senior year honors thesis

Honors Theses

What this handout is about.

Writing a senior honors thesis, or any major research essay, can seem daunting at first. A thesis requires a reflective, multi-stage writing process. This handout will walk you through those stages. It is targeted at students in the humanities and social sciences, since their theses tend to involve more writing than projects in the hard sciences. Yet all thesis writers may find the organizational strategies helpful.

Introduction

What is an honors thesis.

That depends quite a bit on your field of study. However, all honors theses have at least two things in common:

• They are based on students’ original research.
• They take the form of a written manuscript, which presents the findings of that research. In the humanities, theses average 50-75 pages in length and consist of two or more chapters. In the social sciences, the manuscript may be shorter, depending on whether the project involves more quantitative than qualitative research. In the hard sciences, the manuscript may be shorter still, often taking the form of a sophisticated laboratory report.

Who can write an honors thesis?

In general, students who are at the end of their junior year, have an overall 3.2 GPA, and meet their departmental requirements can write a senior thesis. For information about your eligibility, contact:

• UNC Honors Program
• Your departmental administrators of undergraduate studies/honors

Why write an honors thesis?

Satisfy your intellectual curiosity This is the most compelling reason to write a thesis. Whether it’s the short stories of Flannery O’Connor or the challenges of urban poverty, you’ve studied topics in college that really piqued your interest. Now’s your chance to follow your passions, explore further, and contribute some original ideas and research in your field.

Develop transferable skills Whether you choose to stay in your field of study or not, the process of developing and crafting a feasible research project will hone skills that will serve you well in almost any future job. After all, most jobs require some form of problem solving and oral and written communication. Writing an honors thesis requires that you:

• ask smart questions
• acquire the investigative instincts needed to find answers
• navigate libraries, laboratories, archives, databases, and other research venues
• develop the flexibility to redirect your research if your initial plan flops
• master the art of time management
• hone your argumentation skills
• organize a lengthy piece of writing
• polish your oral communication skills by presenting and defending your project to faculty and peers

Work closely with faculty mentors At large research universities like Carolina, you’ve likely taken classes where you barely got to know your instructor. Writing a thesis offers the opportunity to work one-on-one with a with faculty adviser. Such mentors can enrich your intellectual development and later serve as invaluable references for graduate school and employment.

Open windows into future professions An honors thesis will give you a taste of what it’s like to do research in your field. Even if you’re a sociology major, you may not really know what it’s like to be a sociologist. Writing a sociology thesis would open a window into that world. It also might help you decide whether to pursue that field in graduate school or in your future career.

How do you write an honors thesis?

Get an idea of what’s expected.

It’s a good idea to review some of the honors theses other students have submitted to get a sense of what an honors thesis might look like and what kinds of things might be appropriate topics. Look for examples from the previous year in the Carolina Digital Repository. You may also be able to find past theses collected in your major department or at the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library. Pay special attention to theses written by students who share your major.

Choose a topic

Ideally, you should start thinking about topics early in your junior year, so you can begin your research and writing quickly during your senior year. (Many departments require that you submit a proposal for an honors thesis project during the spring of your junior year.)

How should you choose a topic?

• Read widely in the fields that interest you. Make a habit of browsing professional journals to survey the “hot” areas of research and to familiarize yourself with your field’s stylistic conventions. (You’ll find the most recent issues of the major professional journals in the periodicals reading room on the first floor of Davis Library).
• Set up appointments to talk with faculty in your field. This is a good idea, since you’ll eventually need to select an advisor and a second reader. Faculty also can help you start narrowing down potential topics.
• Look at honors theses from the past. The North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library holds UNC honors theses. To get a sense of the typical scope of a thesis, take a look at a sampling from your field.

What makes a good topic?

• It’s fascinating. Above all, choose something that grips your imagination. If you don’t, the chances are good that you’ll struggle to finish.
• It’s doable. Even if a topic interests you, it won’t work out unless you have access to the materials you need to research it. Also be sure that your topic is narrow enough. Let’s take an example: Say you’re interested in the efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and early 1980s. That’s a big topic that probably can’t be adequately covered in a single thesis. You need to find a case study within that larger topic. For example, maybe you’re particularly interested in the states that did not ratify the ERA. Of those states, perhaps you’ll select North Carolina, since you’ll have ready access to local research materials. And maybe you want to focus primarily on the ERA’s opponents. Beyond that, maybe you’re particularly interested in female opponents of the ERA. Now you’ve got a much more manageable topic: Women in North Carolina Who Opposed the ERA in the 1970s and 1980s.
• It contains a question. There’s a big difference between having a topic and having a guiding research question. Taking the above topic, perhaps your main question is: Why did some women in North Carolina oppose the ERA? You will, of course, generate other questions: Who were the most outspoken opponents? White women? Middle-class women? How did they oppose the ERA? Public protests? Legislative petitions? etc. etc. Yet it’s good to start with a guiding question that will focus your research.

Goal-setting and time management

The senior year is an exceptionally busy time for college students. In addition to the usual load of courses and jobs, seniors have the daunting task of applying for jobs and/or graduate school. These demands are angst producing and time consuming If that scenario sounds familiar, don’t panic! Do start strategizing about how to make a time for your thesis. You may need to take a lighter course load or eliminate extracurricular activities. Even if the thesis is the only thing on your plate, you still need to make a systematic schedule for yourself. Most departments require that you take a class that guides you through the honors project, so deadlines likely will be set for you. Still, you should set your own goals for meeting those deadlines. Here are a few suggestions for goal setting and time management:

Start early. Keep in mind that many departments will require that you turn in your thesis sometime in early April, so don’t count on having the entire spring semester to finish your work. Ideally, you’ll start the research process the semester or summer before your senior year so that the writing process can begin early in the fall. Some goal-setting will be done for you if you are taking a required class that guides you through the honors project. But any substantive research project requires a clear timetable.

Set clear goals in making a timetable. Find out the final deadline for turning in your project to your department. Working backwards from that deadline, figure out how much time you can allow for the various stages of production.

Here is a sample timetable. Use it, however, with two caveats in mind:

• The timetable for your thesis might look very different depending on your departmental requirements.
• You may not wish to proceed through these stages in a linear fashion. You may want to revise chapter one before you write chapter two. Or you might want to write your introduction last, not first. This sample is designed simply to help you start thinking about how to customize your own schedule.

Sample timetable

Avoid falling into the trap of procrastination. Once you’ve set goals for yourself, stick to them! For some tips on how to do this, see our handout on procrastination .

Consistent production

It’s a good idea to try to squeeze in a bit of thesis work every day—even if it’s just fifteen minutes of journaling or brainstorming about your topic. Or maybe you’ll spend that fifteen minutes taking notes on a book. The important thing is to accomplish a bit of active production (i.e., putting words on paper) for your thesis every day. That way, you develop good writing habits that will help you keep your project moving forward.

Make yourself accountable to someone other than yourself

Since most of you will be taking a required thesis seminar, you will have deadlines. Yet you might want to form a writing group or enlist a peer reader, some person or people who can help you stick to your goals. Moreover, if your advisor encourages you to work mostly independently, don’t be afraid to ask them to set up periodic meetings at which you’ll turn in installments of your project.

Brainstorming and freewriting

One of the biggest challenges of a lengthy writing project is keeping the creative juices flowing. Here’s where freewriting can help. Try keeping a small notebook handy where you jot down stray ideas that pop into your head. Or schedule time to freewrite. You may find that such exercises “free” you up to articulate your argument and generate new ideas. Here are some questions to stimulate freewriting.

Questions for basic brainstorming at the beginning of your project:

• What do I already know about this topic?
• Why do I care about this topic?
• Why is this topic important to people other than myself
• What more do I want to learn about this topic?
• What is the main question that I am trying to answer?
• Where can I look for additional information?
• Who is my audience and how can I reach them?
• How will my work inform my larger field of study?
• What’s the main goal of my research project?

Questions for reflection throughout your project:

• What’s my main argument? How has it changed since I began the project?
• What’s the most important evidence that I have in support of my “big point”?
• What questions do my sources not answer?
• How does my case study inform or challenge my field writ large?
• Does my project reinforce or contradict noted scholars in my field? How?
• What is the most surprising finding of my research?
• What is the most frustrating part of this project?
• What is the most rewarding part of this project?
• What will be my work’s most important contribution?

Research and note-taking

In conducting research, you will need to find both primary sources (“firsthand” sources that come directly from the period/events/people you are studying) and secondary sources (“secondhand” sources that are filtered through the interpretations of experts in your field.) The nature of your research will vary tremendously, depending on what field you’re in. For some general suggestions on finding sources, consult the UNC Libraries tutorials . Whatever the exact nature of the research you’re conducting, you’ll be taking lots of notes and should reflect critically on how you do that. Too often it’s assumed that the research phase of a project involves very little substantive writing (i.e., writing that involves thinking). We sit down with our research materials and plunder them for basic facts and useful quotations. That mechanical type of information-recording is important. But a more thoughtful type of writing and analytical thinking is also essential at this stage. Some general guidelines for note-taking:

First of all, develop a research system. There are lots of ways to take and organize your notes. Whether you choose to use note cards, computer databases, or notebooks, follow two cardinal rules:

• Make careful distinctions between direct quotations and your paraphrasing! This is critical if you want to be sure to avoid accidentally plagiarizing someone else’s work. For more on this, see our handout on plagiarism .
• Record full citations for each source. Don’t get lazy here! It will be far more difficult to find the proper citation later than to write it down now.

Keeping those rules in mind, here’s a template for the types of information that your note cards/legal pad sheets/computer files should include for each of your sources:

Abbreviated subject heading: Include two or three words to remind you of what this sources is about (this shorthand categorization is essential for the later sorting of your sources).

Complete bibliographic citation:

• author, title, publisher, copyright date, and page numbers for published works
• box and folder numbers and document descriptions for archival sources
• complete web page title, author, address, and date accessed for online sources

Notes on facts, quotations, and arguments: Depending on the type of source you’re using, the content of your notes will vary. If, for example, you’re using US Census data, then you’ll mainly be writing down statistics and numbers. If you’re looking at someone else’s diary, you might jot down a number of quotations that illustrate the subject’s feelings and perspectives. If you’re looking at a secondary source, you’ll want to make note not just of factual information provided by the author but also of their key arguments.

Your interpretation of the source: This is the most important part of note-taking. Don’t just record facts. Go ahead and take a stab at interpreting them. As historians Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff insist, “A note is a thought.” So what do these thoughts entail? Ask yourself questions about the context and significance of each source.

Interpreting the context of a source:

• Who wrote/created the source?
• When, and under what circumstances, was it written/created?
• Why was it written/created? What was the agenda behind the source?
• How was it written/created?
• If using a secondary source: How does it speak to other scholarship in the field?

Interpreting the significance of a source:

• How does this source answer (or complicate) my guiding research questions?
• Does it pose new questions for my project? What are they?
• Does it challenge my fundamental argument? If so, how?
• Given the source’s context, how reliable is it?

You don’t need to answer all of these questions for each source, but you should set a goal of engaging in at least one or two sentences of thoughtful, interpretative writing for each source. If you do so, you’ll make much easier the next task that awaits you: drafting.

The dread of drafting

Why do we often dread drafting? We dread drafting because it requires synthesis, one of the more difficult forms of thinking and interpretation. If you’ve been free-writing and taking thoughtful notes during the research phase of your project, then the drafting should be far less painful. Here are some tips on how to get started:

Sort your “evidence” or research into analytical categories:

• Some people file note cards into categories.
• The technologically-oriented among us take notes using computer database programs that have built-in sorting mechanisms.
• Others cut and paste evidence into detailed outlines on their computer.
• Still others stack books, notes, and photocopies into topically-arranged piles.There is not a single right way, but this step—in some form or fashion—is essential!

If you’ve been forcing yourself to put subject headings on your notes as you go along, you’ll have generated a number of important analytical categories. Now, you need to refine those categories and sort your evidence. Everyone has a different “sorting style.”

Formulate working arguments for your entire thesis and individual chapters. Once you’ve sorted your evidence, you need to spend some time thinking about your project’s “big picture.” You need to be able to answer two questions in specific terms:

• What is the overall argument of my thesis?
• What are the sub-arguments of each chapter and how do they relate to my main argument?

Keep in mind that “working arguments” may change after you start writing. But a senior thesis is big and potentially unwieldy. If you leave this business of argument to chance, you may end up with a tangle of ideas. See our handout on arguments and handout on thesis statements for some general advice on formulating arguments.

Divide your thesis into manageable chunks. The surest road to frustration at this stage is getting obsessed with the big picture. What? Didn’t we just say that you needed to focus on the big picture? Yes, by all means, yes. You do need to focus on the big picture in order to get a conceptual handle on your project, but you also need to break your thesis down into manageable chunks of writing. For example, take a small stack of note cards and flesh them out on paper. Or write through one point on a chapter outline. Those small bits of prose will add up quickly.

Just start! Even if it’s not at the beginning. Are you having trouble writing those first few pages of your chapter? Sometimes the introduction is the toughest place to start. You should have a rough idea of your overall argument before you begin writing one of the main chapters, but you might find it easier to start writing in the middle of a chapter of somewhere other than word one. Grab hold where you evidence is strongest and your ideas are clearest.

Keep up the momentum! Assuming the first draft won’t be your last draft, try to get your thoughts on paper without spending too much time fussing over minor stylistic concerns. At the drafting stage, it’s all about getting those ideas on paper. Once that task is done, you can turn your attention to revising.

Peter Elbow, in Writing With Power, suggests that writing is difficult because it requires two conflicting tasks: creating and criticizing. While these two tasks are intimately intertwined, the drafting stage focuses on creating, while revising requires criticizing. If you leave your revising to the last minute, then you’ve left out a crucial stage of the writing process. See our handout for some general tips on revising . The challenges of revising an honors thesis may include:

Juggling feedback from multiple readers

A senior thesis may mark the first time that you have had to juggle feedback from a wide range of readers:

• your adviser
• a second (and sometimes third) faculty reader
• the professor and students in your honors thesis seminar

You may feel overwhelmed by the prospect of incorporating all this advice. Keep in mind that some advice is better than others. You will probably want to take most seriously the advice of your adviser since they carry the most weight in giving your project a stamp of approval. But sometimes your adviser may give you more advice than you can digest. If so, don’t be afraid to approach them—in a polite and cooperative spirit, of course—and ask for some help in prioritizing that advice. See our handout for some tips on getting and receiving feedback .

Refining your argument

It’s especially easy in writing a lengthy work to lose sight of your main ideas. So spend some time after you’ve drafted to go back and clarify your overall argument and the individual chapter arguments and make sure they match the evidence you present.

Organizing and reorganizing

Again, in writing a 50-75 page thesis, things can get jumbled. You may find it particularly helpful to make a “reverse outline” of each of your chapters. That will help you to see the big sections in your work and move things around so there’s a logical flow of ideas. See our handout on  organization  for more organizational suggestions and tips on making a reverse outline

Plugging in holes in your evidence

It’s unlikely that you anticipated everything you needed to look up before you drafted your thesis. Save some time at the revising stage to plug in the holes in your research. Make sure that you have both primary and secondary evidence to support and contextualize your main ideas.

Saving time for the small stuff

Even though your argument, evidence, and organization are most important, leave plenty of time to polish your prose. At this point, you’ve spent a very long time on your thesis. Don’t let minor blemishes (misspellings and incorrect grammar) distract your readers!

Formatting and final touches

You’re almost done! You’ve researched, drafted, and revised your thesis; now you need to take care of those pesky little formatting matters. An honors thesis should replicate—on a smaller scale—the appearance of a dissertation or master’s thesis. So, you need to include the “trappings” of a formal piece of academic work. For specific questions on formatting matters, check with your department to see if it has a style guide that you should use. For general formatting guidelines, consult the Graduate School’s Guide to Dissertations and Theses . Keeping in mind the caveat that you should always check with your department first about its stylistic guidelines, here’s a brief overview of the final “finishing touches” that you’ll need to put on your honors thesis:

• Honors Thesis
• Name of Department
• University of North Carolina
• These parts of the thesis will vary in format depending on whether your discipline uses MLA, APA, CBE, or Chicago (also known in its shortened version as Turabian) style. Whichever style you’re using, stick to the rules and be consistent. It might be helpful to buy an appropriate style guide. Or consult the UNC LibrariesYear Citations/footnotes and works cited/reference pages  citation tutorial
• In addition, in the bottom left corner, you need to leave space for your adviser and faculty readers to sign their names. For example:

Approved by: _____________________

Adviser: Prof. Jane Doe

• This is not a required component of an honors thesis. However, if you want to thank particular librarians, archivists, interviewees, and advisers, here’s the place to do it. You should include an acknowledgments page if you received a grant from the university or an outside agency that supported your research. It’s a good idea to acknowledge folks who helped you with a major project, but do not feel the need to go overboard with copious and flowery expressions of gratitude. You can—and should—always write additional thank-you notes to people who gave you assistance.
• Formatted much like the table of contents.
• You’ll need to save this until the end, because it needs to reflect your final pagination. Once you’ve made all changes to the body of the thesis, then type up your table of contents with the titles of each section aligned on the left and the page numbers on which those sections begin flush right.
• Each page of your thesis needs a number, although not all page numbers are displayed. All pages that precede the first page of the main text (i.e., your introduction or chapter one) are numbered with small roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.). All pages thereafter use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.).
• Your text should be double spaced (except, in some cases, long excerpts of quoted material), in a 12 point font and a standard font style (e.g., Times New Roman). An honors thesis isn’t the place to experiment with funky fonts—they won’t enhance your work, they’ll only distract your readers.
• In general, leave a one-inch inch margin on all sides. However, for the copy of your thesis that will be bound by the library, you need to leave a 1.25-inch margin on the left.

How do I defend my honors thesis?

Graciously, enthusiastically, and confidently. The term defense is scary and misleading—it conjures up images of a military exercise or an athletic maneuver. An academic defense ideally shouldn’t be a combative scene but a congenial conversation about the work’s merits and weaknesses. That said, the defense probably won’t be like the average conversation that you have with your friends. You’ll be the center of attention. And you may get some challenging questions. Thus, it’s a good idea to spend some time preparing yourself. First of all, you’ll want to prepare 5-10 minutes of opening comments. Here’s a good time to preempt some criticisms by frankly acknowledging what you think your work’s greatest strengths and weaknesses are. Then you may be asked some typical questions:

• What is the main argument of your thesis?
• How does it fit in with the work of Ms. Famous Scholar?
• Have you read the work of Mr. Important Author?

NOTE: Don’t get too flustered if you haven’t! Most scholars have their favorite authors and books and may bring one or more of them up, even if the person or book is only tangentially related to the topic at hand. Should you get this question, answer honestly and simply jot down the title or the author’s name for future reference. No one expects you to have read everything that’s out there.

• Why did you choose this particular case study to explore your topic?
• If you were to expand this project in graduate school, how would you do so?

Should you get some biting criticism of your work, try not to get defensive. Yes, this is a defense, but you’ll probably only fan the flames if you lose your cool. Keep in mind that all academic work has flaws or weaknesses, and you can be sure that your professors have received criticisms of their own work. It’s part of the academic enterprise. Accept criticism graciously and learn from it. If you receive criticism that is unfair, stand up for yourself confidently, but in a good spirit. Above all, try to have fun! A defense is a rare opportunity to have eminent scholars in your field focus on YOU and your ideas and work. And the defense marks the end of a long and arduous journey. You have every right to be proud of your accomplishments!

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Atchity, Kenneth. 1986. A Writer’s Time: A Guide to the Creative Process from Vision Through Revision . New York: W.W. Norton.

Barzun, Jacques, and Henry F. Graff. 2012. The Modern Researcher , 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Elbow, Peter. 1998. Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process . New York: Oxford University Press.

Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. 2014. “They Say/I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing , 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

Lamott, Anne. 1994. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life . New York: Pantheon.

Lasch, Christopher. 2002. Plain Style: A Guide to Written English. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Turabian, Kate. 2018. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, Dissertations , 9th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Senior Honors Thesis

What is a Senior Honors Thesis?

The Senior Honors Thesis is a two-semester, 6 credit research commitment on a topic that you and your faculty mentor agree on. The result is an academic paper, often of publishable quality. Honors Thesis projects are most successful if a student contacts a faculty member he or she would like to work with at least one semester before he or she plans to start researching. Senior Honors Thesis courses can be taken in any semester, including over the summer.

Why write a Senior Honors Thesis?

There are a number of reasons to consider writing a thesis. For one, it is an opportunity to explore a topic that interests you. There may have been a topic in a class or a reading that caught your attention; the senior thesis will allow you to dive deeper into the topic. You will likely master your topic and develop an educated perspective. Secondly, the thesis experience will develop your reading, research and writing skills–skills that will prepare you well for graduate school and other careers. Finally, writing a thesis is required for most Honors in the Major programs. Please talk to your departmental advisor if you have questions about this requirement. Most students find the Senior Thesis a rewarding experience in which they develop new skills through independent work.

First Steps

See our pages on how to get started with the Senior Honors Thesis process!

• Choosing a topic and mentor

Disciplinary Standards

Some departments have web pages about standards for a Senior Honors Thesis; be sure to visit your department’s website and speak with your advisor for information on these standards. If you are interested in seeing a completed senior thesis paper, the Honors Program Office has bound copies of previous students’ thesis work in the Washburn Observatory library — feel free to stop by and browse through some research from your discipline!

Funding your Thesis

Theses can be funded in several ways. First, the Honors Program offers funding each year; please check out our pages on Senior Honors Thesis funding for more information. Hilldale and Holstrom Undergraduate Fellowships are also available to students with at least junior standing at the time of their application. Hilldale fellowships provide generous research support in all disciplines, while Holstrom fellowships are awarded for research on environmental studies. For more information on those awards, contact the Undergraduate Academic Awards Office . Many departments also have funding available for theses. Please talk to your departmental advisor about funding opportunities if your department. There may also be outside agencies that will support senior thesis research.

Registering for Thesis Credits

To register for Senior Honors Thesis credits, you need to contact your faculty advisor; he or she should then get in touch with the appropriate timetable representative or academic advisor who will in turn create a unique 5-digit code for the Departmental 681 course in your first semester and a second, unique code for Departmental 682 in your second semester. Your faculty advisor should be the faculty member listed for your Senior Honors Thesis experience.

Prior authorization is needed when students intend to complete either 681 or 682 while away from UW-Madison. Consult with the Associate Director for Academic Services if this is your intention.

Writing Your Thesis

Naturally, not all theses have the same format. Formats will depend largely on your topic and area of discipline. Most theses, however, have an introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction should motivate the reader to read the rest of the thesis and explain why the thesis question is important. Generally, the introduction should also explain the key vocabulary of the topic, state the thesis and hypotheses, and outline the remainder of the paper (Lipson, 2005). An effective way to organize the body of your thesis is to create subtopics under illustrative headings (2005, pg. 167). Transitions that connect the various subtopics together facilitate a cohesive thesis. The conclusion of your thesis should go beyond summarizing the main points; it should also connect the main findings to broader issues and suggest future research.

A senior thesis seems like a lot of work. Is it worth doing?

Doing a senior thesis is a lot of work and requires a 2-semester commitment to a research project. Whether it is a good choice for you depends on how motivated you are to complete a thesis. Think about your reasons for wanting to do the research. Are you interested in doing a thesis just to complete a requirement, or because you really want the experience of diving into a topic? Those who are motivated because of their interest in reading, writing and researching are less likely to see the thesis as chore. A thesis will likely seem more manageable if you work gradually over the course of the year. This will give you time to obtain all the necessary resources and materials, confront any roadblocks and write multiple drafts of the thesis.

Are there thesis topics that I should avoid?

Lipson (2005) points to a few topics you want to avoid. Many students run into problems when they attempt to write a thesis on too broad of a topic. In general, a narrow, precise research topic is easier to organize and will allow you to narrow your sources. Lipson suggests avoiding topics about the future because it is difficult to test alternative hypotheses for speculative research. Finally, he states that under most circumstances, you ought to avoid thesis questions that start with “should.” These questions are often judgments which cannot be answered by research.

What are some tips for staying organized while working on a senior thesis?

You will likely have lots of materials for your thesis which can make it difficult to stay organized. It is probably best to set up both a computer file for online and computer-generated documents and a folder or notebook for hard copy materials. It is a good idea to record resources and web pages as you use them because they will probably be much more difficult to find down the road. Appropriate labels and folders will help you find what you are looking for. Another tip for staying organized is to record what you worked on each day. This may help you locate materials and keep you on track. A running “to do list” will also keep you focused and organized about what to do next for the thesis (Lipson, 2005).

What should I cite in my thesis?

Virtually all resources used while researching and writing your thesis should be cited. If you are unsure whether you should cite something or not, it is probably better to cite the resource. Quotations, paraphrases and personal communications should all be cited, but established facts are generally not cited. (Lipson, 2005)

What should I do when I am done with my thesis?

First, congratulate yourself on finishing a thesis! It is a good idea to thank those who have helped your with your thesis either verbally or in writing soon after you complete your project. You may also want to talk to your mentor about any next steps related to your thesis. Do you want to try publishing your work? Do you hope to do further research on a related topic? Are you thinking about using your thesis as a writing sample for graduate school? Consider your goals for the thesis and talk these over with your mentor(s). You may also want to ask your mentor(s) for a recommendation letter. Many graduate schools and jobs require letters of recommendation from professors who you have worked with in college. A letter of recommendation might be easier for a mentor to write soon after you have completed the thesis, while you are still fresh in his or her memory. Finally, if you received a grant from the L&S Honors Program, we request a copy of your thesis to be bound and placed in our library. Please drop off a copy of your thesis at Washburn Observatory so we can showcase your work!

Works Cited:

Lipson, Charles. How to Write a BA Thesis: A Practical Guide from your First Ideas to your Finished Paper. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Senior Honors Thesis Pages:

• Submission Guidelines
• Dual Thesis Authorization
• Grading Senior Honors Thesis
• Senior Honors Thesis Links

Senior Honors Thesis Timeline

Junior year.

• Decide on a thesis topic or approach.
• Conduct background research to determine the viability of your topic.
• Begin drafting a thesis proposal.
• If required in your major department, submit your thesis proposal in the second semester of your junior year.
• Contact possible faculty advisors and readers.
• Seek funding for your research; note funding deadlines.
• Determine whether your research methods will require IRB approval.
• Make a one-on-one appointment with the reference librarian in your area of focus.

Fall Semester of Senior Year

By the end of september, you should:.

• Finalize your decision to write an honors thesis.
• Finalize your topic and research approach.
• Confirm primary thesis advisor and secondary reader.
• Think about length, breadth, and size of your finished thesis. Consider chapter breakdowns or other forms of presenting the finished product.
• Attend informational meetings and understand all requirements.
• Create your own project timeline and goals.
• Submit  Thesis Honors Candidate Form . The chairperson of your major department must sign this form. Must be submitted by the the sixth week of the semester.
• Conduct research in library, lab, or field.
• Meet with librarians for guidance on conducting advanced library or electronic research.
• Gather, record, and categorize information as you find it. Keep accurate bibliographic notes and organized files.
• Keep a journal to record your ideas related to thesis topic and research discoveries.
• Begin writing. You should be able to draft some introductory sections of your thesis, including your hypothesis, governing question, or thesis statement, as well as your literature review, methodology, and definitions of terms.
• Establish a regular meeting time with your primary advisor and provide regular (weekly) progress reports or written drafts to advisors.
• Meet with an ARC writing consultant or join a writing group to help you stay on track.

November and Early December

• Begin to draft a chapter (not necessarily the first chapter.)
• Reassess chapter breakdowns; work on outline of thesis as whole.
• Mid-year assessment: You and your advisor should assess your progress so far to determine if you should continue to pursue the honors thesis in the spring or switch to a senior project or independent study.
• Plan detailed research and writing agenda for winter break. If you are doing a traditional research-based thesis, you should plan to write a substantial amount over break.

Spring Semester of Senior Year

• Submit a draft of your first chapter or section of your thesis to your advisor. Remember to include a bibliography with any draft you submit to your committee members.
• Schedule a meeting with your thesis advisor or thesis committee to discuss your work completed over winter break.
• Plan a new timeline for spring. Plan to have the thesis substantially written BEFORE spring break.
• Continue to send regular progress reports to your committee.

February and March

• Write your thesis section by section and submit drafts to your primary advisor for revision comments.
• Be very careful to cite sources correctly and incorporate them into your writing so as to avoid accidental plagiarism.
• Set a date and time for your defense in April; all three committee members must be present at the defense. Remember to book a room that has everything you need (for example, internet connection or a movie screen).
• You should be rewriting and revising by early April. Now is the time to pay attention to clarity of expression and prose style; you may need to work on major structural changes to your outline or clarify your logic.
• Rewrite and revise according to your advisors' recommendations. Be sure the committee is in agreement on what they expect from you during the revision process.
• Schedule a meeting with your entire committee so there will be no unpleasant surprises during the defense.
• Submit your completed thesis with complete and accurate bibliography to your committee at least two weeks before your defense date.
• Your DEFENSE must take place before finals for you to graduate in May.
• First day of finals: This is the DEADLINE for "Recommendation for Thesis Honors" form to be submitted by your honors thesis advisor to the degree audit coordinator in Dowling Hall.
• Your committee may ask you to correct or rewrite portions of your thesis after the defense but before you submit it to archives.
• Prepare the final document for archives. See the  online guide  for instructions and specifications.
• Submit your completed manuscript to Digital Collections & Archives.
• Enjoy Senior Week–you’ve earned it.

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All Honors Students end their program with an Honors Thesis: a sustained, independent research project in a student’s field of study. Your thesis must count for at least 4 credits (some majors require that the thesis be completed over 2 semesters, and some require more than 4 credits). The thesis is an opportunity to work on unique research under the guidance of a faculty advisor. It often provides a writing sample for graduate school, and is also something you can share with employers to show what kind of work you can do. 

What is an Honors thesis?

Most of your work in college involves learning information and ideas generated by other people. When you write a thesis, you are engaging with previous work, but also adding new knowledge to your field. That means you have to know what's already been done--what counts as established knowledge; what's the current state of research; what methods and kinds of evidence are acceptable; what debates are going on. (Usually, you'll recount that knowledge in a review of the literature.) Then, you need to form a research question that you can answer given your available skills, resources, and time  (so, not "What is love?" but "How are ideas about love different between college freshmen and seniors?"). With your advisor, you'll plan the method you will use to answer it, which might involve lab work, field work, surveys, interviews, secondary research, textual analysis, or something else--it will depend upon your question and your field. Once your research is carried out, you'll write a substantial paper (usually 20-50 pages) according to the standards of your field.

What do theses look like?

The exact structure will vary by discipline, and your thesis advisor should provide you with an outline. As a rough guideline, we would expect to see something like the following:

1. Introduction 2. Review of the literature 3. Methods 4. Results 5. Analysis 6. Conclusion 7. Bibliography or works cited

In 2012 we began digitally archiving Honors theses. Students are encouraged to peruse the Honors Thesis Repository to see what past students' work has looked like. Use the link below and type your major in the search field on the left to find relevant examples. Older Honors theses are available in the Special Collections & Archives department at Dimond Library. 

Browse Previous Theses

Will my thesis count as my capstone?

Most majors accept an Honors Thesis as fulfilling the Capstone requirement. However, there are exceptions. In some majors, the thesis counts as a major elective, and in a few, it is an elective that does not fulfill major requirements. Your major advisor and your Honors advisor can help you figure out how your thesis will count. Please note that while in many majors the thesis counts as the capstone, the converse does not necessarily apply. There are many capstone experiences that do not take the form of an Honors thesis. 

Can I do a poster and presentation for my thesis?

No. While you do need to present your thesis (see below), a poster and presentation are not a thesis. 

How do I choose my thesis advisor?

The best thesis advisor is an experienced researcher, familiar with disciplinary standards for research and writing, with expertise in your area of interest. You might connect with a thesis advisor during Honors-in-Major coursework, but Honors Liaisons  can assist students who are having trouble identifying an advisor. You should approach and confirm your thesis advisor before the semester in which your research will begin.

What if I need funds for my research?

The  Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research  offers research grants, including summer support. During the academic year, students registered in credit-bearing thesis courses may apply for an  Undergraduate Research Award for up to $600 in research expenses (no stipend).  Students who are not otherwise registered in a credit-bearing course for their thesis research may enroll in INCO 790: Advanced Research Experience, which offers up to $200 for research expenses.

What if I need research materials for a lengthy period?

No problem! Honors Students can access Extended Time borrowing privileges at Dimond Library, which are otherwise reserved for faculty and graduate students. Email [email protected] with note requesting “extended borrowing privileges” and we'll work with the Library to extend your privileges.

Can I get support to stay on track?

Absolutely! Thesis-writers have an opportunity to join a support group during the challenging and sometimes isolating period of writing a thesis. Learn more about thesis support here .

When should I complete my thesis?

Register for a Senior Honors Thesis course (often numbered 799) in the spring and/or fall of your Senior year.

This “course” is an independent study, overseen by your Thesis Advisor. Your advisor sets the standards, due dates, and grades for your project. It must earn at least a B in order to qualify for Honors.

What happens with my completed thesis?

Present your thesis.

All students must publicly present their research prior to graduation. Many present at the  Undergraduate Research Conference  in April; other departmentally-approved public events are also acceptable.

Publish your thesis:

Honors students are asked to make their thesis papers available on  scholars.unh.edu/honors/ . This creates a resource for future students and other researchers, and also helps students professionalize their online personas.

These theses are publicly available online. If a student or their advisor prefers not to make the work available, they may upload an abstract and/or excerpts from the work instead.

Students may also publish research in  Inquiry , UNH's undergraduate research journal.

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• Golding Fund for Study of Slavery and the African American Experience

Many Honors Carolina students cap their undergraduate experience with a Senior Honors Thesis, partnering with a faculty mentor to develop original research or creative work. Students who successfully defend their thesis before a faculty review panel graduate with Honors or Highest Honors.

Each year, approximately 350 students complete a Senior Honors Thesis. For many of those students, the thesis becomes a first publication or an important part of their application to graduate or professional school.

Students may undertake a Senior Honors Thesis project only in their major field of study (with an exception for students who minor in Creative Writing). Students with double majors may graduate with Honors or Highest Honors in both fields of study. To do so, they must complete a distinct project in each field. All Senior Honors Thesis projects must be completed under the direct supervision of a faculty advisor. Tenured and tenure-track faculty, postdoctoral fellows with teaching appointments, and fixed-term faculty who have been employed by an academic unit for at least one year may serve as thesis advisors. Retired faculty and graduate students may not serve as advisors for Senior Honors Thesis projects.

Eligibility

Students who wish to undertake a Senior Honors Thesis project must have a cumulative GPA of 3.300 or higher. Academic departments may set higher thresholds for course work within students’ major field of study.

Students enrolled in the final semester of their thesis course work must complete their project (including the oral defense) by the following deadlines:

• Fall 2023 : Monday, November 13, 2023 4:00 p.m.
• Spring 2024: Monday, April 8, 2024 4:00 p.m.

These dates are subject to change if adjustments are made to the University Registrar’s calendars.

Your department should report your name to the Honors Carolina office by the relevant deadline above to confirm that you have met the requirements to graduate with Honors or Highest Honors.

Students are required to upload the final version of their thesis to the  Carolina Digital Repository  by the final day of class in the semester in which they complete the thesis course work . Detailed instructions are included in the guidelines at the bottom of this page.

Research Awards Available

Honors Carolina offers financial awards to support Senior Honors Thesis research. These awards, up to $500, may be used to cover any legitimate cost directly connected to a thesis project: laboratory equipment and supplies, computer software and hardware, travel, artistic supplies, books and periodicals not available through normal library sources, illustrations and duplication, etc.

Students must apply through their major department’s Honors director or their faculty thesis advisor (for units without Honors directors). A Call for Applications is sent to departments early each semester. Students may not submit applications directly to Honors Carolina.

The Spring 2024 Call for Proposals was distributed to academic units on February 1, 2024. Applications for this round of awards will be due by Thursday, February 29 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time .

Additional funding is available through the  Office for Undergraduate Research  and individual academic units.

The following research awards are made possible through gifts to Honors Carolina and are awarded annually:

• The Michael P. and Jean W. Carter Research Award
• The Gillian T. Cell Senior Thesis Research Award in the College of Arts & Sciences
• The Sarah Steele Danhoff Undergraduate Research Award
• The Dunlevie Honors Undergraduate Research Award
• The Gordon P. Golding Senior Honors Thesis Award
• The Gump Family Undergraduate Research Award
• The Honors Undergraduate Research Award
• The Rodney F. Hood Undergraduate Research Award
• The Kimball King Undergraduate Research Award
• The William F. Little Prize for Creative Research in Honors

Helpful Resources

• Senior Honors Thesis Guidelines for Academic Units, Faculty Advisors, and Students
• Senior Honors Thesis Learning Contract (forms for Computer Science majors are here )
• Sample Senior Honors Thesis title page

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Senior Thesis & Undergraduate Research

Every year, approximately 45%-55% of senior History concentrators choose to cap their Harvard careers by writing a senior honors thesis.

The senior thesis tutorial is a two-semester sequence  comprising Hist 99a and Hist 99b . While the overwhelming majority of students who start a thesis choose to complete it, our process allows students to drop the thesis at the end of the fall semester after History 99a (in which case they are not eligible for departmental honors).

The senior thesis in History is a year-long project involving considerable primary- and secondary-source research and a good deal of writing; finished theses are expected to be between 60 and 130 pages in length , and to make an original contribution to historical knowledge.

The department’s senior thesis program is one of the strongest in Harvard College. In recent years, one quarter or more of our thesis writers have received  Hoopes Prizes , which is well over the College average.

History 99 Syllabus 2022–2023

History 99: Senior Thesis Writers’ Tutorial Wednesdays, 6–7 and 7-8 PM Robinson Conference Room

Click here to view the History 99 syllabus for this year.

A Sampling of Past History Thesis Titles

For a list of thesis titles from the past five years, please click here .

Senior Thesis Conference

The History Department's annual Senior Thesis Writer's Conference is an opportunity for thesis writers to present their projects as members of three-to-four person panels moderated by a faculty member or advanced graduate student, to an audience of other faculty and graduate students. Their aim is to get the critical and constructive feedback they need to clarify their arguments, refine their methods, and ultimately transform their research projects into theses.

Like our faculty, our student presenters are conscious of their reliance on other disciplines in almost every aspect of their work. This conference supplies opportunities to engage in cross-disciplinary dialogues. Audience members also learn from these dedicated and talented young scholars even as they teach them new ways of conceiving and pursuing their projects.

For more information about the conference or the Department's thesis program as a whole, please write to the  Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies in History, or visit the Senior Thesis Writers Conference and History 99a website. The  Conference is open to all active members of the Harvard community.

All seniors writing theses receive as part of the History 99a and 99b seminar materials a Timetable for Thesis Writers which lists approximate deadlines for staying current with work on this large-scale project. (For current copies of these documents, please click here .) Many thesis writers will submit work in advance of the deadlines listed on the timetable, following schedules worked out with their individual advisers. Several of the deadlines listed on the timetable must be met:

• Students who wish to enroll in History 99 must attend the first meeting of the seminar on Wednesday, September 5th at 6:00 pm in the Robinson Lower Library.
• By the beginning of the fall reading period, students must submit substantial proof of research to both their adviser and the 99 History instructors. This usually takes the form of a chapter or two of the thesis (20–30 pages).
• Theses are due to the History Undergraduate Office (Robinson 101) on Thursday, March 10, 2022  before 5:00 pm. Theses that are handed in late will be penalized.

Thesis Readings

Each History thesis is read by at least two impartial members of the Board of Tutors, assigned by the Department. The Board of Tutors consists of (1) all department faculty in residence and (2) all graduate students teaching History 97 and/or a Research Seminar, as well as those advising senior theses. If History is the secondary field of a joint concentration, there is only one History reader. Each reader assigns an evaluation to the thesis (highest honors, highest honors minus, high honors plus, high honors, high honors minus, honors plus, honors, or no distinction), and writes a report detailing the special strengths and weaknesses of the thesis.  Theses by students with a highest honors-level concentration GPA and one highest-level reading will automatically be assigned three readers. Additionally, a thesis by any student may be sent to a third reader when the first two evaluations are three or more distinctions apart (e.g., one high honors plus and one honors plus).

Department Standards for the Thesis Program

Seniors who wish to write a thesis must meet certain prerequisites:

• a ‘B+’ average in the concentration;
• a ‘B+’ average on a 20-page research seminar paper
• the recommendation of their Research Seminar tutor(s).

Students who do not meet the above standards may petition the  History Undergraduate Office for admission to the senior thesis; successful petitions must include a detailed thesis proposal, and will be evaluated at the discretion of the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies (Asst. DUS).

The Awarding of Departmental Honors in History

THE AWARDING OF DEPARTMENTAL HONORS IN HISTORY

 Nominations for departmental honors are made by the Board of Examiners at the degree meeting each spring.  In making its nominations, the Board first takes two elements into account:  the average of course grades in History and thesis readings.  All students who may be eligible for a recommendation of highest honors will then be given an oral examination by the Board of Examiners; performance on this exam will be considered in determining the final recommendation.  The standing of those students at the border of two different degrees may also be determined through an oral examination administered by the Board of Examiners.

To be considered eligible for highest honors in history, a student will ordinarily have a grade point average greater than or equal to 3.85 in courses taken for departmental credit, and have received at least two highest -level thesis readings.  In addition, the student must convince the Board of Examiners of their qualifications for the highest recommendation through their performance on the oral examination.  Whether any particular student falling into this numerical range receives highest honors in history will be determined in part by the performance on the oral examination. 

To be considered eligible for high honors in history, a student will ordinarily have a grade point average greater than or equal to 3.7, and will ordinarily have received two high -level readings on the thesis. 

To be considered eligible for honors in history, a student will ordinarily have a grade point average greater than or equal to 3.3, and will ordinarily have received two honors -level readings on the thesis. 

Please note that the Department recommends students’ English honors (highest, high, honors, no honors) and sends these recommendations to the College which determines students’ Latin honors based on total GPA.  Please visit:   https://handbook.fas.harvard.edu/book/requirements-honors-degrees    for more information on how the College awards Latin honors (summa cum laude, magna cum laude, cum laude, no honors).  In addition, you should consult with your Resident Dean.  Any degree candidate who does not receive the A.B. degree with honors in History will be considered by the FAS for the degree of cum laude.  

Departmental Support

Students who do decide to enter the thesis program benefit from a great deal of departmental support. The Department encourages its thesis writers to consider the possibility of devoting the summer prior to their senior year to thesis research, whether on campus or around the world. Each year a large number of rising seniors find funding for summer thesis research. The Undergraduate Office holds a meeting to advise students on how to write a successful fellowship proposal. In addition, we maintain a  listing of organizations that have supported concentrators’ thesis research.

The Department also supports its senior thesis writers through two semesters of a Senior Thesis Seminar, History 99a and 99b , which provide a useful framework for thesis writers as they work through the intermittent difficulties that all thesis students inevitably encounter. For many seniors, their thesis will turn out to be the best piece of writing done while at Harvard. It will also be the longest and most complicated. Consequently, the seminars will focus much attention on the unique challenges of writing an extended, multi-chapter work. History 99a and 99b also provide a common forum in which seniors can share with thesis-writing colleagues their feedback, successes, frustrations, interests, and techniques. This kind of collegiality and exchange of ideas is at the heart of the academic seminar, and it can be the most rewarding aspect of the seminar series.

Students must enroll in the Thesis Seminars in order to write a thesis by obtaining approval from the Asst. DUS  on their study cards.

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Honors thesis.

• Undergraduate

Junior year is the time to start thinking about eligibility requirements, topics of interest, and potential advisors for an honors thesis.

An Honors Info Session is held each spring to answer junior’s questions about their senior year, and interested students must fill out the  honors thesis form  by the end of junior year.

We strongly encourage students to write an honors thesis. This is very valuable for students interested in graduate school or careers requiring independent research skills, as well as for students interested in tying together their academic experience with an in-depth investigation of one topic.

More than a good course paper

An honors thesis is more than a good course paper. It must represent a substantial effort in research and exposition. A thesis must be an original contribution to knowledge, beyond a simple replication exercise. The department does not specify page lengths, methods, or topics. Instead, an honors thesis candidate should establish his or her goals – and a timeline to meet those goals – in an understanding with the thesis advisor. To see the range of topics and methods prior students have pursued, take a look at  examples of past honor theses here  or by visiting the academic office in person. To find a faculty advisor who would be a good match for your topic of interest, see their research questions  here. 

Requirements

To graduate with honors, students must satisfy the following requirements  by the   end of junior year ,

• Complete at least 70% of the courses required for the concentration.
• Have earned a grade of “A” or “S with distinction” in at least 70% of grades earned in the economics concentration, or 50% in the joint concentrations in APMA-Econ, CS-Econ, and Math-Econ (excluding courses transferred to Brown without a grade, and those taken Spring 2020).
• Economics Concentrators  must find a faculty thesis advisor in the economics department.
• Joint Concentrators  must find a primary faculty thesis advisor in either economics or the partner department. CS-Econ concentrators must have a secondary reader in the other department by the fall of senior year. APMA-Econ and Math-Econ do not require a secondary reader, unless the primary advisor deems it necessary. Joint concentrators need to satisfy the honors requirements of the economics department if their thesis advisor is in the economics department; while they need to satisfy the honors requirements of the partner department if their thesis advisor is in the partner department.

During senior year , thesis writers must:

• Enroll in ECON 1960 in the fall & spring semesters (Note that 1960 does not count as a 1000-level elective for your concentration). A requirement of ECON 1960 will be attendance at one of two lab sessions each week. 
• Submit a thesis proposal to both your thesis advisor and the Undergraduate Programs Coordinator Kelsey Thorpe, [email protected]  (see below for due date).
• Submit their work in progress to their thesis advisor and Kelsey (see below for due date).
• Depending on the nature of the thesis work, the thesis adviser may require the student to successfully complete one or more courses from among the  data methods ,  mathematical economics  and/or  financial economics  course groups in the fall of senior year, if they have not already done so.
• Complete an honors thesis by the deadline agreed upon with their primary advisor and obtain the final approval of their advisor(s) (see below for due date).
• Thesis writers are encouraged, but not required, to participate in the departmental Honors Thesis Presentation session held in May, with a brief presentation of their work and findings.

For students graduating  Spring 2024 :

• Proposal - September 18, 2023
• Work in Progress - December 18, 2023
• Final Draft - April 19, 2024

For students graduating in  Fall 2024*:

• Proposal - February 2, 2024
• Work in Progress - April 25, 2024
• Final Draft - December 10, 2024

For students graduating  Spring 2025 :

• Proposal - September 16, 2024
• Work in Progress - December 16, 2024
• Final Draft - April 18, 2025

For students graduating  Fall 2025 *:

• Proposal - February 7, 2025
• Work in Progress - April 24, 2025
• Final Draft - December 9, 2025

*Note that for the Requirements listed above, "by end of senior year" means by the "end of Fall semester 2023" for Fall 2024 graduates and "end of Fall semester 2024" for Fall 2025 graduates.

More information

For students interested in finding out more, please attend the information session on honors theses that will be given in the middle of every spring semester. For students interested in undertaking research, but not wanting to pursue honors, the department offers  senior capstone options .

Senior Honors Thesis Program

The Senior Honors Thesis program provides students the opportunity to conduct original research under the guidance of a faculty advisor while earning a total of 4.5 credits in their senior year. In their final semester, students present their research to a committee and their work potentially can be published in an academic journal. This program is an excellent resume builder for students and is beneficial for any future career or graduate school application.

After the successful completion and defense of their thesis, students will receive a notation of  Senior Honors Thesis in Business  on their transcript and will receive recognition for their accomplishment at Tropaia, our honors ceremony for graduating seniors.

Past members of the Student Honors Thesis Program have found it to be one of the most rewarding and memorable aspects of their time at Georgetown.

Class of 2026 Senior Honors Thesis Program

Application Deadline: April 8, 2025 To learn more, please review the information session from Tuesday, March 19th. Please contact Dr. Justin Smith , Associate Dean, with any questions.

How to Apply

Applications for the Senior Honors Thesis Program are open to all rising seniors in the Class of 2026 who are in good standing and are due on April 8, 2025. All students must:

• Complete the application.
• Submit an original research proposal.
• Begin the process of finding a primary faculty advisor who will work with you throughout the year.

To ensure an exceptional, personalized experience, the program offers a select number of seats.

Once the senior thesis scholar has been accepted, they will register for:

• BADM 4998: Senior Thesis I (3 credits) in the fall semester of their senior year.
• BADM 4999: Senior Thesis II (1.5 credits) in the spring semester of their senior year.

Note: The seminar meeting days and times are to be determined. Since the seminar classes are small, the course instructor will work with the senior thesis cohort to find a time that works for all students. We strongly encourage students to treat the senior thesis seminar as a class and sign up for 15 credits or less in their senior year to give them time to conduct their research and attend to their writing.

Previous Topics

“Nicholas Elliot (B’20) Faculty Advisor: Dennis P. Quinn, vice dean and John J. Powers Jr. Term Professor in International Business The Digital Yuan: The Outsourcing of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and The Unveiling of a Central Bank Digital Currency with Chinese Characteristics “I really cannot stress how much I have enjoyed this program. It is one of the few things I will point to in my undergraduate experience as something I’m not only extremely proud of, but also allowed me to explore the things I’m passionate about in current affairs.””

“Lisa Park (B’20) Faculty Advisor: Rebecca Hamilton, senior associate dean for faculty affairs and professor of marketing Effects of Childhood Socioeconomic Status on Product Retention and Disposal Behavior in Adulthood  “Working with Rebecca Hamilton was an extremely rewarding experience. Together, we were able to create a thesis centered around consumer behavior and childhood socio-economic status. Because it both challenged and expanded my intellectual and personal horizons, my senior thesis will undeniably be a hallmark of my time at Georgetown. The skills I gained from this have impacted me on both a personal and professional level, which I will forever be grateful for!””

“Brooke Stanley (B’20) Faculty Advisor: Marcia P. Miceli, professor of human resources  Leaving Communities Behind: Exploring the Accessibility and Usage of Parental and Family Leave Policies among Marginalized Communities “The Senior Thesis program allowed me to dive deep into a subject that truly sparked my intellectual curiosity and work alongside a professor. My mentor, Professor Miceli, challenged me and encouraged me at every step of the way. I learned a lot about time management skills and working with self-imposed deadlines. Working on a year-long research project definitely helped prepare me for long-term projects in my current role, and the time management skills I gained were absolutely invaluable. The Senior Thesis program was absolutely a highlight of my Georgetown career!””

Questions about the Senior Honors Thesis Program?

Please contact Dr. Justin Smith , Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, with any questions.

College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

• Undergraduate

Senior Honors Thesis Guidelines

Submission deadlines for academic year 2023–2024.

The deadline for submitting a defended Senior Honors Thesis to the Office of Academic Affairs is noon (12 pm) on the days indicated in the table below:

Noon (12 pm) Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Spring 2024

Noon (12 pm) Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Summer 2024

Noon (12 pm) Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Senior Honors Thesis Review for Final Submission

Senior Honors students who are prepared to submit their Senior Honors Thesis for review and final approval should follow the College’s instructions on how to prepare and submit their thesis by consulting the Senior Honors Thesis General Instructions .

NSM’s Office of Academic Affairs no longer accepts theses in person. The submission and reader evaluation process is done electronically.

Also review the Honors College Senior Honors Thesis Defense page.

Senior Honors Theses 2024

Congratulations to the seniors who completed a Senior Honors Thesis! These honors students took a year-long class culminating in the writing of a Senior Honors Thesis. For ECL, these theses are typically 35-80 pages of original research on a topic of the student’s choosing. Creative Writing Thesis students compose a minimum of 75 pages of original fiction or creative non-fiction or a thousand lines of original poetry.

Congratulations to all our Honors Thesis students:

English and Comparative Literature:

Aubrey Martin

Eli Dietrich

Abigail Welch

Grace Villanueva

Logan Parks

Selena Hernandez

Olivia Askew

Bradley Sadowsky

Jeffery Mcclure

Sheena Meng

Georgia Chapman

Abigail Gillespie

Madeleine Hepting

Elizabeth Belter

Lila Davidson

Amelia Loeffler

Ashley McGuire

Kieran Murphy

Blaine Purcell

Marleigh Purgar-Mcdonald

Oddesciey Rone

Amery Smith

Creative Non-fiction:

Kate Stukenborg

Anna Marie Switzer

Patrick Hunter

Hannah Collett

Meredith Whitley

Rachel Donnan

Isabella Reilly

Valerie Calvo

Jenna Gartland

Ciara Renaud

Annie Vedder

Sam Dietrich

Margaret Dunn

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A Senior Year Experience (SYE) Honors Thesis is the highest level of scholarship to which a major in the Government Department can aspire, and we strongly encourage those who qualify to consider undertaking one.  In order to participate in the senior honors thesis program, juniors must have a GPA of at least 3.5 in the Government major and at least 3.25 in the GOVT 290 course.  Students interested in undertaking an honors thesis should discuss the process with their departmental advisor.  Below is a timeline of the steps required to successfully complete the thesis. Full details of the requirements and procedures for the SYE Honors Thesis can be found in the information packet .

In the spring semester of your junior year:

• Talk to faculty members in the department about possible project/thesis ideas and topics.
• Do some preliminary investigations of areas of interest.
• Pick a potential thesis advisor (one of the department faculty) and topic.
• Submit a Preliminary Thesis Proposal to the department chair at [email protected]  no later than Sunday, April 7, 2024 . The Government faculty will then meet to approve Preliminary Thesis Proposals.
• When registering for courses, register for GOVT 489- SYE: Independent Study with your chosen thesis advisor using the add/drop system, as the SYE class is by permission only.

In the fall semester of your senior year:

• In consultation with your thesis advisor, select the remaining two professors for your committee.
• Submit a Formal Thesis Proposal to the department chair, approved by the thesis committee, no later than the date mid-semester grades are due . Details on the requirements of the Formal Thesis Proposal can be found in the above linked information packet.
• Approval of the Formal Proposal is not automatic, and without it the students may not advance to the senior thesis status. If the student has not prepared a satisfactory proposal by the mid-term deadline date, or decides, for whatever reason, not to pursue the senior thesis, the paper retains its status as an Independent Project.
• Once the committee has approved a student’s formal proposal, the Department will change the course registration to Senior Year Thesis status (GOVT 497 - SYE: Senior Thesis). The students will receive an X grade for the fall semester. The final grade for the SYE will be determined at the end of the spring semester, and the X grade from the fall will be adjusted accordingly. 

In the spring semester of your senior year:

• The final draft of the thesis should be submitted to the committee no later than final week of classes in the spring semester.
• The committee will meet with the student during exam week for an oral defense of the thesis. After this presentation, the committee deliberates and makes the decision regarding to final grade, and whether to award the completed thesis Honors. 
• If it is decided to award the paper Honors, the thesis formally receives that designation only upon actual completion of the project. Actual completion includes any and all revisions students are asked to make at their end of year meeting with the thesis committee, and those edits must be submitted to the committee for approval.  Formal University Honors can only be awarded to students who have a minimum GPA of 3.5 in all courses in the major. 
• Every year the Government Department sponsors a Senior Year Forum at which all students who have written a thesis present their research and findings at the Senior Year Forum to government majors and to the Government Department faculty.
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Graduate with honor

Undergraduate honors, departmental honors in sociology/senior thesis.

The Departmental Senior Honors Thesis is an opportunity for seniors in Sociology to conduct in-depth research in the major or minor field. It is the most stimulating intellectual enterprise in which an undergraduate can engage, demanding dedication and the ability to exercise independent judgment.

Students who successfully produce and defend a senior honors thesis will receive a note of distinction on their transcript and diploma. Students will also receive cords to wear on their commencement regalia, recognizing their special achievement.

You must have a minimum overall GPA of 3.0 and 3.3 in Sociology to participate. Thesis writers ideally will have completed SO 201, SO 203, and SO 303 prior to their spring semester, Junior year. Please work with your advisor to discuss participation in the Honors in the major program.

Junior Year:

• In the Fall, interested students sign up to take SO 400 in the Spring of their Junior year; students who will be abroad during SO 400 or discover their interest in doing a thesis proposal after the start of SO 400 are still eligible to do one, provided they have the support of an adviser who will help them through the process (usually through an independent study) in the Spring of their Junior year.
• In the Spring, students in SO 400 develop and finalize their thesis proposal, secure adviser, file IRB application (if relevant) and file funding application (if needed.)
• No later than May 1 of the student’s Junior year, students must submit their application for a senior honors thesis, including obtaining participation of a faculty advisor. Late applications may be considered at the discretion of the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
• Application for Departmental Honors DUE MAY 1 .

Summer between student’s Junior and Senior year:

• Student collects data/conducts research for project.

Senior Year:

• In the Fall, the student takes SO 401 (2cr). SO 401 does not meet as a formal class. Rather, these are essentially placeholder credits that gives the student credit for the data analysis and writing work they are doing that fall.
• In the Spring, the student takes SO 402 (4cr). SO 402 does not meet as a formal class. Rather, these credits further acknowledge the intensive work the student continues to do leading up to their capstone thesis presentation and thesis defense in April of their Senior year.

Honors Courses:

So 400 research practicum (4cr) (spring of jr. year).

(Prereqs: SO 303 and junior standing; or consent of instructor. First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) This course prepares students planning to conduct honors research project in their senior year. Students interested in developing a research project for alternate purposes will be admitted with permission of the instructor. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.

In this course, you will develop a research proposal, secure a faculty advisor, complete and submit an IRB application for Human Subjects research (if needed), and prepare to begin your research project.  

SO 401 Senior Independent Work (2cr) (Fall of Senior Year)

Fill out an Add/Drop form and have your thesis advisor sign to add you to the class.

This directed study course is with your primary thesis advisor who will continue to work with you on specific details of your thesis.    

SO 402 Senior Independent Work (4 cr) (Spring of Senior Year

This directed study course is under the primary supervision of your thesis advisor. You will complete the analysis of data and writing of your thesis, culminating in the final draft of the thesis and the oral examination at the thesis defense.  

Senior Thesis FAQ:

What is an honors thesis.

Honors theses vary widely in length, depending on the topic, method, and number of appendices, graphics, tables, references, and other materials included in the work. In general, students can anticipate preparing a document of 30-65 pages. Some, however, are longer than this.

Study Abroad and Honors in the Major

Students who will be abroad during the spring semester of their junior year may still be eligible to complete a thesis by developing a research proposal through a directed study with a faculty advisor during the spring semester in lieu of SO 400.  If taken as a directed study, this course no longer counts as a Sociology graduation requirement and does not carry any HUB credits. Please contact your advisor to determine if this is a good fit for you.

How does senior honors thesis work impact my sociology course requirements ?

If you receive a C+ or higher in SO 400, you may substitute SO 400 (Advanced Research Practicum) for one of the two required seminars for graduation in the major. SO 400 can also fulfill one of the ten courses required for the sociology major. If you take a directed study with your advisor in lieu of SO 400 (for example, if you are abroad during spring junior year), you do not receive seminar credit for the directed study.

SO 401 and SO 402 do not count toward the required courses for graduation in the sociology major.

What happens if I decide, after taking SO 400 in the Fall, that I don't want to finish the thesis process? Or I receive less than a B for So 400?

SO 400-402 is intended to be a three semester course of study with the goal of completing a senior honors thesis. However, after consulting with relevant faculty, you may choose to discontinue after taking SO 400. If you have received a grade of C+ or higher in SO 400, you can apply SO 400 towards sociology requirements.

Can a Kilachnad Honors College student pursue departmental honors in sociology?

The KHC keystone project and departmental honors can be combined, provided you meet the general requirements for departmental honors, your primary project advisor is a sociology faculty member, and your project is sociological in method and content.  The requirement of SO 400 will be waived for students who pass the KHC junior year research seminar with a B or higher, but students do not receive sociology seminar credit for taking the KHC seminar. Please contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies for more on how the keystone project and departmental honors are combined.

Who should I talk to if I have more questions?

You can talk to your advisor in sociology and the Director of Undergraduate Studies. For administrative questions, contact the Undergraduate Program Coordinator in Sociology.

Examples of previous thesis projects:

• 2020. Pelletier, Temma. “Who’s My Parent When I Fill Out The FAFSA?”
• 2020. Paasche-Orlow, Lev. “Organizational Techniques of Pro-life Picketers: An Exploration of Boston’s Anti-Abortion Movement”
• 2019. Tichenor, Erin. “(De)criminalization: Agency, Intersectionality, & Social Control in Auckland’s Sex Industry”
• 2019. Hereema, Matt. “Psychiatric Authority and the Placebo Effect: A Comparative Historical Analysis”
• 2019. Lawry, Claire. “White America’s Principle-Implementation Gap: The Paradox of 21st Century Racism.”
• 2019. Sheehan, Carrie. “Perceptions of Transgender Criminality: A Survey Experiment.”
• 2019. Wimberly, Elizabeth. “Changing Times, Changing Monies: The Diffusion of Digital Gold.”

Undergraduate Research Opportunities (UROP)

The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) facilitates participation by BU undergraduates in faculty-mentored research. UROP can provide financial support to Sociology undergraduates for summer research fellowships, academic year stipends, research supplies, and travel for research or to professional meetings.

The UROP research experience generally involves mentoring of a student project by a faculty member working in his or her area of expertise. Students conduct research either on individual research projects or as part of a larger team.  This provides an excellent opportunity to experience sociological research first-hand.

Undergraduate Research Support Fund

The Department of Sociology at Boston University is pleased to provide undergraduates with the opportunity to apply for modest financial support for independent research on sociological topics.  Students may use the funds for research supplies or research travel.

Applications must include a two page description of the research topic, questions, and methods; budget justification; and evidence that the student has applied or external funding, such as for UROP support.  In addition, the student must ask a faculty member to provide a short letter of reference indicating their willingness to supervise the project.  Preference will be given to applications from Sociology majors and minors.

For research involving human subjects, students should provide evidence of their submission of an application to the Institutional Review Board or of communication with the IRB indicating that the project does not require IRB approval.

Available funds are capped at $500 per student/project.  Applications, which will be considered on an ongoing basis, should be submitted electronically to the Department Chair, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and the Undergraduate Program Coordinator.

Sociology Awards and Prizes

College prize for excellence in sociology.

Awarded by the College of Arts & Sciences on the basis of faculty recommendations, contributions to the department and University, and GPA in the major, the winner of this top prize addresses their graduating class at the Sociology convocation each year.

Outstanding Senior Thesis Prize

Awarded by the Department of Sociology faculty to the author of the best senior Sociology honors thesis written during the academic year.

Outstanding Seminar Paper Prize

Awarded by the Department of Sociology faculty to the author of the best seminar paper written during the academic year.

Alpha Kappa Delta Honor Society in Sociology

Founded in 1920, Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD) is an international sociology honor society with more than 400 chapters worldwide. Membership allows students to participate in national undergraduate research paper competitions and receive support for travel to professional meetings.

The Boston University chapter of AKD inducts majors in their junior or senior years who meet certain academic standards. For more information, students can visit our departmental website, consult with the Director of Undergraduate Studies, or see the Honor Societies section of this Bulletin.

Diedre H. Symington Scholarship

This scholarship is awarded annually to one of several juniors or seniors receiving financial aid and concentrating in sociology. The recipients are nominated by the faculty of the department on the basis of academic accomplishments and financial need.

Alpha Kappa Delta

Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD) is the international sociology honor society, founded in 1920, with more than 400 chapters worldwide.  Each year the Boston University chapter (Gamma of Massachusetts) invites juniors and seniors of high scholarly achievement in Sociology to be inducted into Alpha Kappa Delta.

Membership allows students to participate in national undergraduate research paper competitions, to receive support for travel to professional meetings, and to receive the Society’s journal Sociological Inquiry. Students are eligible for AKD upon completing six sociology courses toward their major (or minor), including SO 201 and SO 203.

They will have maintained a GPA in sociology of at least 3.30 and an overall GPA of at least 3.00, and must be ranked in the top 35% of their class in general scholarship.  They must be at least a junior (third year) by BU standards, and have officially declared sociology as a major or minor and demonstrate a serious interest in the subject.

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Undergraduate Honors Theses

Desertion and discontent in the east german border police, 1948-1959.

Rose Shafer , William & Mary Follow

Date Thesis Awarded

Access type.

Honors Thesis -- Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelors of Arts (BA)

Tuska Benes

Committee Members

Jennifer Gülly

Amy Limoncelli

The East German Border Police ( Deutsche Grenzpolizei ) was the organization responsible for patrolling the borders of the German Democratic Republic from its creation in 1946 until its transformation into the Border Troops of the GDR (Grenztruppen der DDR) and reorganization as part of the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee) in 1961. The organization had the dual task of preventing " Republikflucht ," the illegal migration of East German citizens to West Germany, and acting as the first line of defense in the case of an attack from West German forces. The ruling Sociality Unity Party of Germany ( Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands ) conceived of the Grenzpolizei as the paramilitary vanguard of the sovereignty of East Germany and the SED's brand of socialist ideology. Accordingly, its personnel was supposed to consist of politically conscious volunteers, motivated to serve out of patriotism and ideological zeal.

However, not all members of the Grenzpolizei fit this mold. Between 200 and 300 members of the Grenzpolizei deserted to the West every year, ironically committing the crime of " Republikflucht " which they were supposed to prevent. This thesis uses archival sources -- the investigations and meta-analyses of desertions produced by the Central Administration of the East German Border Police and the Ministry for State Security -- to explore the "microhistories" of the border guards who fled to the West between 1948 and 1959. By reading state files "against the grain," this thesis attempts to reconstruct a top-down "people's history" of the deserters, placing them in their historical and social contexts.

Ultimately, this thesis posits that a significant cohort of the Grenzpolizei’s recruits joined the force for pragmatic reasons while maintaining no loyalty towards the East German state. Those who deserted to the West were driven to flee in equal measure by the exigencies of their personal lives, from which the easily traversable German-German border provided a means of escape, and their frustrations with the material conditions of life in East Germany. Meanwhile, the SED -- which conceived of Republikflucht as a crime and act of betrayal -- tended to characterize desertion as a moral failing and blame it on exogenic factors and influences. This thesis highlights the tension between these narratives and examines its implications for the nature of dictatorship in East Germany.

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Department of Education

2024 honors theses presentations.

Three Education Studies concentrators were awarded Honors after completing a senior thesis and presenting their work to faculty, peers, family, and other members of the campus community in a conference-style event hosted by the Department of Education.

L-R: Graduating seniors and Honors awardees Jada Wooten, Serena Levin, and Sophie Forstner.

Congratulations to graduating seniors Jada Wooten ,  Serena Levin , and Sophie Forstner on successfully meeting the requirements for Honors in the Education Studies concentration! Learn more about their research below, and learn more about the department's criteria for graduating with honors  here .

Jada Wooten, "The Pedagogy, Practices, and Problems of Inclusive Arts Education in Out-of-School Settings" (Advisor: Andrea Flores)

My senior thesis explores the question: how do educators in precariously-funded out-of-school spaces design inclusive arts education for their public, which includes those with marginalized identities? To answer this question, I collected ethnographic data, including fieldnotes from participant observation and semi-structured interviews. I also draw from two frameworks in educational literature: inclusive arts pedagogies and the structural inequalities of educational spaces. My primary and secondary research has led to findings on the pedagogy, practices, and problems with inclusive arts education in out-of-school spaces. Firstly, by painting ethnographic portraits of an apprentice, seasoned, and master teaching artist, I reveal that, pedagogically, radical love is central to arts education that centers equity, participants’ needs, flexibility, and connections. Secondly, by considering a participant’s declaration that “Art is LIFE,” in light of ethnographic data and the literature, I point to how pedagogical practices centered in radical love foster expression, which is key to the definition of the arts; develop storytelling for healing and change; create opportunities for societal, physical, and emotional healing; build connections within and across communities; and advance social change in the field of education and beyond. Thirdly, I articulate participants’ experiences with non-profit jobs, grant funding, advocacy, community partnerships, and organizational structures to highlight the problems that impede access to the above practices and benefits of arts education. I conclude by considering the implications of the pedagogy, practice, and problems of arts organizations in the field of arts education learning, research, policy and advocacy, and community building.

Serena Levin, "The Privilege of the PTA: Middle-Class Latinx Parents' Perspectives on Parental Involvement Post-Uvalde" (Advisor: David Rangel)

The present study answers the following questions: post-COVID and in an era of mass shootings, how do middle-class Latinx parents understand the role of Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) within their middle-class Latinx schools, and how does that understanding impact their school-based involvement? The present research illuminates parents’ perceptions of the parent-teacher organization, the perceived benefits associated with participation, and the perceived accessibility of these groups in a post-COVID and post-Uvalde era of schooling. Utilizing 19 semi-structured interviews with middle-class Latinx parents in San Antonio, Texas, this study finds that the role of the PTA has expanded beyond typical PTA responsibilities in a post-Uvalde and pandemic context. According to participants, the PTA had jurisdiction over and privileged attendance to non-PTA events. PTA parents received privileged access to schools, capped events, and sign-up sheets, putting non-PTA members at a disadvantage. Parents had to be involved in the PTA to access their child's school. However, parents' racialized perceptions of the organization made the PTA feel inaccessible, associating the organization with white parenting practices, even when their socioeconomic class provided them with access to these groups. Therefore, the parents in this study who opted not to be involved in the PTA could not access the benefits of PTA involvement for their children. Thus, despite many parents’ desire to be involved in their children’s school, the perceived jurisdiction and inaccessibility of the PTA, a partial product of school safety measures, has made involvement less accessible for nonmember parents. The information from this study provides valuable insights into how schools should address perceived power structures and inequalities that school safety measures have exacerbated. 

Sophie Forstner, "Excellence in Brown Athletics: Revised" (Advisor: Lindsay Page)

In 2020, Brown University transitioned several sports teams from varsity to club status in the “Excellence in Brown Athletics Initiative.” The initiative stripped the teams of their ability to recruit and provide preferential admissions for their athletes. The stated goal of these cuts was to increase competitiveness of Brown sports while keeping levels of diversity in athletics the same. This study compares the demographics of Brown  student athletes’ high schools, with and without the cut sports, to show the limited effects of the initiative on socioeconomic and racial diversity among Brown’s varsity athletes. By comparing the demographics of each team, I determine how Brown could have cut the same number of athletes while creating a greater, but not momentous shift in diversity. Next, I looked at how student and alumni opinions may have influenced Brown’s decision. The findings of this study suggest that transformative change in diversifying college admissions will not be driven by cutting select groups of varsity sports but rather by reforming the athletic recruitment process and the youth sports pipeline.

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Presenting The 2024 CHID Thesis Symposium!

Presenting the 2024 CHID Thesis Symposium: Join us in the Petersen Room on the 4th floor of Allen Library to explore and experience all of the amazing projects that our CHID students have been working on all year! The CHID senior thesis asks students to solve specific intellectual problems, ensuring a form of specialization that goes beyond simply a narrowing of academic focus. The senior project demonstrates how our students have attained the educational objectives of the major. And yes, there will be food and refreshments during the event :)

Room: Peterson Room, Allen Library, 4th Floor Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2:30p - 5:30p

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Engineering school presents 2024 senior honors May 9

Brenda Ellis

May 10, 2024, 3:38 PM

Krish Roy, Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Dean of Engineering, has announced the school’s outstanding 2024 engineering graduates, and school and department award recipients at the school’s May 9 Senior Awards Reception.

Her honors include the Case School of Engineering Swanger Graduate Fellowship and Goldwater Scholarship. Albert’s most meaningful service experience during college was being the rector for the University Catholic Awakening Retreat in  2023, with about 150 college students from across Davidson County attending. After graduation, she will pursue a doctorate in biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University. And she will continue her research with Professor Grissom to develop pulse optimization tools for MRI.

The Founder’s Medal was endowed by Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt and signifies first honors for each graduating class from Vanderbilt’s schools. The gold medal has been awarded since 1877. The recipient is named by the dean after consideration of faculty recommendations as well as grade point averages of the year’s  summa cum laude  graduates.

Li has spent four semesters and two summers working in the lab of Yu Huang, assistant professor of computer science. He has already successfully published two peer-reviewed publications in top Software Engineering venues—Foundations of Software Engineering and the Association for Computing Machinery’s International Collegiate Programming Contest. He was the leading author for one of the two papers, and the main contributor to the other. He is currently involved in two more research studies.

For two years, Li has provided pro-bono consulting services to local non-profit organizations as a consultant at Vanderbilt Students Consulting for Nonprofit Organizations (SCNO). Specifically, he established the data infrastructure for Conexión Américas, a nonprofit dedicated to uplifting local Latino communities, and Unscripted Improv, a nonprofit empowering communities through improv classes, shows, and events. Li has decided to pursue a master’s degree in computer science and has already received offers from Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.

The Dean’s Award for Outstanding Service, which is given to a graduating senior who has shown remarkable leadership qualities and who also has made the greatest contributions in personal service to the school, goes to Megan Gray Higgins , Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Heather Nicole Murray , Dayton, Ohio; and Ivan Valery Ntwari , Nyagatare, Rwanda.

Megan Higgins has been dedicated to peer mentorship and community service. She served as president of American Society of Civil Engineers where she led the concrete canoe competition and oversaw the adoption of a community cleanup project. She also was the treasurer of Phi Signma Rho, active in the Society of Women Engineers, and a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society. Higgins worked as an Undergraduate Research Assistant in the Abkowitz Lab and held summer internships at Metro Waters and Haw River Assembly. After graduation, Megan will move to Florida to work at NextEra Energy as an associate power generation engineer.

Heather Murray has served the school, her peers, and the greater community in many capacities including as Engineering Council President, Co-Director of Research for o -“VR” -come, Vice President of the BME Honor Society, team leader in Vanderbilt Student Volunteers for Science, and as a residential adviser. In oVRcome, she managed patient data and enrollment in the clinical trial that gave virtual reality devices to cancer patients as a means of stress relief. Since 2022, she has worked in the Lippmann Lab, which focuses on cell engineering and microdevice fabrication for the analysis of neurovascular diseases. Murray will continue her research at Boston University, where she will start a Ph.D. program in biomedical engineering with a focus on tissue engineering.

Ivan Ntwari has been a collaborative leader and trusted mentor across several organizations. He served as Vanderbilt Robotics Team Leader, Vanderbilt Design Studio Mentor, ASME Student Section President, VINSE Tech Crew, Nissan Senior Design Team, and curriculum committee student representative. He also is the founder and CEO of two companies: an online brokerage platform tailored for investors to the Rwanda Stock Exchange and a company that developed a diabetes management device. Ivan is slated to work in mechanical design engineering at Tesla.

Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship ( summa cum laude  distinction) Madison Marie Albert , North Yarmouth, Maine Evangelos Chatziandreou , Egaleo, Greece Nathan Timothy Hunsberger , Reno, Nevada Meredith Joanne Hunter , La Jolla, California Jason T. Hwong , San Mateo, California Nisala A. Kalupahana , Hillsboro, Oregon Jiliang Li, Binzhou, China John Paul Libanati , Silver Spring, Maryland Xiaohan Liu , Jinan City, China Zofia Marie Luther , Sewickley, Pennsylvania Jennifer Michelle Mazzola , Canton, Massachusetts Akash Munagala , Saratoga, California Lincoln Dietz Murr , Knoxville, Tennessee David O. Obi , Jonesboro, Georgia Alexander Sukjoong Oh , Clarksville, Maryland Brett N. Reamon , Boulder, Colorado Jackson Patrick Rusch , Mequon, Wisconsin Timothy Joseph Schachner , New York, New York Miles Takashi Sitcawich , Lincoln, Nebraska Brooke Madison Stevens , Atlanta, Georgia Kela Rubiann Totherow , Honolulu, Hawaii Jiayi Wu , Shanghai, China Shivam Vohra , Conyers, Georgia Siyao Zhu , Nanjing, China

August/December summa graduates Benjamin Jarzin Womsley , Kenilworth, Illinois Zimeng Zhou , Germantown, Maryland Madhavi Mani , Brookfield, Wisconsin

Program Awards : Biomedical Engineering:   John Paul Libanati , Silver Spring, Maryland Chemical Engineering:  Jordan Alexa Walker , Dallas, Texas   Civil Engineering:   Ada Marie Novak , Batavia, Illinois Computer Engineering:  Alexander Sukjoong Oh , Clarksville, Maryland Computer Science:   Nisala A. Kalupahana , Hillsboro, Oregon Electrical Engineering:   Meredith Joanne Hunter , La Jolla, California Engineering Science:   Kela Rubiann Totherow , Honolulu, Hawaii Mechanical Engineering:  Jason T. Hwong , San Mateo, California

Other Awards:

• American Institute of Chemists Award: Rebecca Jean Hedges , Mokena, Illinois; and Tyler David Oddo , South Elgin, Illinois, are the recipients of the American Institute of Chemists Award, given based on leadership, ability, character, scholastic achievement and potential for advancement in the chemical professions.
• Greg A. Andrews Civil Engineering Memorial Award goes to an exemplary senior who plans to do graduate work in environmental and water resources engineering. The recipient is  Harmony Bickerton , Troy, New York.
• Thomas G. Arnold Prizes for Biomedical Engineering Systems Design and Research are shared: Design : Madison Marie Albert , North Yarmouth, Maine; Katelyn Alexandra Craft , Landenberg, Pennsylvania; August Erik Jurva , Brookfield, Wisconsin; Rebecca Pan , Andover, Massachusetts; and Nicholas Charles Wan , Aurora, Illinois. Research : Nicholas Charles Wan , Aurora, Illinois.
• Most Entrepreneurial Design Award in Biomedical Engineering is shared by Kiara Herro , Wayzata, Minnesota; Layla Reejhsinghani , Westport, Connecticut: Marin Schiffman , Lemont, Illinois; and Maxwell Sharp , Darien, Connecticut, for their project, “Protective carrier insert for specimen transport system.”
• F. Chen Best Design Award for the best design project in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is shared by  Neil Badlani , Cincinnati, Ohio; Meredith Hunter , San Diego, California, and Ashley Potts , Sparta, New Jersey, for their project, “Low-cost spectroscopic system for biosensing.”
• ASCE/Dan Barge, Jr. Award in Civil Engineering is given to an outstanding third-year student majoring in civil engineering. The recipient is Jacob Robert Tomas , Fort Meyers, Florida.
• Walter C. Criley Prize is awarded for the best paper written on an advanced senior project in electrical engineering. The award is shared by David Limpus , Franklin, Tennessee; Ryan Christopher Taylor , Cedar Hill, Texas; and Isabella Rane Wynocker , Bay Village, Ohio.
• Arthur J. Dyer Jr. Memorial Prize is awarded to a senior who has done the best work in the study and/or design in use of structural steel, and who is a member of the American Society for Civil Engineers. The recipient is Megan Gray Higgins , Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
• Walter Gill Kirkpatrick Prize in Civil Engineering is given to the most deserving third-year student majoring in civil engineering. The recipient is Ella Rose Mostoller , Carrollton, Virginia.
• William A. Ma Award is given to an outstanding senior majoring in chemical engineering based on a demonstrated record of leadership and scholastic achievement. The recipient is  Heather Nicole Murray , Dayton, Ohio.
• Wilson L. and Nellie Pyle Miser Award goes to a senior engineering student who has excelled in all aspects of mathematics during the student’s undergraduate career. The award goes to Madison Marie Albert , North Yarmouth, Maine.
• Stein StoneMemorial Award is given to a senior who has earned a letter in sports and who is judged to have made the most satisfactory scholastic and extra-mural progress as an undergraduate. The recipient is Gage Cayman Pitchford , Newnan, Georgia.
• Robert D. Tanner Undergraduate Research Award is given to a senior who has conducted the best undergraduate research project in chemical engineering. The recipient Katrina Rose Schwensen , Lincoln, Nebraska.
• Dennis Threadgill Award is given for outstanding achievement in chemical engineering in honor of a former faculty member and department chair. The award goes to Jacob Charles Arquette , Oak Park, Illinois, and Miles Takashi Sitcawich , Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Class of 2024 members of  Tau Beta Pi  engineering scholastic fraternity

Jack Abrams , Jupiter, Florida Madison Albert , North Yarmouth, Maine Katelyn Craft , Landenberg, Pennsylvania Aidan Fein , Springfield, Illinois Amanda Foster , Menlo Park, California Nicholas Grummon , Franklin, Tennessee Megan Higgins , Chapel Hill, North Carolina Nathan Hunsberger , Reno, Nevada Meredith Hunter , La Jolla, California Jason Hwong , San Mateo, California Mikaya Kim , Diamond Bar, California John Libanati , Silver Spring, Maryland Kaitlyn Lombardi , Hendersonville, Tennessee Ji Lu , Wenzhou, China Madhavi Mani , Brookfield, Minnesota Nicole Montenegro , Wilmette, Illinois Lincoln Murr , Knoxville, Tennessee Ada Novak , Batavia, Illinois Erin Oldham , Houston, Texas Hari Patel , Carmel, Indiana Brett Reamon , Boulder, Colorado Katrina Schwensen , Lincoln, Nebraska Miles Sitcawich , Saint Paul, Minnesota Parker Smith , Lexington, Kentucky Brooke Stevens , Atlanta, Georgia Kela Totherow , Honolulu, Hawaii Stanley Vinet , Arroyo Grande, California Jordan Walker , Dallas, Texas Nicholas Wan , Aurora, Illinois Jovian Wang , San Ramon, California Nathan Zhang , Phoenix, Arizona

Contact: [email protected]

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Senior Honors Thesis

Seniors in Art History and Architectural Studies may spend their final year writing an honors thesis as part of the Thesis Honors program. Students whose names have appeared on the Dean's List at least two times before their senior year qualify for the Thesis Honors program.

Senior theses are demanding but rewarding for both student and faculty. They require a good deal of discipline and focus on the student's part, but in return they can take you well beyond the classroom and can develop useful research, writing and organizational skills.

Thesis Proposal Process

In spring semester of junior year, prospective thesis writers, including those studying abroad, should begin consulting with their major advisor about possible thesis topics and research plans. By the first Friday in April of their junior year , all prospective thesis writers, including those studying abroad, must submit to the director of undergraduate studies a single-page prospectus listing the proposed thesis title, department advisor and relevant coursework, plus a short description of the thesis' content and research plan.

If approved by the department at this preliminary, prospectus stage, the student may then proceed to the proposal stage in close consultation with their advisor. By the first Friday of classes of the senior year , a three-to-five page proposal must be submitted to the director of undergraduate studies listing: the thesis title, the department advisor, and at least one additional committee member, and also include a lengthier description of the proposed project accompanied by a full research bibliography. In early-September the department grants or denies approval for the proposed thesis to move forward.

For a thesis to be considered for the department's Madeline Harrison Caviness Thesis Prize, the completed senior theses are submitted electronically to the director of undergraduate studies on the last Friday of April . Theses are publicly presented in ten-minute talks at a luncheon held the day after the conclusion of spring classes. The Prize winner will be announced at the Commencement Ceremony.

Defenses are conducted in late April or early May. After the defense, a final copy of the thesis, in electronic form, must be submitted to the Tisch Library archive and to the director of undergraduate studies. Students may copy their senior thesis in the department at no charge. Seniors theses are taken into consideration when awarding academic honors or department prizes.

Congratulations to Jiarui (Ray) Fang on the successful completion of honors project, thesis, and poster presentation.

• Publication date May 10, 2024

He will graduate with very well-deserved honors titled “An Investigation into Anterior Olfactory Nucleus Neuronal Activity During Learning of a Complex Context Dependent Odor Memory Task”. Ray will continue his studies as a PhD student at Boston University in the Dr. Michael Hasselmo lab . Ray was also the recipient of the Robert R. Capranica Award is for an outstanding undergraduate honors thesis in neuroethology, link for more information on the award.

Congratulations to Shiping (Emily) Li for successfully delivering her 2nd year graduate talk.

• Publication date May 1, 2024

Shiping’s talk was on “The Functions of the Retrosplenial Cortex”.

Congratulations to Wendy Yang for an excellent 4th year graduate talk.

• Publication date April 19, 2024

Wendy’s talk was on “The Role of the Anterior Thalamus in Spatial Learning and Memory”.

Graduate Student Spotlight: Vitica Arnold’s Background in Psychology Informs Tech Design

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In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day , recognized the third Thursday in May each year, Vitica Arnold talks about her research as an informatics Ph.D. student in UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences ( ICS ). As a member of the Accessibility Research Collective (ARC) lab, Vitica’s work explores how to design technology to better support people with cognitive disorders such as ADHD and Alzheimer’s Disease. With a bachelor’s degree in psychological science from UCI and experience conducting research in the Social & Technological Action Research (STAR) lab, Vitica shares what led to her interest in blending psychology and technology, and why everyone should care about digital accessibility.

What first sparked your interest in blending psychology and tech? I earned my bachelor’s degree in psychological science — which, at the time, was called psychology and social behavior. I started at a community college and then transferred to UCI. I had a year and a half on campus, and then the pandemic happened, moving everything online. A lot of my coursework and research abruptly transitioned online, and we had to stop our clinical trials because we couldn’t be in person. So, I started thinking about how I could study people’s behavior with technology and social media. One of my first projects involved studying how people’s fear of missing out was facilitated through FaceTime and video technology applications. That’s when I first learned about “human computer interaction.”

Thinking about how we could transition our psychology background to study human behavior online is what introduced me to informatics and human computer interaction — which, I like to tell people, is a combination of psychology and technology. That’s when I decided to look up some research labs on campus, and I joined the STAR lab and started working with Dr. Jazette Johnson , helping with her accessibility research.

After I joined Jazette’s research, I applied to and participated in a tech incubator boot camp called Data Skills 4 All , focused on increasing diversity in the tech industry space. As a DS4A fellow, I learned data science techniques and amassed technical skills in Python, learning how to use SQL libraries and packages — Pandas , Matplotlib , NumPy  and statsmodels — to create an interactive Tableau dashboard and Datafolio . This program is ultimately what gave me the technical confidence to apply for a Ph.D. in computing.

What motivated you to stay at UCI for grad school? I felt like I just didn’t have enough time at UCI, and in the time that I was here, I made a lot of connections. As an undergrad, I started a student organization called MIX, which stands for multicultural interracial experience. It was a club for mixed students to come together and bond over their interracial identities. Through that organization, I connected with a lot of student leadership administrators, such as Dean Sherwyn Umali , and with other faculty like Dr. Adisa Ajamu of the Center for Black Culture, Resources, and Research and Dr. Sereseres of the Summer Academic Enrichment Program . I met a lot of people who helped shape me and encouraged me to pursue graduate studies before I even knew what that was. So, it prompted me to come back. Also, I’m from Orange County, so I wanted to stay local to my community and establish some roots here.

Can you also talk about your involvement with the STAR and ARC labs? I joined Dr. Jazette Johnson’s research project on the role of online social support for people living with Dementia and their caregivers, which was my first introduction to accessibility research. I really liked it, so I talked to Gillian Hayes , who runs the STAR lab, and I asked where else I could help. Then, during my gap year — after graduating from UCI but before applying to grad school — Gillian put me in touch with Dr. Franceli Cibrian at Chapman University, a STAR alum. That is where I got to work on my first project on the topic of ADHD, which is now my focus. We worked on designing technology for clinicians to help give a more accurate and efficient diagnosis for people with ADHD.

Then when I applied to UCI for grad school, I got in, but what’s funny is that I didn’t get into the STAR lab originally! Instead, I got into ARC and began my Ph.D. journey working with Dr. Anne Marie Piper , further developing my research into designing assistive technology for people with ADHD. During the second year, I re-joined the STAR lab and am now co-advised by Hayes and Piper. I already have a clinical research background, so now I’m venturing out a bit, looking at online communities with ADHD college students to see what kind of assistive or educational technology they’re using, and what I can create to help them achieve academic success.

What motivated you to explore this research area? This topic stems from my experience as a first-gen college student. I didn’t even know about grad school or research until I transferred to UCI. All this kind of just came at me, but with that I realized how this opened so many doors for me. But it was also really hard, especially as someone with ADHD who has executive functioning challenges. There’s definitely a lot of invisible labor and extra work that you have to do to get to the same places as people who might not have these kinds of difficulties. Just because you can’t see a disability doesn’t mean people aren’t struggling. So that really inspired me to see how students with ADHD are surviving, what technology they’re using to achieve academic success, and how might that technology be further adapted to meet their specific needs.

And you served as a student accessibility volunteer at the 2023 UbiComp conference. How was that? It was amazing. It was my first in-person conference and my first computer science and technology conference, so it was a lot of new things all at once. I learned so much. The person that was running it was from a school in the UK, where there are a lot more guidelines and safeguards for people who have disabilities and just for neurodivergent people in general.

For example, we’re familiar with people who have different sensory needs — we might have a quiet room for someone with autism who is over stimulated. But UK guidelines don’t limit it to just people with disabilities. They also use the quiet room for people who want to pray or for people who might just need a place to calm their thoughts; they don’t necessarily have a disability, but they need to stretch or move their body. It was nice to see how these spaces that were designed around people with disabilities were also being used for people who don’t have disabilities, so it normalized low-sensory, low-stimulation places, recognizing different sensory challenges that are not exclusive to people with disabilities.

Do you have any advice for prospective graduate students, particularly for first-gen students? I’ll start with being first-gen. We often come from a working class background, and that makes us think that our worldview isn’t valuable. But in academia, our world view is extremely valuable! We bring a lot of new perspectives, and that’s a strength. So, for any first-gen students who feel like they don’t fit in, lean into where you came from. It’s going to help you overcome a lot of things.

And for all grad students, keep trying new things. Do the things that you have always wanted to do. Even if you’re not confident, just do it; don’t wait until you’re ready. That’s actually how I got a lot of my fellowships and research projects, just always saying yes to new opportunities.

Another thing is to really anchor into your community — both your academic community, connecting with faculty, but also people outside of academia. Find the people who will ground you and remind you why you’re here. I am an immigrant child too, which adds another layer of complexity. There are a lot of responsibilities, like translating and helping your parents figure out how to live in a country where they don’t speak the language, but it builds resilience and grit — and that resilience has helped push me in grad school.

What’s one thing you wish everyone better understood about accessible technology? The first thing I learned in one of my accessibility classes is that accessibility is not exclusive to people with disabilities. Everyone will be “disabled” at some point in their life — whether it’s through a temporary injury or natural causes like aging — and these technologies will be there to support them. So, it’s really important that we invest in accessibility and disability studies because it does affect everyone, even if you are able-bodied.

— Shani Murray

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