Applied Economics

Major Requirements for Students Pursuing Latin Honors

Common Honors Courses in Major

MATH 1571H - Honors Calculus I
COMM 1101H - Honors Introduction to Public Speaking
WRIT 3562V - Honors Technical and Professional Writing

Required Thesis Course

CFAN 3091V, intended for Fall of Junior Year (beginning Fall 2023)

Capstone Considerations

None

Thesis Requirements

Thesis Requirements for an Empirical Paper: A magna or cum laude thesis would be a proposal for an empirical research project with a complete literature review, a research question, and a description of how to answer the question. A summa thesis must follow this up by completing the empirical work.

Thesis Requirements for a Theoretical Paper: A magna or cum laude thesis would be a proposal for a theory project, with a literature review, a research question, and an outline of how the student would answer the question. A summa thesis would have to set up and solve an actual model.

Plan C Thesis Options

An honors student can choose to pursue non-paper honors thesis. This could be any original work using other media to disseminate research findings, such as developing a website or a documentary or designing and disseminating an infographic about an issue. Students wishing to pursues a non-paper thesis will need to seek prior approval from his/her honors committee. The honors committee will create a formal agreement with the student about what will constitute an acceptable non-paper thesis, and, if applicable, the standards for a summa thesis.
At a minimum, a non-paper thesis must include the following: a well-defined problem, sound methodology, solid data, a well-targeted audience
Some non-paper options will also necessitate a process or background paper in which students describe how they designed and carried out the project. The student’s honors committee will decide when this is required. For example, a documentary is a substantial amount of work on its own and would typically not require an accompanying process paper. An infographic or artwork is less self-explanatory, and the final product may not readily exemplify the amount of effort involved, so a process paper would usually be needed.
The honors committee will create a formal agreement with the student about what will constitute an acceptable non-paper thesis, and, if applicable, the standards for a summa thesis.

Honors Faculty Representative Info

Faculty Rep

Charlotte Ambrozek

Office

217F Ruttan Hall

ambrozek@umn.edu