Senior Thesis Procedure Guidelines
Each department develops thesis procedures appropriate to its discipline. Your department will have its own preferred structures, and therefore you must consult as early as possible with your departmental liaison and your departmental advisor.
To successfully complete the thesis, you must do the following:
- You must pre-register for the thesis in the semester prior to the one in which you intend to earn thesis credits.
- In the semester that you pre-register for the thesis, you must consult with faculty in your department. You will need an approved topic and an advisor to pre-register for the thesis.
- When you have a topic and an advisor, you will complete the Honors Thesis Agreement and submit a copy to your departmental liaison. Many departments have their own forms, but if yours does not, the University Honors Program provides one at www.unh.edu/honors-program/forms.html
- Your Liaison will provide the UHP with a copy of your Honors Thesis Agreement. Your liaison’s timely submission of the agreement will result in your earning graduate student borrowing privileges at Dimond Library for the duration of your thesis work. Be sure, then, to remind your liaison to hand in your agreement. Your agreement also lets us know that you plan on graduating with an Honors designation.
- Prior to graduation, you will publicly present your thesis, either at the annual Undergraduate Research Conference, or at another departmentally approved public event.
- When you complete your thesis, we expect that you will submit copies both to your department and to the UHP. Please see the “Guidelines for Submission” for details.
Keep in mind that although departments vary in the specifics of the formats for the thesis, all require that the thesis demonstrate the culmination of the following central values of the University Honors Program:
- Students will be expected to pursue opportunities in the discipline that demand greater depth and rigor than those normally required by the major;
- They will be expected to complete the curriculum at a consistently high level of achievement;
- They will be expected to engage in independent study and research (under the supervision of a faculty member) beyond the requirements of their course-work;
- And they will be expected to present publicly, and in some cases defend, a culminating project that synthesizes aspects of their study.