Awards and Graduation Honors

Overview

Stanford students can receive university awards for their academic, research, and writing excellence. The student awards included below are administered or supported by offices of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education.

Graduation Honors

Undergraduate Departmental Award Recipients, 2019-2020

Undergraduate National and University Award Recipients, 2019-2020

Academic Awards

The Deans' Award

The Deans' Award recognizes up to ten undergraduates per year for their outstanding academic contributions.

Phi Beta Kappa 

Phi Beta Kappa is a nationwide society honoring students for the excellence and breadth of their undergraduate scholarly achievements.

To be considered, a student must take three courses of 3 units or more at Stanford with a grade of ‘B-’ or better in three domains of knowledge. These domains are humanities; science, engineering, and math; and social sciences. Students’ academic records are automatically reviewed, so no special action is required for students who wish to be considered for membership.

Golden, Firestone, and Kennedy Awards

The Golden, Firestone, and Kennedy Thesis Awards recognize the top honors theses written each year in an annual VPUE event.  Recipients and their families are invited to this special ceremony during Commencement Weekend.

Writing and Presentation Awards

• The Boothe Prize recognizes outstanding examples of expository and argumentative writing. This is for first-year students in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric and theThinking Matters Program.
• The Lunsford Oral Presentation of Research Award recognizes innovative multimedia presentations that students create in their PWR 2 classes. This award is for second-year students in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric.
• The Hoefer Prizes for Excellence for Writing in the Major recognizes outstanding Stanford undergraduate writing in the Writing in the Major courses.