At the end of the academic year, senior thesis writers are breathing a giant sigh of relief after finishing and presenting their projects and finally venturing out of the library.
According to an informal survey of College departments conducted by The Dartmouth, the number of seniors writing theses this year is typical among most departments, with the most thesis writers, 28, in the English department. Of those who penned English theses, 15 wrote critical theses and 13 wrote creatively.
Biology fielded the second-highest number of theses with 20, and 15 majors in both government and psychology chose to write theses. Numbers were unavailable for economics and history.
Although the 15 theses in government actually represent an increase of four projects from last year, the percentage of government majors choosing to write theses this year appeared to be the lowest such figure on record, according to professor William Wohlforth, who co-directed the department's honors program this year.
Statistics for the percentage of seniors completing government theses before this year ranged from a low of approximately 12 percent to a high of 23 percent in 2001.
"I have absolutely no idea why there's a lower percentage this year," Wohlforth said.
The lower percentage may be a result of a dramatic increase in majors this year -- 140 students will be graduating with government degrees this spring, up from 90 last year -- a more-than-50-percent increase. Wohlforth speculated that more students might have been interested in government when they declared their majors three years ago, following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Students have varying experiences with writing theses. Some choose them to learn about research as a possible career, others as a way to intellectually conclude their Dartmouth experiences and others still because their majors required it. Some love the work, while others said they plan to avoid similar projects in the future.
"I would say that writing a thesis is like being involved in a very, very turbulent, romantic relationship," said Gwen Carroll '04, who wrote her critical English thesis on Thomas Hardy's "visual impressionism."
For Carroll, the challenge of condensing 200 years of literary criticism about Hardy's work into her 100-page thesis even made her cry at points.
"It's like trying to tie together a thousand different threads into one coherent braid. And when you lose the threads or when you can't find the right color, it's very frustrating," Carroll said.
Carroll, who will attend law school next year, did not choose to write a thesis to prepare her for a career studying literature. Instead, she said her Dartmouth experience would have been incomplete without the process -- "the most intellectually demanding thing I've ever done here."
Like Carroll, comparative literature major Niki Leiter '04 will attend law school next year. Leiter, who wrote her thesis on women's autobiography and self-portraiture, was required to complete a project as part of her major.
"It's a whole lot better now that it's done," Leiter said.
Leiter did note that she enjoyed writing her thesis and learning about her topic, a process in which her adviser, French professor Marianne Hirsch, aided her.
After starting to think about a topic at the end of her sophomore year, Leiter did the bulk of her thesis writing work during the first few weeks of this term. She was even able to finish the day before Green Key weekend, after camping out at Collis each day and not taking any classes during Spring term to give her more time to work.
Although she does not expect to have to complete another project like her thesis in the future, Leiter said it was "a really good experience -- having to think a topic through and having to be into it for so long."
But while Leiter was enjoying her Green Key weekend and celebrating the completion of her project, biology major Ryan Braun '04 said he was "that lone person in Novack watching all the drunken people go by." Braun was trying to finish work on his microbiology thesis, a nine-month-long process he started in September.
Braun decided to do thesis research to decide if a career in biological research or medicine was right for him. The process helped him find the answer.
"I don't like research -- not at all," Braun said.
