In the past few years, cases of students beginning the process of Senior Honors Theses - only to drop them later - have been rare.
This trend not only reflects how selective the program is in allowing students to write senior theses, but the extent to which students are dependent upon their advising professors to mentor them throughout the year.
The Senior Honors Thesis program is a year-long project that is offered to undergraduates in every department at the University. While the specific procedures vary from department to department, in general, students must propose a topic to the department either at the end of their junior year or at the beginning of their senior year.
If the proposal is accepted, the students will work with a trio of advising professors throughout their senior years to develop their theses.
Non-honors senior theses, on the other hand, usually need only one professor's guidance throughout the semester. It is common, however, for Senior Honors Theses students to work primarily with only one of their three advising professors.
"The chair of a student's advising committee will generally get the student started on research, help to focus the student's ideas and read drafts through the year," said Carmen Lowe, assistant director of the Office of the Dean of the Colleges. "The two non-chair advisers on the committee are meant to help answer more specific questions as they arise."
Philosophy major senior Eitan Hersh, is currently working on an Honors Thesis that incorporates Philosophy, Education, and Political Science. Hersh said he reported to his primary advisor about once a week during the fall semester.
"To this point, I've only met with my other two advising professors twice each," Hersh said.
Although the Office of the Deans of the Colleges does not keep records of how many seniors drop Honors Theses, many professors, including English Professor Jonathan Wilson and Mechanical Engineering Professor Douglas Matson, said that this rarely happens.
"They're tough students," Matson said. "They always get it done."
According to Matson, Mechanical Engineering theses are generally divided into two parts - during the first semester, students work on an "experimental thesis" and a "technology review" is written during the second semester.
According to Mechanical Engineering Professor Anil Saigal, although some senior theses are based off the research of graduate students, other students are very independent when coming up with ideas.
Mechanical Engineering senior Paul Nangeroni came up with his own idea for a thesis involving the physics of an in-flight Frisbee.
Matson said he feels his students largely benefit from working on a senior project and thesis.
"Students experience independent work, and gain a strong sense of the application of mechanical engineering," he said.
Other professors, including Philosophy Professor Nancy Bauer, said, however, that not all students are passionate or mature enough to write a senior thesis.
"I'm opposed to the school of thought that students must write a thesis," she said. "I often discourage students from starting a thesis [if I don't think they will do a good job finishing it]."
In some departments, such as the Philosophy Department, professors do not approve proposals for theses that are unlikely to pan out. This restriction is in place in the hopes that all students who begin work on theses will end up with quality work.
Other departments make sure students are dedicated by having them start the process as early as their junior year.
"The Department of Political Science requires that juniors apply in the spring semester to the Honors Thesis Program," Political Science Professor Vickie Sullivan said. "In this way, the department wants to encourage students to begin a dialogue with their potential thesis advisor very early in the process."
In general, however, Tufts faculty want to see seniors work on writing a thesis.
"Some students produce remarkable work for me," said Wilson. "I've really enjoyed working with them [on their theses]."
Some faculty members are impressed by their own students' motivation that they factor in the effort that the student put in into the final grade.
"Sympathy can be a factor, but I will only raise the course grade, not the honors awarded to the thesis [based on effort]," Bauer said. "I don't think that it is an issue with the University."
According to Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser, professors don't only affect the level of independence that students experience - they also help to shape and direct where the students' research will go.
"Students should work on something that turns them on, and the faculty will respect that," Glaser said. "But students don't know about many opportunities, resources, and barricades. Ideally, faculty members should play strong roles."
At similar schools, such as the Johns Hopkins University, the undergraduate senior thesis program is slightly different than the one at Tufts, but the trends in terms of drop rate and faculty influence tend to remain the same.
"For a few years in the 1990s we tried making the senior thesis a requirement for all majors in the department," Hopkins Professor Sharon Kingsland said. "Students would often procrastinate, fail to start their work early enough, and fail to budget their time, and as a result, we had many panicked students in April who had to be pushed by the faculty to complete the thesis."
Kingsland said, however, that making the thesis optional increased the average quality of work, and that seniors tend to stick with it.
