Revised Policy for Honors in the CS Major

By Ravi Chugh
March 17, 2026

We are making two changes to the policy for earning honors in the CS major that will take effect in the College Catalog for AY 2026-27. (Students graduating in Spring 2026 are not affected.)

Currently, students may earn honors in the CS major either by completing an approved bachelor’s thesis or taking three courses from a list of approved graduate courses. The first change to the policy is that we will no longer offer the three-course option for honors after this year.

The second change is that students earning honors must achieve an average GPA of 3.50 in courses counting towards the CS major, with exceptions that CS 141, CS 142, and CS 143 do not factor into this calculation. This new requirement replaces the existing requirement that students receive a B or higher in all courses counting towards the CS major. The new requirement selects for a level of overall academic achievement rather than filtering based on any grades below B.

This new policy applies to students who matriculate starting in AY 2026-27. For current students who plan to pursue the three-course option for honors, we will maintain a list of approved courses (on course-info) for that requirement for one more year, namely, AY 2026-27. After Spring 2027, there will no longer be a coursework option. This approach will allow current students to successfully complete the three-course route by taking approved courses this Spring and next year.