Honors Program

DEPARTMENTAL HONORS

• Honors Criteria
• Econ H191
• Econ H195B
• General Information
• Application Procedures
• Honors Notations on Diplomas
• Policy
• FAQs

Honors Criteria

Beginning Fall 2025, the Economics Department will offer two options for pursuing honors, a new one-semester thesis track and a revised one-year thesis track. The current one-year honors track will continue to be an option for any students with an admission date at UC Berkeley of Fall 2025 or earlier. Students admitted Spring 2026 and later will be expected to follow one of the two tracks labeled “new” below.

Econ H191 

The goal of H191 is to provide a structure for students writing their honors thesis in economics, including finding and organizing a topic, gathering data, and completing a first or final draft of their thesis. The final paper in H191 will serve as the completed honors thesis for those students who elect to follow the one-semester thesis track, provided they fulfill all other honors requirements and receive a final grade of B+ or better in the course. For those students pursuing the one-year honors thesis option, the final paper in H191 will serve as a first draft of the thesis to be further developed in H195B the following semester.

H191 is for Economics majors who:

• Meet the GPA requirements of 3.3 overall and 3.5 in the upper-division Economics courses
• Have completed their microeconomic, macroeconomic, and econometrics major requirements
• Intend to pursue either the one-semester or one-year Economics Honors thesis tracks

Econ H191 must be taken for a letter grade and for 4 units.  Econ H191 must count as an elective when taken and will be included when calculating the major GPA for level of honors. Students must earn a minimum of a B+ in the course to either finish the one-semester track for honors or move on to the one-year track.

Econ H195B

Econ H195B is intended for students that are interested in obtaining more substantial research experience guided by one-on-one interactions with an individual faculty thesis advisor. There is no class. Students meet periodically with their thesis advisor and receive independent study units. Before enrolling in Econ H195B, students must:

• have a 3.5 GPA in all upper division economics major coursework, and have a 3.3 GPA overall
• have completed macroeconomics, microeconomics, and econometrics
• have completed at least one additional upper-division course for the major
• have completed a course in which a research paper is required:  Econ H195A, Econ 191, Econ H191, an upper-division undergraduate research seminar (Econ 122, 124, 132, 153, 154, 164, 173, and 183). 

Econ H195B must be taken for a letter grade and for 3 units. Econ H195B must count as an elective when taken and will be included when calculating the major GPA for level of honors.

General Information

Students pursuing the one-year honors track are encouraged to choose an Economics faculty member to supervise their thesis. Supervision by a faculty member outside the Economics Department is subject to approval by the Undergraduate Chair. Students pursuing the one-semester honors track do not need a faculty advisor since the final paper in H191 serves as the thesis in its entirety.

There are copies of prior semesters theses available online at the undergraduate thesis website.  Some submissions have been omitted because they contain proprietary data, or because we do not have permission from the author to post the work. This is not a reflection on the quality of their work. 
 

Application Procedures

Track 1: (Old) One-Year Honors Thesis**
Only students admitted to Berkeley by Fall 2025 or earlier are eligible for this track. To apply for H195B, please submit your completed application signed by your faculty advisor here. Faculty may send their approval via email in lieu of a form signature. Students must include this emailed approval in their application submission.

Track 2: (New) One-Semester Honors Thesis
To apply for H191, please submit your completed application here. Enrollment will be based on eligibility as listed in the table above and then first-come, first-served.

Track 3: (New) One-Year Honors Thesis

Econ H191 must be completed then Econ H195B must be afterwards.

Econ H191 - To apply for H191, please submit your completed application here. Enrollment will be based on eligibility as listed in the table above and then first-come, first-served.

Econ H195B - To apply for H195B, please submit your completed application signed by your faculty advisor here. Faculty may send their approval via email in lieu of a form signature. Students must include this emailed approval in their application submission.


Honors Notations on Diplomas 

All honors students who have written a thesis by the time of the commencement ceremony are listed in the Commencement program, with the title of their thesis shown. The honors designation also appears on all transcripts and the UC diploma. Please note: if a student is walking prior to writing the honors theses, they will not be listed with the honors candidates in the Commencement program.

Policy

• *Because H195A may not be offered from Fall 2025 onward, Econ H191 will be allowed to be used for the H195B research requirement.
• **This honors track will be available only to students who were admitted to UC Berkeley Fall 2025 or earlier. All students admitted after this term will only be able to pursue either of the two new tracks.