The department awards a prize to the graduating Senior majoring in computer science who, in the judgment of the Computer Science faculty, ranks highest in scholarship.
The ranking is based on grade point average in courses that count toward the major and were taken at Yale. To be eligible, a student must have taken at least 12 such courses. The GPA is computed using the formula on which General Honors are based, but using the list of courses that determines eligibility for Distinction in the Major. Thus 100-level courses; 200-level courses other than CPSC 201, 202, and 223; CPSC 480; all but the first term of CPSC 490, and courses taken only for the M.S. part of the B.S./M.S. program are excluded.
The previous winners were
| 2008 | Andrew Smith | |
| 2007 | Samarth Keshava | |
| 2006 | Semih Salihoglu | |
| 2005 | Jian Yuan | |
| 2004 | Collin Jackson | |
| 2003 | Manfred Lau | |
| 2002 | Ameet Talwalkar | |
| 2001 | Yichen Xie | |
| 2000 | Michael Bernstein and Samuel Ieong (cowinners) | |
| 1999 | Kenji Obata |