Applications affecting current coursework... and what is a "senior thesis" anyway?

[JerryLandis]

Is anyone else having trouble with their current coursework due to the stress of applications? I'm not failing or anything, but my motivation is mostly being spent on perfecting my applications, and sitting around "reading" while simultaneously browsing this forum for reassurance/distraction.

Currently I'm working on my "honours dissertation" (UK undergrad), which is basically a 12,000 word essay on a topic I chose and designed myself. Almost everyone at my university is required to write one in their 4th year. Is this more or less the same thing as a "senior thesis" or "honors thesis?" I get the impression that the American "theses" are not required, but are taken on voluntarily by exceptional students and completed on top of their normal courseloard. Is this correct?

[LateAntique]

Is anyone else having trouble with their current coursework due to the stress of applications? I'm not failing or anything, but my motivation is mostly being spent on perfecting my applications, and sitting around "reading" while simultaneously browsing this forum for reassurance/distraction.

Currently I'm working on my "honours dissertation" (UK undergrad), which is basically a 12,000 word essay on a topic I chose and designed myself. Almost everyone at my university is required to write one in their 4th year. Is this more or less the same thing as a "senior thesis" or "honors thesis?" I get the impression that the American "theses" are not required, but are taken on voluntarily by exceptional students and completed on top of their normal courseloard. Is this correct?

As far as senior theses, some majors in some American universities still require them. My Classics major is one of the last (if not the last) majors on campus to still require a senior thesis. I'm just going to write mine over Christmas break and be done with it.

[JerryLandis]

Thanks. Do you by any chance know what "usitarunt" (I suppose from usitare) means? It's N/A in my Latin dictionary and I don't even know what I'm doing anyway.

[BlueSwedeShoes]

As far as senior theses, some majors in some American universities still require them. My Classics major is one of the last (if not the last) majors on campus to still require a senior thesis. I'm just going to write mine over Christmas break and be done with it.

I'm with JerryLandis on this one. All undergraduate students at my program need to write a thesis to get their degree. I think we have a 8-10k word limit, and the time limit is 10 weeks (á 40 hours per week). But how this more specifically differ from a senior/honor thesis, I have no idea. My got published, does that count as honors? Or is it simply some arbitrary college-specific requirement, e.g. write an additional 1 000 words of whatever, that makes it "honors"?

And, yes, I am stressed out over my applications and yes it goes out over my regular coursework

I'm trying to run an individual research project (actually two, but one is also for credit), and it's getting hard to keep up with it while also trying to get my applications in order...

[LateAntique]

Thanks. Do you by any chance know what "usitarunt" (I suppose from usitare) means? It's N/A in my Latin dictionary and I don't even know what I'm doing anyway.

It's from usitor and it's 3pl. It has a variety of meanings depending upon the context, but it's something like "to be in the habit of using" or "to be common, ordinary,familiar" etc.

[Pamphilia]

Almost everyone at my university is required to write one in their 4th year. Is this more or less the same thing as a "senior thesis" or "honors thesis?" I get the impression that the American "theses" are not required, but are taken on voluntarily by exceptional students and completed on top of their normal courseloard. Is this correct?

At least in my (US) undergrad program, that wouldn't be considered an "honors" thesis, but a "senior thesis" or something of the like. Some departments at my undergrad required their students to do senior theses--for Comparative Literature majors, for example, it was mandatory (I was an English major; it was not obligatory for us). My thesis was an actual honors thesis, as in I had to apply to an honors program in my third year in order to be allowed to do the independent research project, on top of my other coursework, in my fourth year. Not everyone was accepted to the honors program, and once you completed the thesis, it was not a given that you would receive "honors" credit for it. I know a guy whose thesis wasn't up to snuff, and he didn't get his "honors" after doing all the work of the independent research project. I have extra honors on my diploma for doing the honors thesis (technically, my degree is a Bachelor of Arts with Distinction). Some people ended up with "High Distinction." By the standards at my undergrad, THAT was an honors thesis. Though they all wrote theses, the Comp Lit people did not complete honors theses unless they also applied for the honors program.

That said, JerryLandis, if your school calls your thesis as an "honours dissertation," I don't see why you can't refer to it as such in your application. Especially if somewhere you are able to give a description of what the project entails.

[cheesethunder]

lmao this is true

i haven't worked on my thesis since end of sept which ws the last time i saw my supervisor because he.........dissapears

and my classes have been a waste cuz i dont appreciate them at all which is unfortunate you get all the good classes in your senior year! luckily im only doing poorly in 1 class

[LateAntique]

I'm enjoying all of my classes. My largest class is 12 people, and my smallest is just me. Considering I'm the only one in some of my classes, there has been a certain flexibility with my schedule. My professors all know I'm applying to graduate programs and have been extremely helpful and considerate throughout the whole process.

[zilch]

As everyone has said it does seem to vary by University and field. For me, I had a choice between doing a senior design or a senior thesis, which basically boiled down to 'do you want to go into industry or grad school first?'. Senior design had you propose a project and then build and present it, or in some cases a company will come to the department and ask for a senior design team to solve one of their problems. The senior thesis is arranged with an individual professor and it's composed of a semester of research and then a semester to analyze data/tweak things and write the thesis.

I do think that the OP's essay would be equivalent of a senior thesis.

[glasses]

As everyone has said it does seem to vary by University and field. For me, I had a choice between doing a senior design or a senior thesis, which basically boiled down to 'do you want to go into industry or grad school first?'. Senior design had you propose a project and then build and present it, or in some cases a company will come to the department and ask for a senior design team to solve one of their problems. The senior thesis is arranged with an individual professor and it's composed of a semester of research and then a semester to analyze data/tweak things and write the thesis.

I do think that the OP's essay would be equivalent of a senior thesis.

At my school: theses were optional, your research proposal had to be accepted by the department, and "honors" status depended mainly on whether or not you passed your thesis defense at the end of the two semesters (the first for research, the second for writing).

[zilch]

At my school: theses were optional, your research proposal had to be accepted by the department, and "honors" status depended mainly on whether or not you passed your thesis defense at the end of the two semesters (the first for research, the second for writing).

I guess it was kind of optional for us. The senior design was a graduation requirement but one was allowed to substitute a thesis for it. In a department that grants ~200 B.S. degrees a year only 30ish opt to do the thesis. Not sure why it's not more popular.

[natsteel]

I guess it was kind of optional for us. The senior design was a graduation requirement but one was allowed to substitute a thesis for it. In a department that grants ~200 B.S. degrees a year only 30ish opt to do the thesis. Not sure why it's not more popular.

At my large, urban east coast university, the "honors thesis" is optional in the history department. There is no thesis requirement for regular history majors. However, you must be approved to begin the honors thesis. It consists of a one-semester research colloquium, for which you receive three credits. It used to be a semester sequence. Either way, if your thesis is accepted you graduate "with Honors in History."

[coyabean]

I've had talks with all my profs. Most are very understanding of my position.

I have a thesis that is due in, oh, a month or so and I've written exactly zero. LOL I have faith. It'll get done.

[LateAntique]

Although I said earlier I'm enjoying my classes (and I am), I realized this weekend I've been pretty myopic and only focused on grad school stuff. I have two major papers I need to work on and a whole ton of stuff for an online class that is due in a few weeks. I'm not in total freak out mode yet considering I've still got some time (which is a pretty dangerous thing for a procrastinator to tell himself), but it hit me I need to get working on this soon!

[rainy_day]

At my school everyone had to write a 20 page senior thesis. If you wanted, you could write an additional honors thesis, which was 40-50 pages long, and you spend your entire senior year working on it. There were only three of us who opted to do this, my year. I think this is a fairly common approach.

[sometimesiexist]

I go to an honors college, so to graduate everyone has to write an honors thesis. The smallest are the mathematics ones, around 40 pages, with the largest being in humanities disciplines and often exceeding 90 pages. It takes your entire senior year, and you have to give a satisfactory public oral defense of it.

My applications, on top of my thesis, have been killing my course work, I realized yesterday that I have 2 20 page finals due fairly soon that I haven't worked on at all. It's killer.

[rising_star]

If my undergrad senior thesis hadn't been a requirement for graduation, I wouldn't have written it. It ended up being 105 pages and I think I wrote the entire thing in about 3.5 weeks right before it was due. We also had two four-hour exams (comprehensive exams for our major) to complete right after all the spring semester papers were due. While I hated it all, it prepared me quite well for my MA program.

[BlueSwedeShoes]

If my undergrad senior thesis hadn't been a requirement for graduation, I wouldn't have written it. It ended up being 105 pages and I think I wrote the entire thing in about 3.5 weeks right before it was due. We also had two four-hour exams (comprehensive exams for our major) to complete right after all the spring semester papers were due. While I hated it all, it prepared me quite well for my MA program.

Woha, how's this even possible?

105 pages would be what...nearly 50 000 words? My uni gives 8-10k words for BSc thesis and 10-12k words for MS thesis as guidelines. And that's calculated from what's "reasonable" for the alloted time; 400 hours for a BSc thesis and 800 for a MS. Sure, a lot of people go over that word guideline (as well as time limit...) quite a bit, but I don't think I've heard of anyone with more than 25 000 words...

Does those 3.5 weeks include all aspects of a thesis (the literature review, experiment design, data collection and analysis etc) as well? Because damn...I would not have been physically able to do my ~14k words (30 pages) thesis in that time! We also defend our thesis and oppose on another thesis at the same level (BSc or MS) - preparing that alone took me a good 1.5-2 weeks...

Maybe it's just a difference in requirements between countries and/or disciplines, but I can't just see anyone pulling that off here.

[rising_star]

Woha, how's this even possible?

105 pages would be what...nearly 50 000 words? My uni gives 8-10k words for BSc thesis and 10-12k words for MS thesis as guidelines. And that's calculated from what's "reasonable" for the alloted time; 400 hours for a BSc thesis and 800 for a MS. Sure, a lot of people go over that word guideline (as well as time limit...) quite a bit, but I don't think I've heard of anyone with more than 25 000 words...

Does those 3.5 weeks include all aspects of a thesis (the literature review, experiment design, data collection and analysis etc) as well? Because damn...I would not have been physically able to do my ~14k words (30 pages) thesis in that time! We also defend our thesis and oppose on another thesis at the same level (BSc or MS) - preparing that alone took me a good 1.5-2 weeks...

Maybe it's just a difference in requirements between countries and/or disciplines, but I can't just see anyone pulling that off here.

My BA was in a humanities discipline so there was no experiment design or whatever. I had the two main texts picked out and read, and had some of the criticism picked out and skimmed. Oh, and I'd written maybe 8 single-spaced rough pages beforehand because we had to turn in something in December about the project. (Sadly, my argument about the texts changed.) But basically, I sat down and wrote the damn thing because I had to. Also, there's weird formatting with theses so one of the margins was like 1.5" or something plus it's all double-spaced. I feel like I only wrote about 10K words, maybe a little more.

And, for the record, doing all the writing in a month or less is totally doable. For my MA thesis, I had the data and some of the lit review done but wrote it in January because my advisor wanted a full draft on Feb 1. I started writing the first day of spring semester, decided to take in two foster dogs a week or so later, and didn't do much work on the weekends due to an out-of-town significant other. And I totally made that deadline, handing in 75 pages double-spaced (later expanded to 100). Wait, maybe my BA thesis was only 95 pages because I know it was shorter.

Okay, I just found and opened by BA thesis. The works cited starts on pg 92. The 105 pgs is my MA thesis.

[glasses]

105 pages would be what...nearly 50 000 words?

I always thought the 100-page length was kinda common? Where I went, there were no exact restrictions, but the general understanding was that the honors thesis was to be in the ballpark of 60 - 100.

[BlueSwedeShoes]

My BA was in a humanities discipline so there was no experiment design or whatever. I had the two main texts picked out and read, and had some of the criticism picked out and skimmed. Oh, and I'd written maybe 8 single-spaced rough pages beforehand because we had to turn in something in December about the project. (Sadly, my argument about the texts changed.) But basically, I sat down and wrote the damn thing because I had to. Also, there's weird formatting with theses so one of the margins was like 1.5" or something plus it's all double-spaced. I feel like I only wrote about 10K words, maybe a little more.

And, for the record, doing all the writing in a month or less is totally doable. For my MA thesis, I had the data and some of the lit review done but wrote it in January because my advisor wanted a full draft on Feb 1. I started writing the first day of spring semester, decided to take in two foster dogs a week or so later, and didn't do much work on the weekends due to an out-of-town significant other. And I totally made that deadline, handing in 75 pages double-spaced (later expanded to 100). Wait, maybe my BA thesis was only 95 pages because I know it was shorter.

Okay, I just found and opened by BA thesis. The works cited starts on pg 92. The 105 pgs is my MA thesis.

*facepalm* I forgot the standard formatting in the States is double spacing. And you don't use A4 paper, and the margins are different. Yeah, makes more sense now length-wise.

And I believe you; I'm sure it's possible and I know some people work best that way...I just don't think I could