In U. S. education, there are four main ways students may graduate with honors. all A's _____ may graduate with highest honors' mostly A's ______may graduate with high honors' mostly A's& B's ______ may graduate with honors' A student may graduate with honors in the major field. This requires high grades in the major, fairly good grades overall, and an extra research project in the major.   An honors student who does an extra research project in the major and writes a research paper can graduate with honors. This extra research project paper is usually called an honors thesis, which resembles a short master's thesis.

　　 Ideally, undergraduate research is an opportunity for the kind of intensive study that can expand the mind in ways traditional courses can’t. Economics Professor Ralph Edison says: “To really understand a discipline you have to get the feeling that knowledge isn’t just out there and you passively have to absorb it, but rather that it’s constantly being created and we’re constantly rethinking things... When students see a discipline as evolving rather than fixed, they usually get a lot more excited about learning because they see that it’s an ongoing process.” He points out that research can be exciting because “a research project really gives students an opportunity to answer real-life questions that we don’t know the answers to.”

　　 Research also spurs independent thinking and intellectual confidence in students. Amelia, a graduate student in computer science, says, "You had to go out and learn on your own. You weren't going to be spoon-fed." Her fond memories of work as an undergraduate researcher played an important role in her decision to leave her Wall Street programming job and return to Columbia as a graduate student.

　　 Arthur Hannah, a political science graduate of Columbia College says undergraduate research "felt like a whole new mode of learning." Instead of looking for the knowledge we do have, he says, research forces students to look for knowledge we don't have. It's a process of looking for holes and trying to plug them, which is completely different from the classroom experience of learning what others already know. He also describes how creating a piece of original research instilled a "pride of authorship" in his work, something he hadn't found in his regular classes.

　　 Most undergraduates doing research are working for credit. They register for a semester-long course and do a project for a professor who gives them a grade for their efforts. In some departments a research project might constitute an honors thesis.

　　 Some students do research for pay. Taken simply as a form of employment, it's one of the most desirable jobs available to undergraduates. Stella says, "I need some kind of income, and I'd rather work here than in the cafeteria"; paid research work gives her an opportunity to transform a work-study job into an engaging aspect of her education. The money for her wages is available because of a program started this year providing $100 000 to fund undergraduate research. This funding is intended to support about 50 undergraduates in work-study research positions.

　　 Other students do research not for credit or for money but simply on a volunteer basis. Usually, these are students pursuing a career that requires some demonstration of altruistic commitment, such as medicine.

　　 As Economics Professor Ralph Edison says: "Undergraduate research can become a valuable part of education. It's a real and valuable privilege. It has to remain an extraordinary undertaking for extraordinary people in extraordinary circumstances."