Areiana’s Declassified Thesis Survival Guide: Chapter 1: Senior Thesis
It is now the spring semester of my senior year, and time has FLOWN. After having a year online because of COVID, then my first year in-person last year, and now my final year of undergrad, it feels like everything happened so fast. Now that I’m a senior, though, I just have to get through this last stretch, then I’ll be graduating!
This last stretch is about to be a real challenge, and the main reason is because of Senior Thesis. At the end of every student’s undergrad years is a sort of culminating project. It’s a lot like a final project, except instead of being for a single class, it’s for your entire undergrad career. The type of project you will have to do depends on your major and what you choose. For Psychology majors, you can choose between conducting research or doing a final paper, which I will be doing – Senior Thesis.
3 Pieces of Advice:
Figure out what you want to do/your interests early on
Now, I’m gonna say this, and some people might disagree, but you should really be thinking of a topic for your thesis from the start of your senior year. You’ll decide on one later in the fall semester, but to get a jumpstart, you should be thinking of topics of interest as soon as possible. Starting early will help you be more prepared when it comes time for research question selection.
Know your deadlines and give yourself time to write
A BIG problem I’ve been facing is that I haven’t been giving myself enough time to write. I’ve always had trouble with deadlines, and it’s been no different with those related to my paper. When my professor gives the class deadlines for assignments related to thesis, I always think “I have so much time to do this” – and it’s true! Until the days start counting down and I still haven’t started the assignment. My best writing has come when I actually had time to sit and think about what I wanted to say. Yes, I do word vomit still to get the ideas out, but the difference is that I have the time to look over it and actually fix things instead of just turning in the vomit-stained paper. This is why I want to stress the importance of giving yourself the time that you need to write.
Make time for self-care
This is such generic advice, but it honestly might be one of the most important. Thesis takes a lot out of you mentally and emotionally. It can leave you feeling drained (and make you want to drop out). So, to avoid burnout, and delay the inevitable senioritis that is only made worse with all of the writing, it’s extremely important that you take the time to care for yourself (this is also highly encouraged by the senior thesis professors)! Self-care can be as simple or elaborate as you want, just make sure you make the time for it.
Of course, while this advice is focused on senior thesis, some of it can also be generalized and applied to other classes or assignments or – for the self-care part – life. in general.
Takes from other majors
Biology: The options for biology thesis are library-based research or laboratory-based research. One piece of advice that I would give to people choosing their thesis idea is to not hesitate talking with many different professors about conducting research! Doing research with professors at Arcadia is very unique and not only can help you with your thesis, but help you gain life-long skills!
History: As a history major, your thesis is a roughly 30 to 40 page research paper with your own posed thesis. You have the creative freedom to literally pick anything you want to write about. It’s a year-long course so you enroll in fall and spring and just write write write write. Advice I would give is to think of potential topics over the summer going into your senior year. The earlier the better so you can workshop it sooner and start writing – also to utilize all the time you have and view it as a few 5 to 7 page papers and not one 40-page paper because it’s much more daunting that way and you’ll be writing in sections anyway!
