andfree

I find it strange that your professors were unwilling to work with a new author —especially since their role as an advisor is not be an expert on your subject, but to help YOU become SOMEWHAT of an expert on it, at least enough of one to make a sustained argument about it. To answer your question, in my own opinion it is not that significant to have completed a thesis when applying to grad school. With that being said, the thesis will help help you with things that ARE important: articulating a proposed research project, explaining the application of a theoretical approach to some concrete case, etc. These are things you will need to do in your statement of purpose, but it sounds as if, based on your enthusiasm for your project, that you have a clear and focused idea. So, in summary, think of the thesis as a project for YOU, and not something that is a prerequisite or something that will impress an admissions committee. I would not give up on trying to find a way to complete the thesis—there are lots of open-minded faculty in the school which I suspect you are at (based on your location). Also, one last thing to think about regarding graduating with honors: as you do more research in preparation for grad school, you will be spending a lot of time looking at faculty web pages trying to find people you want to work with. Each professor will list their educational history: only in some cases do they list where their baccalaureate degree is from, and they almost NEVER indicate that they graduate summa or whatever. Most of these people are rather brilliant and I can only assume that they graduated with some form of honors. The point is that after a few years, it just doesn't matter anymore.