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Soil Science

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Soil Science

Honors in the Major in Soil Science is an undergraduate program designed for students who desire a more challenging academic program leading to a degree with “With Honors” noted on the transcript. The program has a prescribed 20 credit requirement of Honors or Equivalent courses. In addition to these 20 course work credits a Senior Honors Thesis completed as 6 credits of Soil Sci 681/682 is required. Candidates for honors must transmit a copy of their Senior Honors Thesis to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and must present their work orally at the Spring CALS Research Forum.

To participate in the Honors in the Major Program a student must be admitted to the CALS Honors Degree Program. Freshmen may enter the Honors Program if they graduated in the upper 10% of their high school graduating class and attained an ACT score of at least 28 or an SAT score of at least 1240. Continuing students may enter the Honors Program with a GPA of 3.25 or greater.

The Honors in the Major in Soil Science requires students to be enrolled in the Soil Science Natural Science Degree Program and meet the following requirements.

  1. Complete the following courses:
    • Inter-Ag 288. Introduction to undergraduate research.1 cr.
    • Inter-Ag 388.
    • CALS honors interdisciplinary junior seminar.1 cr.
    • Soils 681. Senior honors thesis. 3 cr.
    • Soils 682. Senior honors theses. 3 cr. 2.
  2. Complete any 4 of the following honors equivalent courses.
    • Soils 451. Environmental biogeochemistry. 3 cr.
    • Soils 523. Soil microbiology and biochemistry. 3 cr.
    • Soils 532. Environmental biophysics. 3 cr.
    • Soils 621. Soil chemistry. 3 cr.
    • Soils 622. Soil physics. 3 cr.
    • Soils 626. Mineral nutrition of plants. 3 cr.

These courses simultaneously satisfy all requirements for the major in Soil Science.

Honors students are encouraged to take courses in other departments that can be taken for Honors. These are flagged in timetables with the symbols H, !, or %. In addition, there are other courses that are not regularly offered for Honors credit but can be taken for Honors with the approval of the instructor. An example is Soil Sci 301.

Progress toward degree Honors in Soil Science is monitored by the Department and your faculty advisor. Honors students must maintain a GPA of 3.25 throughout their course of study and complete all of the degree, major and Honors requirements. Course substitutions are possible with the approval of the Department Instruction Committee and the CALS Scholastic Policy and Actions Committee. The student's academic advisor is responsible for working closely with the student in the design and conduct of the Senior Thesis research and in the preparation of the Thesis itself.