Getting Started with the Honors Thesis

While our guidelines page provides a thorough overview of the Honors Thesis Program, this page is designed to help students get started.

 

  1. Assemble the Thesis Committee. The Thesis Committee consists of two to three faculty mentors who agree to advise a study throughout their thesis’ composition. Students should have these faculty members selected and their consent secured before they submit any document to the Honors Thesis Program.

     

  2. Register for the course. The student will coordinate with their department to register for the first thesis course, 4990 in their major, with the first reader listed as the instructor. The Honors Thesis Program cannot register students for coursework. Typically, the person within the department that the student should seek out is known as the “departmental secretary,” or, “class scheduler.” The faculty within the student’s Thesis Committee will likely be aware of this person.

     

  3. Submit the Honors Thesis Prospectus. Once the above are completed, the student may submit their Honors Thesis Prospectus to the Honors Thesis Program. This is done through the forms listed on the “Thesis Forms” section of program website. Once submitted, the form will automatically be forwarded to the Thesis Committee members for their approval.

 

After the student has submitted the prospectus and registered for the course, they are then considered Honors Thesis authors. They will receive an introduction email from the program and be included in all future communication.

 

Helpful Hints 

 

  • The above is an oversimplification of the program, but sufficient enough to get started. Questions regarding faculty and student eligibility, types of theses, and so on can be answered by our guidelines and FAQ pages online.
     
  • The student should familiarize themselves with the Honors Thesis Program in its entirety and not rely on their committee members for program information. The Thesis Program has existed for decades and gone through many iterations, and thus, institutional knowledge of the program may be outdated.
     
  • The Honors Thesis Program sets relatively few guidelines for the program: We do not read or evaluate students’ theses—that is the responsibility of their Thesis Committees. Questions regarding rigor, quality, and style are best answered by the student’s major department.
     
  • You do not need approval from the Honors Thesis Program to enroll in the program. You must simply do the above, steps 1-3, to be enrolled in the program.
     
  • It is generally recommended for a student to begin the process of networking with faculty members and composing their prospectus well before their senior year. The majority of authors have their committees assembled by the final semester of their junior year, for instance.