Those of us who are graduating are firmly immersed in thesis presentation season. Friends across disciplines are presenting incredible examples of original work. The opportunity to see your friends excel and establish themselves in the academic community is an opportunity that many of us will never have again. Yet senior theses and fellowships are relatively rare at Dartmouth.
As someone who hoped to write a thesis, I write this article with some regret. Last spring, faced with an overwhelming course load and a desire to pursue an interdisciplinary topic, I let internal and institutional barriers prevent me from writing a government thesis. I did, however, have the opportunity to complete the studio art's seminar series, in which participants complete two terms of independent work during senior winter and spring. This has led me to believe that Dartmouth needs to encourage more independent work in the senior year. Moreover, increased flexibility and interdisciplinary work is the only way that the College will be able to increase participation in critical independent learning experiences.
While Dartmouth students can conduct term-long independent studies with the support of a single professor, the devotion of a significant portion of senior year to a topic or area of interest is a practice that prepares students to exit the academic environment. The ability to exert ownership and direction of one's work, rather than continuously responding to a professor's prompt or problem sets, will prepare us for life after Dartmouth.
Currently, students can write a thesis or pursue departmental honors within their major. The only way to complete an "interdisciplinary" thesis is to major in a discipline that is inherently interdisciplinary, such as comparative literature. Another option is the Senior Fellowship, a rigorous program in which students commit their entire senior year to a single project. Students can also pursue independent studies; however, given their short time frame, these projects often lack the structure and planning that a thesis, fellowship or honors project demands.
Of our peer institutions in the Ivy League, only Princeton University requires a thesis from all students. At Princeton, independent work begins junior year with "Junior Papers," and culminates senior year when students take a reduced course-load and write a thesis. Many students at other Ivy League schools do choose to participate in thesis or senior project programs. Based on the latest available data from the class of 2010, roughly 30 percent of Dartmouth seniors wrote theses or pursued honors degrees, compared to approximately half of Harvard's senior class and only 21 percent of Penn's.
While we do not need a regimented, mandated system like Princeton's, Dartmouth should create a culture focused on culminating independent work. Our peer institutions provide term-by-term information for planning a thesis online, starting during sophomore year. Though this may seem excessive in Dartmouth's purportedly "relaxed" academic culture, this is the approach that departments need to take if they want students to be prepared to undertake these endeavors.
Furthermore, to accommodate the interests of students with multiple majors and minors, or students with interests that span several disciplines, Dartmouth needs to create institutional structures for interdisciplinary thesis writing and research. This practice already occurs at Harvard and will undoubtedly require additionally administrative support. However, as a liberal arts institution that allows students to pursue multiple concentrations, we have an obligation to let students synthesize and bring together these interests in the form of a senior thesis.
Finally, Dartmouth needs to move away from the narrow view of a thesis as a long, exclusively written tome. Cohesive capstone courses during the final year already exist; the studio art program I participated in pushed me to create a consolidated body of work, while the Thayer School of Engineering's capstone project for the Bachelor of Engineering degree, Engineering Sciences 89 and 90, is a two-term sequence in which small groups of students solve a challenge for a real client.
Not everyone wants to write a thesis, but for those who do, Dartmouth needs to ensure that the thesis experience will reflect the individual student's interests and goals. And for students who do not wish to write a thesis, we need to ensure that they receive substantive capstone courses that allow them to reflect on the body of knowledge they have acquired through their major.
