The Goldman Honors Program (Woods 195) brings upper division undergraduate students from Stanford University's schools of Humanities and Sciences, Engineering, and Earth Sciences together into small group seminars to analyze important environmental problems.
Requirements include three quarters of seminar participation, the preparation of an honors thesis, and, where relevant, field study related to the student's thesis topic.
The seminars are project-focused and are often tied to ongoing research by faculty and graduate students throughout the university and to other academic, governmental, or industrial institutions sharing an interest in solving-or implementing solutions to-the problems presented.
The criteria for applying to the program are fivefold:
- Students must be able to fulfill all course requirements in their individual departments by the time they graduate.
- Students must have sufficient depth and breadth of environmental coursework with some focus on policy-related courses as well as science or tech courses. It is recommended that students complete ES10 before applying for the program, as well as the core in Earth Systems or an alternative sequence of environmental courses approved by the program's faculty committee.
- Students should have a letter grade indicator (LGI) of at least 3.3 at the time they apply, and they should maintain this LGI throughout the program.
- Students must have a recommendation by a faculty member who would be willing to advise them on their thesis. The faculty advisors would, in turn, be assisted by the Woods Institute professors and scholars directly participating in the honors program each year. The letter of recommendation is the most important criterion for admittance.
- Students are advised to enter the program with a good idea of their thesis topic. Topics are typically proposed in the Honors admission application.
The Woods faculty and staff for the program will be available to assist students in their academic planning and the possible selection of advisors outside the students' own department.
For more information please contact the Woods Institute
