Student Resources

Thesis committees play a central role in guiding, evaluating, and ultimately determining the outcome of a student’s honors project. Each committee must be carefully composed to ensure appropriate expertise, representation, and adherence to institutional standards. Some departments may have additional thesis committee requirements; please check with your departmental honors coordinator.

At a minimum, committees must include three regular* Emory University faculty members to form the core decision-making body of the committee. Among them, at least one must be from the student's Emory College honors major, providing college-level representation. A student’s thesis faculty advisor is automatically counted as one of the required core members. The remaining committee members may be affiliated with any school or unit at Emory University, including Oxford, Nursing, etc.

*Regular faculty eligible to serve on committees typically hold titles such as:

• Professor
• Associate Professor
• Assistant Professor
• Teaching Professor
• Associate Teaching Professor
• Assistant Teaching Professor

In some cases, individuals with titles such as Instructor or Research Associate may also qualify, depending on their designation as regular faculty.

Faculty who hold adjunct, visiting, emeritus, or post-doctoral appointments are not automatically eligible to serve as core committee members. In order to participate, the departmental honors coordinator must submit the Thesis Committee Petition Form and receive approval from the Honors Committee, the Honors Program’s faculty-led governing board. Once approved, this eligibility is valid for three years.

To find the petition deadlines, view the Honors Program calendar.

In May and August, the Honors Committee, the Honors Program’s faculty-led governing board, considers petitions to be admitted to Honors from students who do not meet the 3.7 cumulative GPA requirement. Students who have a GPA of at least 3.45 and the support of their departmental honors coordinator and potential thesis advisor are eligible to petition.

If you have decided to withdraw from the Honors Program, you must notify both the College Honors Program and your Departmental Honors Coordinator by completing the withdrawal form in College Connect. If dropping after the College withdrawal deadlines, you must work with your thesis advisor and honors coordinator to finish the honors course in which you are enrolled.

Emory University fosters a research environment that promotes the respect for the rights and welfare of individuals recruited for, or participating in, research conducted by or under the auspices of Emory University. Emory University is guided by applicable laws, regulations, and principles in its review and conduct of Human Subjects Research.

Emory College students whose research involves human subjects should consult their department’s honors coordinator to determine whether Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval is required. If IRB approval is necessary, it must be obtained before the start of the Honors Program and prior to the initiation of any research involving human subjects.

Learn more about Emory Institutional Review Board

An embargo allows students to restrict public access to a thesis for a specified period of time. Learn more from Emory Libraries about Thesis Access Restrictions and when to use them.

Current students in the program may set an embargo for 6 months, 1 year, or 2 years when submitting their thesis. Honors Program alumni can submit a request for an extension by submitting the Embargo Extension Request Form. If you need an extension longer than 2 years, it will require review and approval from the faculty Honors Committee, and the following will be required:

• A letter from you that covers the following:
  • Brief explanation of your project
  • The reason you need an extended embargo
  • The length of embargo you are requesting (e.g. 3 years)
• A letter of support from your thesis advisor confirming that the extended embargo is necessary/appropriate for your thesis; this can be in the form of an email and can be sent directly to ec.honorsprogram@emory.edu