Panning Your Undergrad Thesis: Advice and Tips

Around this time of year you should be thinking about or have already started the steps towards your undergraduate thesis if you’re planning on doing one next year. If you haven’t however, don’t panic, truth is, you’re probably not alone or in the minority.

            When I started my undergraduate degree, I had no idea what was involved in the preparation for it, and it may vary depending on the university that you are going to, however, some things other than dates and deadlines should be relatively similar.

            I am writing this blog as profs don’t realize that it’s not common sense to know when and how to start preparing to write an undergrad thesis if you’ve never done it before. So, hopefully I can give you a bit of a nudge in the right direction…and if nothing else, at least provoke you to inquire at your department as to what you should be doing and when you should be doing it.

 Either way, these are a few important steps I learned during my experience:

 1. Choosing a thesis supervisor: To do this go to your department’s website and look for the faculty list. Then comes the fun part…look at every professor’s profile and see if their interests match yours. Make a list of all the professors and their profiles that you like and once you’re done here’s a great tip…have you ever heard of the website rate my professors? No? Well it’s fantastic! Basically, it’s a website that lists schools across the country and the professors at these schools and students can go in and rate each professor and describe why they’ve given them those ratings (based typically on average easiness, helpfulness, clarity, overall quality and there’s even a hotness rating…oh how bold). So, go to this website: www.ratemyprofessors.com and search each of the professors you found an interest in. This can give you a good idea as to how each will work with you and if they’re worth pursuing.

 2. Choosing a topic: Make sure it’s a topic you’re going to enjoy…or at least have a high tolerance for (i.e. make sure it’s something you wont get sick of quickly), as chances are you’re going to be spending the majority of your year researching and writing about it. This topic should also be similar to the interests of each professor you want to work with. For instance, if the prof you are writing has an interest in female offenders, try and find a specific topic you’re interested in related to female offenders and include this in your email to the prof. Keep in mind that some professors will have research projects on the go already and will want you to help with these for your thesis, make sure you’re ok with this first or thank them for the offer, but explain you’d prefer to work on a topic more inline with your interest/one of your own. Also, the topic you chose should be narrowed down immensely! I revised my topic about 5 times before I actually came up with the one I ran with. The professor will help you to do this likely, but be prepared to cut a lot of the fat off that idea (what a metaphor for a vegetarian!).

 3. Start preparing early: I say this as, like I said you will likely be revising your topic at least quite frequently, also, you should start looking for your supervisor/professor in Jan or Feb of the year before you start your thesis…i.e. for writing your thesis this coming Sept, you should be emailing professor at this time (the earlier the better). Some professors will not want to be contacted so early and will ask you to email them again at a later date, but chances are you’ll be well prepared for when they do want to discuss it. Furthermore, you want to have the first choice of professors and contacting them early can give you that edge. For many professors, they will want to hear from you early on to start prepping you for the next year.

 4. Set deadlines for yourself/be organized: This is super important and will likely be done with the help of your supervisor/professor. A lot of people start researching their thesis in the summer before they actually start it. This can save a lot of headache during the year and help you start out on a smoother pace. Also, if you have to go back and restart or revise anything, you’ll be able to know this earlier on (and believe me this happens more often than not so don’t worry or be too frustrated if you have to start over a few times). Leave enough time to re-write your thesis a few times and have more than one person read it over first to ensure that others outside of you and your supervisor will understand what you’re trying to say/what you’ve found.