The non-honors option is meant to recognize work in the concentration done by students who have not completed the full requirements.

"We can't tell them they're not in our field," Andrews says. Graduating without honors is generally a last resort.

"We don't encourage it and we don't advertise it, but sometimes, it is necessary under extenuating circumstances," says Kimerer L. LaMothe, head tutor for the Comparative Study of Religion concentration.

A member of the class of 1983 who graduated without honors from an honors concentration put the matter in perspective.

"For two or three, years after I graduated, it was painful to think about, but I've accomplished so much that the thesis doesn't matter now," she said.

It is still possible for students to graduate cum laude even if they do not receive their concentration's honors recommendation.

If students have done well on their course-work throughout their time at Harvard, achieving a B+ average, they can then receive a cum laude degree rather than concentration honors.

According to Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68, this option was once called "cum laude in general studies," leading to the false understanding that students could graduate without fulfilling concentration requirements.

The degree's title has since been shortened to a simple cum laude to distinguish it from the cum laude awarded by a field of concentration.

"The term was confusing, as people thought it meant 'without a concentration', which was never the case." Lewis writes in an e-mail message.

Deborah H. Schmidt '73, was one person who graduated with such a "cum laude in general studies" degree. An undergraduate concentrator in the honors-only Visual and Environmental Studies department, Schmidt met with her tutor to discuss a thesis after her junior year.

"I had done many different things in the department in those three years, but when it came time to write a thesis, there was no burning issue I wanted to attack," she says.

Her tutor offered a no-honors alternative.

"That was the first time I had heard of it, when discussing my thesis in the fall of my senior year." Schmidt says.

She graduate without a thesis or departmental honors, but was awarded the cum laude in general studies.

In the end, Lewis stresses that it is knowledge, rather than honors designations, that is most important.

"The value of honors is highest on commencement day when the whole family is cooing over the diploma, and decays exponentially thereafter, with only what is in your head to represent substantially what you got here," he writes in an e-mail message.