.