Computer Science (CS) Honors Program

Departmental honors in Computer Science is granted to students who have maintained a cumulative GPA greater than or equal to 3.5 and completed a set of coherent courses and research activities that satisfy the following requirements.

The program consists of at least 9 credits beyond the minimum required for graduation, as follows:

For students who requested honors prior to 3/15/2020:

  1. at least one CS course (at least 3 credit hours) at or above the 5000 level with a grade of A– or better (except that for courses taken in the Spring 2020 semester, a B+ (but not an S) will satisfy this requirement); no seminars. Note: CS 5000-level courses that co-meet with a CS 4000-level course are not eligible for honors.
  2. at least two 3-credit semesters of CS 4999 (Independent Reading and Research) with a CS faculty member, with grades of A– or better (except that for CS 4999 taken in the Spring 2020 semester, a B+ (but not an S) will satisfy this requirement) each semester.

For students who request honors after 3/15/2020 (note that honors requests need to be made at least 7 months prior to graduation), a maximum of one (1) Spring 2020 honors-eligible course may have a grade of  B+ to count for CS honors:

  1. at least one CS course (at least 3 credit hours) at or above the 5000 level with a grade of A– or better (except as noted above - for post 3/15/2020 honors requests); no seminars. Note: CS 5000-level courses that co-meet with a CS 4000-level course are not eligible for honors.
  2. at least two 3-credit semesters of CS 4999 (Independent Reading and Research) with a CS faculty member, with grades of A– or better (except as noted above - for post 3/15/2020 honors requests) each semester.

Latin Designations (appended to the degree), awarded by the field of Computer Science for all who qualify as stated above, are based on the 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

If the College of Engineering changes the GPA requirements for Latin Designations, then the department will award Latin Designations to both College of Arts and Sciences and College of Engineering students according to the CoE GPA requirements.

Restrictions

Honors courses may not be used to satisfy the CS 4000+ level electives, the CS project requirement, the technical electives, course in the External Specialization, Major-approved elective, Advisor-approved elective (for Engineering students) or Free Electives (for Arts & Sciences students), or a student’s first vector.  In essence, honors coursework represents a depth of work that is well beyond the minimum requirements needed to fulfill the Major.

Timing

Candidates are required to send email to ugrad@cs.cornell.edu with the subject line “HONORS CANDIDATE”.  The deadline for receipt of messages requesting honors is October 15 for May and August candidates and March 15 for January candidates, during or prior to senior year.