Sections / Contracts / Community Service: Components of the Honors Program

HONORS CONTRACTS

Nuts and Bolts
Student Testimonials
"Contracts: Find Out What's Hot... to Make Yourself Marketable" by Adrian Beckmann

The primary method of earning honors credit in upper-division courses is through an honors contract, which is an individual arrangement that you develop with a professor to complete an upgraded curriculum in order to receive honors credit. The honors contract is intended to enrich the quality of education rather than simply increasing the workload. An important aspect of honors contracts is the opportunity to meet weekly with your professor. At the end of the quarter, your professor will be asked to confirm whether you successfully completed the terms of the contract. If so, and as long as you earn a B or higher in the course, course honors will be added to the transcript after grades are recorded; however, no additional units will be awarded. Students cannot receive course honors if they select the P/NP grading option.

For information on how to enter into an honors contract, see www.honors.ltsc.ucsb.edu/curriclm.php#contract

STUDENT TESTIMONIALS

Honors contracts are an excellent way to connect with professors to find out about their field and help them find out about you. Contracts can also help you find out how interested you are in a subject. Doing a contract is a great experience for those thinking about going into academia, because it forces you to do independent research. If you get bored with a topic after only a few weeks, that may indicate that a career in that area may not be the best decision. However, if you take a problem, work on it for weeks, and find yourself wanting more, as I did, it's exhilarating! With contracts, if you take a keen interest (the student's), and add an amazing resource (the professor), you've got a recipe for success. — Madeline Zamoyski, Senior, Philosophy

I did a contract for Comparative Literature 161, Literature of Central Europe, where I had to write a 12-page paper on a topic of my choice. My professor kept pressing me early on to make progress on my paper, which forced me to work out the kinks in my subject matter. But beyond just being fascinated by the topic of the paper itself, I found myself enjoying developing a familiarity with the library so I could access essential but fairly obscure essays. The skills I gained in this way will be invaluable to me. — Morgen Wolf, Sophomore, Global Studies

I did two honors contracts. The first was in a course called Anthropology of Modern Mexican Cultures. I wrote a 25-page paper on the Huichol Native Americans of Mexico, which allowed me to develop a strong relationship with my professor. The second was for a course called Archaeology of Egypt. For this contract, I helped Professor Smith with his research in pottery residue analysis from an Egyptian/Nubian contact site in the Sudan. It was amazing to work with an esteemed Egyptologist. My contracts helped me develop strong relationships with faculty, which will aid me in my graduate school application process. They also reinforced my desire to become an anthropologist. — Douglas J. La Rose, Senior, Anthropology

Honors contracts allow you to explore a specific area of interest in depth, get to know your professor better, and really challenge yourself. For me, some of the best learning has taken place through honors contracts. — Juan Ibarra, Junior, History of Public Policy

Honors contracts have helped crystallize my interests within my religious studies major. It is very rewarding to be able to talk individually with the professor about a subject that interests you. The professors always have excellent resources and can help guide your research in future classes. I would recommend taking only 12 or 13 units during the first quarter you do an upper-division honors contract, so you can get a feel for it without too much extra pressure. Also, be sure that the subject you choose to write on interests you, and that you will be able to find enough material on it. You want to come up with an original analysis, and that is difficult to do if you have limited sources to work with. — Nina Jensen, Senior, Religious Studies

Contracts: Find Out What's Hot . . . to Make Yourself Marketable

by Adrian Beckmann

As an honors student, I'm sure you know that doing honors contracts can enrich your academic life at UCSB. But have you ever thought about using honors contracts as a way to make yourself more marketable later in your academic career? I'll outline below a few ways you can choose contracts carefully to enhance your ability to get into graduate school or build your resume.

1. Ask which professors are particularly noteworthy in the fields of your own interest (graduate students are a good source of that kind of information) and do contracts with them. Not only will they have a deep understanding of the subject, but their recommendations will count for a lot when you're applying to grad school.
2. Design your contract so that you can make a contribution to solving problems in current vogue in your discipline. This will make you more interesting and marketable to those important others whose opinion matters in your field.
3. If you are taking a heavy load, choose a manageable topic. Don't create a contract that will affect your ability to get good grades in your other classes. Do something focused that will allow you to provide a small but significant gleam of understanding about the topic at hand. If you are taking a light load, on the other hand, design a more ambitious contract that enables you to contribute significantly to the field by writing a serious research paper based on a comprehensive review of the literature.

Contracts can be the staging ground for young scholars poised to make a difference in the future of their disciplines. The basic rule is to strive for quality in all you do - find a quality topic, work with professors with a high profile in their fields, and most important of all, write quality work that will contribute to the developing literature in your area of research.

Adrian Beckmann is a senior majoring in philosophy.

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