Academic Excellence

Recognition of Scholarship

As a preprofessional program, the Program in Environmental Design provides an atmosphere for study and creative investigation. The program holds academic rigor and quality in the highest esteem. In recognition of high scholarship and professional attainment, the program grants scholarly honors at graduation.

Students achieving a grade point average of 3.50 to 3.749 (honors) and 3.75 to 4.00 (special honors) are recognized at commencement. Honors are based on course work completed at the University of Colorado. A minimum of 70 hours of course work must be completed at CU to be eligible for honors.

Scholarships, Loans, Awards and Prizes

A wide range of scholarships, prizes and other awards are available to BEnvd students. They are sponsored by the program, the campus, the professions and other foundations and donors.

In addition to these scholarships, interested students may participate in faculty-student research projects funded by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) programs, or in other research opportunities provided by the campus or in cooperation with the program's faculty.

Latin Honors—General Honors Program

All University of Colorado students may participate in the Latin honors granted by the College of Arts and Sciences. Students may graduate with Latin Honors (summa cum laude, magna cum laude or cum laude) through either the General Honors Program or their department (see below). Granting of these honors is based on several criteria, including the quality of original scholarly work (generally reported in the form of a thesis). Students interested in participating in the General Honors Program should visit the CU Honors Program website.

Latin Departmental Honors in Environmental Design

Environmental design students may graduate with Latin Departmental Honors (summa cum laude, magna cum laude or cum laude), students with an overall GPA of 3.30 or higher propose a project to work on in their senior year of study, under the guidance of a primary advisor. Students defend their thesis to a committee of three faculty, (environmental design primary advisor, the honors council liaison and a faculty member from outside the department) in April, and the full Honors Committee awards honors in the semester the student graduates. Specific deadlines can be found on the CU Honors Program graduation page.

Latin Honors theses present work that is student initiated and student directed, well beyond the requirements for existing classwork. Latin Honors projects in the Environmental Design Program fall into two major categories: research and design.  

• Research projects present a heretofore-unanswered question then work to answer it, relying on any number of data or types of evidence. The product is a paper, the length of which is determined by the topic in conversation with your advisor.
• Design projects present a problem and propose a solution to that problem. The product is a design or product, presented with a critical introduction. Design theses go beyond designing a building to respond to existing programmatic assumptions, to propose a new response to a problem identified by the student.