Department Honors

English Department Honors

Honors Course (ENGL H195A/B): An honors degree in English requires the completion of English H195A and H195B (4 units each) offered every year in a Fall-Spring sequence only. H195A is a limited-enrollment course in criticism and critical theory, during which students develop a thesis project. At the end of H195A, a grade of IP is assigned. In H195B students work independently, under the supervision of the H195 instructor and a thesis adviser, to complete the honors thesis (normally 40-60 pages). Upon completion of the thesis, and only then, students earn 8 units and a letter grade for the whole sequence. 

There are three degrees of honors based on GPA in English at the time of graduation: “Honors in the Major” (3.650-3.760), “High Honors in the Major” (3.761-3.870), and “Highest Honors in the Major” (3.871-4.000). 

Requirements: This course is an instructor-approved course open only to senior English majors with an overall (cumulative) GPA of 3.51 or higher and a major GPA of 3.65 or higher in courses taken at Berkeley. The overall GPA includes all courses taken. The major GPA includes all courses completed for the English major (transferred grades are not included). Students must have completed English 100 before the start of the honors seminar. Eng 100 and H195A cannot be taken concurrently. 

Application Deadline for 2026-2027: Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at 11:59pm PT

To be considered for admission to the Honors course, students must apply via the link on the course listing in the Class Schedule. Review this document before submitting your application.

The application will need to include:

(a) the online application form

(b) PDFs of your college unofficial transcript(s)

(c) a Faculty Reference (PDF format)

  • The application form requests a "faculty reference" — this is NOT a recommendation letter or sponsorship of a thesis. Your faculty reference should be a faculty member who is familiar with your work.

  • The faculty reference can be a permanent English faculty member or a lecturer.

(d) a critical writing sample (PDF format) that you wrote for another class. Your critical paper should be 10-20 pages. If you do not have a 10-20 page paper, you can submit two papers that are 6-8 pages each. If you submit two papers, please combine into one single PDF. Questions about the paper you plan to submit should be directed to the Honors instructors.

(e) a statement of purpose (PDF format), including why you are interested in taking this course, indicate your academic interest(s) and, if possible, the topic or area you are thinking of addressing in your Honors thesis.

Notification: Since the department must review the GPAs of Honors applicants for courses taken all the way through the Spring semester, and the instructors must carefully assess the applications, applicants will be contacted via email around mid-July if they have been selected for admission, and, if so, to which section. Since there might be more applicants for one section than the other, some students might end up being placed in the section that was not their first choice.

Enrollment: If admitted to one of the Honors sections, students will be enrolled by our enrollment manager before the end of the adjustment period for that respective term. Students will not enroll in their Honors section before then.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions:

  1. Students will apply to the Honors Program in the second semester of their Junior year.
  2. H195A counts as 4 units on the student’s Fall study list; H195B counts as another 4 units on the student’s Spring study list. The 2 upper division courses count toward the 12 needed to complete the major (together, H195A and H195B satisfy the Research Seminar requirement). Failure to complete both courses will result in neither of the courses counting towards the major. Our policy is that students must complete both to count.