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Tufts theses & dissertations.

This page is a quick overview of resources for finding or writing a thesis or dissertation at Tufts. For more in-depth information, visit our Dissertations and Theses guide .

Find theses & dissertations

Search for specific senior honors theses, master's theses, and PhD dissertations in Jumbosearch .

You’ll find records for both print and digital, and links to the digital version where available.

You can also browse Tufts theses & dissertations in:

• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses @ Tufts . Find masters theses & PhD dissertations, available to members of the Tufts community .
• The Tufts Digital Library . Find senior honors theses, masters theses & PhD dissertations, openly available to all readers . Note that this is not a complete collection of Tufts theses.

Availability of full text online

• PhD dissertations: full text in Dissertations & Theses @ Tufts for most after 1996
• Master's theses: full text in Dissertations & Theses @ Tufts for most after 2005
• Senior honors theses: full text in the Tufts Digital Library for those after 2009

Get help while writing a thesis or dissertation

Get in touch with us  to ask a question or schedule a consultation with a librarian. We can help locate sources, create multimedia components, manage your data, cite sources, answer questions about copyright and about depositing to ProQuest, and more.

See the Resources for writing and submitting a thesis or dissertation page of our Dissertations & Theses guide for considerations in depositing to ProQuest.

The StAAR Center  offers writing support for thesis & dissertation writers.

Visit Scholarly Communication@Tufts’ FAQ for Dissertation and Thesis Writers for more information about your rights as an author.

Honors Thesis

Undergraduates interested in writing a senior honors thesis should first contact their potential research advisor for approval; we suggest doing so towards the end of the junior year. Approved students should then register for ChBE 96 A (fall semester) and ChBE 96 B (spring semester.)

• Timeline and Requirements
• Senior Thesis Information and Support
• Undergraduate Thesis Assistance by Tisch Library : Using the Library for Thesis and Capstone Projects. Research 4 Success is an 8 week, 1/2 credit course offered by Tisch library and specifically designed for students involved in writing a senior thesis.

Senior Honor Thesis Advice

Thank you for agreeing to supervise a senior honors thesis. It’s possible that your student has never before had this much independence or this much to write. Your support is essential to the student’s success.

Resources for Faculty Senior Thesis Advisors

Advising the Senior Honors Thesis: Guidelines for Tufts Faculty Detailed guidelines clarify roles and responsibilities, requirements, how to address typical problems such as lack of progress, and helping your student prepare for the defense.

Dean of Undergraduate Studies  can answer questions about honors thesis policies and deadlines.

Your student’s dean can advise you about how to respond appropriately to a senior who is not making progress on the thesis, wants to take an incomplete for the honors thesis, or may not graduate. The  StAAR Center  provides extensive support to supplement your role as a Senior Thesis advisor. They offer senior thesis workshops, support groups, one-on-one writing consultations, and help with public speaking. Scholar Development offers  funding for undergraduate research , including travel to present the research at conferences. Tufts’ Undergraduate Research Symposium offers your students the chance to present their research to peers on campus.

Senior Thesis

Application of Admission Progress Report Candidate Declaration Form

The Undergraduate Senior Thesis is a two-semester program culminating in a written research thesis, public thesis defense seminar, and private oral examination. The senior honors thesis is a capstone experience for exceptional undergraduates, allowing them to showcase the depth of their Chemistry knowledge and focus on independent research. Students wishing to pursue an undergraduate senior thesis must:

• Be a senior in good academic standing,
• Be majoring in Chemistry, ACS Certified Chemistry, Biochemistry, or Chemical Physics,
• Have been on the Dean’s list at least twice prior to senior year,
• Have at least one prior summer or semester of research prior to senior year.

Students should coordinate with their research director*, register for CHEM 0195 for the first semester of senior year, and complete the Application for Admission to the Chemistry Thesis Program in the spring of their junior year. The research director* must sign the application indicating their approval. This form is due to the Chemistry Department Main Office no later than September 30th of their senior year.

* If the research director is not a chemistry faculty member then a Chemistry faculty member must also serve as co-advisor and also sign the form.

Prior to Senior Year

• [Mandatory] Perform at least one summer or semester of research; one year of prior research is common.
• [Mandatory] Apply to the Chemistry Thesis Program: The application form must submitted to the Chemistry Department Main Office (Pearson 110) no later than  September 30th of the student’s senior year. The Research Director must sign the application form indicating their approval; if the Research Director is not a chemistry faculty member, a chemistry faculty member must serve as co-advisor and also sign the form. The thesis committee must have at least two faculty members from the Chemistry Department. The Department will evaluate the application and notify the student if they are admitted into the thesis program.
• [Mandatory] Register for CHEM 0195 for the first semester of the senior year.

Senior Year, Fall Semester

          All semester:

• [Mandatory] Continue with research. Commit to performing at least 20 hours of research per week during the senior year.
• [Strongly recommended] Attend departmental seminars.

          October:

• Have a planning meeting with the committee by the end of October (recommended but optional).
• [Mandatory] Submit the university form to be enrolled in the Honors Thesis Program

Senior Honors Thesis   Policies and Procedures

In general, the “Thesis Honors Candidate” form must be received in Dowling by mid-October , but please check their website. 

          December:

• [Mandatory] Register for Chem 0199.
• Begin writing thesis, especially introductory sections during the break.

Senior Year Spring Semester

• [Strongly recommended] Attend departmental seminars.         

          January–February:

• [Mandatory] A progress report meeting must be held in January–February . The student should make a 20-minute   presentation of research progress followed by a Q&A and planning discussion. A progress report form must be filled out after the meeting, indicating that the meeting has taken place and that progress toward the thesis is satisfactory, and must be filed with the Main Chemistry Office no later than February 15 of the student’s senior year.

          March:

• [Mandatory] Schedule the thesis defense with the committee. Reserve a room with the Chemistry office and give them a title. The defense is public, announced by the office one week in advance, and the defense must be completed before final exams begin in May . The defense may take place shortly before or during the Reading Period.
• [Strongly recommended] Submit a draft of your thesis to your research director for editing and general approval.

          April–May:

• [Mandatory] Submit a written thesis to the committee at least two weeks before the defense date.
• [Mandatory] Give the defense seminar on the scheduled date. The seminar should be 45 minutes, should include introductory information so that the audience can understand the context of the research, and should be presented at a level understandable by a chemically literate general audience. After the public defense, the committee will question the student privately. The research director must submit the “Recommendation for Senior Thesis Honors” form by the deadline ( usually early May ). 

Senior Honors Thesis

• [Mandatory] Incorporate edits and suggestions from the thesis committee in the written thesis. Deposit the thesis with the Tisch Library. Please check these websites regarding formatting restrictions, how to deposit your thesis, and the deadline ( usually mid-May ):

Senior Honors Thesis   Tufts Archival Research Center   Submit Your Work

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Senior Honors Theses

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The collection is made up of theses written by undergraduate students from various departments as part of the requirements for honors in their department. All students are asked to deposit copies of their theses in the archives, but not all do so, therefore the collection is incomplete. The earliest thesis dates from 1929, but most date from the 1960s onward. Some theses may be under an embargo and not available online until the end of the embargo period.

This collection contains some restricted material. Restrictions related to specific material are listed in the detailed contents list.

Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Please see “Reproductions and Use” on the Tufts Archival Research Center website for more information about reproductions and permission to publish.

This collection is organized into series by department or program.

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Undergraduate Theses

The  Thesis Honors Program  is administered by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Education for Arts, Sciences and Engineering. Please contact the department of your major for specific information regarding writing your honors thesis.

Tufts Archival Research Center maintains a copy of all honors theses that are submitted to the archives.

TARC only accepts theses via electronic submission; paper copies of theses are not accepted.

To submit your thesis electronically, use the  online deposit form .

Additional information on thesis writing is available through  Academic Resource Center Writing Support  or individual departments.

Available Theses

View a list of  Senior Honors Theses  through 2015 that are currently available in the Tufts Digital Collection and Archives (organized by department).

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Dissertations and Theses

Find graduate theses & dissertations, find senior honors theses.

• Resources for writing & submitting a thesis or dissertation
• Dissertations and theses as a research tool

We can help locate sources, create multimedia components, manage your data, cite sources, answer questions about copyright, and more.

Browse the pages of this guide for information on finding:

• graduate theses & dissertations and Senior Honors Theses at Tufts
• resources for writing and submitting a thesis or dissertation
• resources for locating dissertations written by authors at other institutions to use in your research

Get in touch with any questions about this guide or your research.

Search for Tufts master's theses and Ph.D. dissertations in JumboSearch . You’ll find records for both print and digital, and links to the digital version where available.

You can also browse for Tufts theses & dissertations in  Dissertations & Theses @ Tufts , with full text available for:

• Most PhD dissertations after 1996
• Most master's theses after 2005

Tufts undergraduate theses that have been submitted in print form are housed in Tufts Archival Research Center (TARC). More information and a list of theses submitted through 2015 is available from TARC. 

Theses that have been submitted electronically are available in the Tufts Digital Library . Students began submitting theses electronically in 2010.

To find senior honors theses for a specific department :

• Visit the Senior Honors Theses collection in the Tufts Digital Library
• In the "Limit your search" menu on the left side of the page, open up the "Department" filter
• If the department you're looking for doesn't appear in the short list, choose "more" at the bottom to see a full list of departments

Please note that because undergraduates are not required to submit a copy to TARC, your results won't be a complete set of all honors theses written for a particular department.

• Next: Resources for writing & submitting a thesis or dissertation >>
• Last Updated: Aug 6, 2024 4:21 PM
• URL: https://researchguides.library.tufts.edu/theses

Senior Honors Thesis

English majors may apply to write a Senior Honors Thesis, which is a two-semester critical or creative project involving an advanced level of work in an area that students have already studied as part of their major. The thesis is guided by a faculty advisor and a second reader, both of whom should be full-time members in the English Department. The application process is different for critical and creative writing projects, so read below for specific instructions. Once the proposal is approved by the English Department, students register for ENG 0199A (Fall) and ENG 0199B (Spring), both 4 credit courses that also include a required year-long senior thesis workshop.

Please note that students cannot register for the Fall honors thesis course until a proposal has been approved by the English Department. Potential thesis writers should begin the proposal submission process early in the Spring semester of their junior year as proposals are due by April 19.

Qualifications

By Tufts policy, application to write a thesis is limited to students whose names have appeared on the Dean’s List at least twice before their senior year. Transfer students should have appeared on the Dean’s List at least once at Tufts. See “thesis types” for additional creative writing thesis prerequisites.  

Thesis Types

• Critical Writing:   The critical writing thesis is a substantial piece of work (generally between 35 and 60 double spaced pages) that demonstrates the student’s ability to develop and sustain a coherent and comprehensive critical argument. Students are expected to have done prior course work or other research in the proposed field, to demonstrate their ability to sustain an extended independent project, and to present a detailed and seriously thought-out proposal. Questions of organization, format, and length are determined in consultation with the faculty thesis advisor.
• Creative Writing:   The creative writing thesis can be either a unified set of works of varying lengths (poems, short stories, creative nonfiction essays, etc.) or a single creative work (minimum 80 double spaced pages). Students must have taken at least two courses in the relevant genre, one of them at the advanced level, if applicable, which means fiction writers must have taken Writing Fiction: Advanced-ENG 0013 (and received a grade of A or A-) and poets must have taken Writing Poetry: Advanced-ENG 0016 (and received a grade of A or A-).  

Thesis Advisors

Thesis advisors and second readers must be full-time faculty in the English Department   and are usually (though not always) professors with whom the student has already completed coursework in the area to be covered in the honors thesis.  See the current list of full-time faculty members . 

• Critical Writing: Students interested in doing a critical thesis are expected to confer with potential thesis advisor(s) about their projects well in advance,  normally by the start of the Spring term of their junior year . Once a faculty member has agreed to serve as thesis advisor, the student consults with them in developing a proposal to be submitted for approval to the English Department [[email protected]] by April 19th of their junior year. The English Department " Senior Honors Thesis Form " should be filled out, signed by the faculty thesis advisor, and submitted with the proposal.  
• Creative Writing: Students interested in doing a creative writing thesis are required to submit a proposal and writing sample to the English Department Office [[email protected]]  by April 1st of their junior year, as described below and consolidated in this handout .  A committee of faculty will review the applications and select proposals to go forward to submit to the Department for official approval. Students will be informed of the results at this stage will also be matched with a thesis advisor, who will work with them to refine their proposal before submitting to the Department by  April 19th of their junior year . The English Department " Senior Honors Thesis Form " should be filled out, signed by the faculty thesis advisor, and submitted with the proposal.  

Once the proposal (both critical and creative) is approved by the Department, the student will have permission to register for ENG 0199A.  At the start of Fall semester, they will determine a writing and meeting schedule and identify a second reader in consultation with the thesis advisor (if they have not already done so). The second reader should also be a full-time faculty member of the English Department except under extraordinary circumstances, in which case approval of the Department Chair should be sought as early in the Fall semester as possible.  

Written Proposal

After consulting with the potential advisor (or, for creative projects, the Director of Creative Writing), students who intend to apply to write an honors thesis are expected to produce a written proposal during the Spring term of their junior year to submit for final approval by the English Department by April 19th. The proposals should be submitted to the English Department  [[email protected]] with a completed " Senior Honors Thesis Form " signed by the proposed thesis advisor; when the proposal has been approved, students will be notified that they can register for ENG 0199A in SIS. 

• Critical Thesis Proposal:   The proposal for a critical writing thesis should be two to three pages (double spaced). It should present an overview of the topic, outline the specific questions to be explored, discuss the method of investigation or analysis, and describe the organization of the thesis by section or chapter. It should also include a short preliminary bibliography of works (both primary and secondary) that the thesis will engage.

Creative Thesis Proposal:   Though it is understood that creative projects will evolve during the writing process, the proposal for a creative thesis should act as a point of entry for the writing to be done. In one to two pages (double spaced), it should set out the genre/sub-genres the project will undertake (e.g. novella, story collection, poetry collection, memoir, long-form journalism, hybrid, etc.) and provide a sense of the project, including, when relevant, the premise, driving questions/themes, structures/forms, plot/characters, and influences. It should also name 1 or 2 preferred thesis advisors from the  full-time English Department faculty .  

In addition, along with the proposal, students should submit a writing sample in their intended genre, as follows: for poetry, 3-5 poems; for fiction/creative non-fiction/journalism/hybrid, 5-10 pages (double spaced).

Required Senior Thesis Workshop

All students doing senior honors theses are required to attend the Senior Thesis Workshop that accompanies registration for the Senior Honors Thesis. There will be 3-4 meetings of the Workshop scheduled and facilitated by the English Department Senior Honors Thesis Coordinator each term, including a Thesis Presentation event that will be held in April.

Senior Honors Thesis Registration

The senior honors thesis is a year-long course for which students need permission to register for the Fall semester. Once the thesis proposal has been approved by the English Department, students will be able to register for ENG 0199A for Fall and ENG 0199B for Spring by selecting the faculty member who is serving as the thesis advisor from the drop down list available on SIS. In addition, in the Fall students must complete the online Senior Honors Thesis Candidate Declaration Form required by the Registrar. 

Course Credits

• A Senior Honors Thesis counts for a total of two 4-credit courses, one for each semester registered.
• One course of a Senior Honors Thesis may count as one of the five elective courses required for the English Major. The second course of a Senior Honors Thesis is additional to the ten courses required for the English Major.
• Understanding that the thesis is a 4-credit course each term, students are expected to make on-going progress on their thesis work throughout the academic year. Progress should be assessed at the end of the Fall term in consultation with the thesis advisor.

Thesis Defense

The Senior Honors Thesis culminates in a thesis defense conversation, which is an hour-long discussion and critique of the thesis work with the thesis advisor and second reader. After the defense, the two faculty readers determine a letter grade and the level of honors to be awarded. The letter grade will be entered for both semesters.

Students are expected to hand in final versions of their theses to their faculty readers  at least two weeks before their defense date.  The defense usually takes place at the end of the Spring term, or at the latest by the last day of reading period. 

Archiving Manuscripts

After the defense and after making any necessary corrections, students should submit a final, corrected copy of their completed senior honors thesis to the Digital Collection and Archives (DCA) at Tufts either in digital form or as a hard copy.  Deposit Form for the Tufts Digital Library . Students are encouraged to provide a printed copy for the English Department archives. 

Fulfilling Major Requirements

One course of the Senior Honors Thesis can count as one among the five elective courses required for the ten course English Major. The second course of the Senior Honors Thesis is additional to the ten course English Major. Students can complete the other requirements for the English Major while working on their Senior Honors Thesis.

Further Information and Writing Support

Students are highly encouraged to visit the following websites for extensive support in planning and writing their senior honors thesis:  StAAR Center  and  Tisch Library .