An undergraduate wishing to enroll in the honors program must have completed at least 55 credits, at least 30 of those 55 at Cornell. In addition, the student must have attained a cumulative Cornell GPA of at least 3.0 (unless otherwise noted by a particular program) at the time of entry.

Interested students must submit a written application and thesis proposal early in the first semester of their senior year; however, they are encouraged to make arrangements with a faculty member during the second semester of their junior year.  Several program areas require students to submit their applications and thesis proposal to the program area honors committee chair by the end of the third week, while other program areas have students submit the application and proposal to the  CALS Registrar's office by the end of the sixth week. It is the student's responsibility to know the deadlines and submission procedures for the particular program area of interest.  Application forms are available from the CALS Registrar in 140 Roberts Hall. Applications for Biological Sciences students can be picked up at 200 Stimson Hall, and for Biology & Society students at 306 Rockefeller Hall.

Before the completed application is submitted, signatures of approval are required in the following order: faculty research mentor, academic advisor, and the research honors program area chair. After the college registrar verifies the student's GPA, the student will be officially enrolled in the honors program. Additional requirements for application and completion of the program are described under each program area.

Academic credit also may be earned by enrolling in an appropriate independent research course (required by some program areas). When applying for admission to the program, the student may, if appropriate, submit a budget and a modest request for research funds (up to $350). If approved, the funding will be transferred to a departmental account of the student's research advisor to support the student's research. This funding is not to be used as a student salary. Additional funding opportunities are described on the Undergraduate Research Opportunities web site.

Unless otherwise indicated in the following program area descriptions, the research report in the form of a thesis or journal article should be submitted to the research program committee no later than four weeks before the end of classes of the semester in which the student expects to graduate. Students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences wishing to participate in the Research Honors Program are not eligible for distinction in research by participating in a program offered by another college or administrative unit.

The research honors committee for each program area recommends to the college registrar those students who qualify for honors. Only those who maintain a GPA of at least 3.0 will be graduated with “distinction in research.”

At or near the completion of their research, students are required to give an oral presentation or poster session during an appropriate event. Some departments have seminar series when presentations may be given. The Cornell Undergraduate Research Board (CURB) Forum is another venue for presentations.

Mann Library has given CALS the opportunity to have your thesis available to the public electronically if it does not interfere with other plans, such as patenting or publishing in another journal. A permission form to allow your thesis to be made available online at Mann Library can be obtained from your research honors program area chair. During each summer the CALS Research Honors Abstracts publication is published as a compilation of research honors theses abstracts. Submit an electronic final approved thesis and abstract to your research honors program area chair electronically. The file for the thesis can be either a Word document or PDF file, and the file for the abstract information as a Word document.