For Seniors

Develop an Expertise through your Senior Thesis

  • Revisit your departmental Independent Work Guide to familiarize yourself with departmental goals and expectations regarding the senior thesis.

  • Search the Thesis Archive on DataSpace to explore topics, gather ideas for possible faculty advisers, find sources, gain familiarity with disciplinary writing styles, develop research methodologies for your own thesis, and understand what makes a good senior thesis.

  • Initiate regular meetings with your faculty adviser to discuss your progress and address challenges with your thesis research as soon they arise.

  • Sign up for a thesis bootcamp or one of the many other workshops offered in support of independent work and keep track of upcoming funding opportunities and deadlines through PURC, the Princeton Undergraduate Research Calendar.

  • Apply for A.B. senior thesis funding through the Student Activities Funding Engine (SAFE) to fund your thesis research over fall break, winter break, and/or intersession. When applying for funding to the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), review the funding guidelines to optimize your chances of getting funded.

  • Collaborate with a non-profit organization on an interesting thesis research topic with funding and support through the Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship (ProCES). Participate in their "short report" writing workshop to help broaden the impact of your thesis research and directly benefit the community.

  • Incorporate sustainability into your research through the Campus as Lab program. Study Princeton’s infrastructure, operations, or culture to help solve a sustainability challenge right on campus that has global implications. The Office of Sustainability has created a list of Campus as Lab research questions, filterable by discipline and topic, on its website.

  • If you intend to work with human or animal subjects, plan ahead and attend a workshop on the IRB and IACUC approval process.

  • Sample departmental seminars and Ph.D. defenses to broaden your exposure to research in your discipline.

  • Apply to the Undergraduate Fund for Academic Conferences to present your independent work at a conference.

  • Present your research or creative work at the campus-wide Princeton Research Day in May. Practice communicating your work and findings to a general audience and join in the celebrations with people from across the University!

  • Subscribe to the Princeton Correspondents on Undergraduate Research Blog to be the first to read student-authored posts on independent work and tips for finding the support you need.

  • Interested in graduate school? Reach out to your faculty adviser, graduate students, and postdocs in your department to find out if graduate school is the right choice for you. Visit the Career Services website to research programs and learn more about the application process and timeline.

  • Review the month-by-month Senior Action Plan to help you make sense of your last year at Princeton and stay on track.

  • Schedule an appointment in Bookings with Dr. Pascale Poussart, director of undergraduate research, or Dr. Caitlin Larracey, assistant director, to discuss your research options during this academic year and next summer.