Graduation Distinction in CS

Graduating seniors with a CS major or concentration: consider applying for Distinction in CS, an honor awarded to students whose accomplishments in CS go substantially beyond the basic expectations for a CS major (or concentration). The CS program views a wide range of activities as criteria for distinction, including efforts in undergraduate research, outstanding course work, extra courses taken, CS-related extracurriculars, presentation of papers and talks, and more.

Applications are due in April, and consist primarily of a summary list of accomplishments together with example materials that substantiate those accomplishments, assembled into a simple portfolio. Students create their portfolios with the advice of a CS faculty member.

How to apply for Distinction in CS

Applying for Distinction in CS is intended as a simple process with relatively little added effort for both students and faculty. The application consists of a portfolio that lists your accomplishments and provides copies or examples of the work identified in your list.

1. Ask a CS faculty member to be your distinction advisor. Choose someone who knows your work, especially work you've done in CS that goes beyond the minimum for your program.

   Your distinction advisor will meet with you once or twice to identify items for your list of accomplishments and to develop a strategy for making an effective case for distinction through your portfolio. Your distinction advisor will also offer feedback on your portfolio before you submit it (if you allow enough time for the feedback!).

2. Your portfolio should consist of four parts:

   • A table of contents.

   • An identifying page titled "Application for Distinction in CS" that provides your name, graduation year, the date of your application, your majors and concentrations, and which lists the CS and related courses you took while you were an undergraduate (whether you took those courses at St. Olaf or elsewhere). For each course, include term, number, title, and professor.

   • Your list of accomplishments. Include a brief explanatory sentence or paragraph when appropriate. The accomplishment list should not exceed two printed pages.

   • A section or sections that provide evidence of your work. You may include source code and executables, external documentation and instructions, papers, slide presentations and poster source files, scanned images of physical documents, lists or other pages that elaborate on your list of accomplishments, and/or anything else that substantiates what you have done.

     Select the evidence that is most persuasive and requires minimal assembly effort. Consult with your distinction advisor when deciding what to include in your evidence section(s).

3. Your portfolio must be submitted in an electronic form that is accessible to the CS faculty. Use standard formats readily available to the CS faculty wherever possible, or the faculty may not be able to view your work.

   Web portfolios are preferred; minimal readable formatting with assembly via links from an index page is fine. Links from the accomplishment list to supporting material in the evidence sections(s) are encouraged.

4. To submit your portfolio:

   • Create a tar or jar archive that contains all files in the portfolio, and email that archive as an attachment to the Director of Computer Science (cs-director@stolaf.edu).

     You can create a tar archive by storing all of your files under a single Linux directory named, e.g., username-distinction (where username is your Linux login), then changing directory to the directory that contains username-distinction and issuing the following command:

       % tar cvfz username.tar.gz   username-distinction

     Note that the tar command above will not traverse symbolic links or web links, so make sure all the files you want in your portfolio are physically located in your directory username-distinction.

   • Also submit printed copies of the table of contents, identifying page, and accomplishments list to the Director of CS and to the MSCS department AAA, Donna Brakke (OMH 202).

   Note: If you make a web portfolio, you're encouraged to provide the URL of your site for the CS faculty to peruse. However, you still need to submit a tar or jar archive electronically via e-mail to cs-director@stolaf.edu.

5. All submissions for Graduation Distinction in CS are due by .