Who Needs a Thesis Anyway?

Come Gov jocks one, come Gov jocks all, but just don't come looking for senior thesis advisers because there just aren't enough to go around.

Kirkland House resident Nancy D. Prior '89 says she has spoken to more than nine prospective thesis advisers in the Government Department, but most of them said they were too busy because they already had advisees or were doing their own work and did not want to take on extra responsibility.

"The Government Department says 'Oh, write a thesis, write a thesis,' and then they have no way of helping you with even preliminary stages," Prior says.

"We have a shortage [of thesis advisers]," admits Jane T. Gray, coordinator of the undergraduate program for government and office manager for the government tutorial office. "There's just not enough faculty and graduate students."

Gray says there is a "supply and demand" problem. The department currently has between 40 and 60 teaching fellows, plus faculty members who serve as thesis advisers, but this apparently is not enough for the more than 80 concentrators who want to write theses. Government advisers usually assist with only three these because of time constraints, Gray says.

Prior says that having to fight for an adviser has changed her whole attitude about writing a thesis. "Because I faced such a big obstacle already, I figure the whole thing isn't worth it," Prior says "A thesis is supposed to bring personal satisfaction, but it's already so dissatisfying because of all the dissatisfying things in the formative stages."

Although Prior has not decided whether she will write a thesis, if she chooses not to, she will not be alone. Many students in Harvard's largest departments, such as government, economics and history, elect not to write theses, thus sacrificing their chance for honors within their department.

Only about 50 percent of all government concentrators actually write senior theses, Grav says. While most students take junior tutorials, many of them decide to write or not to write during spring of junior year or during the following summer. Approximately five percent of those who start government thesis work in the fall drop it by Christmas, Gray says.

In the history department, a larger percentage of concentrators write theses, says Head Tutor Philip A. Kuhn '54. This year, the department has 105 honors candidates and 86 non-honors seniors.

Although the history tutorial office had a line extending outside its door last Friday, as students frantically sought advisers, Kuhn says all but four of the would-be honors candidates now have supervisors, and the rest are "negotiating."

While some students do not write theses because they cannot find advisers, many undergraduates choose not to devote a full-year course to writing just one paper--thus dropping honors--for other reasons.

"The reasons [for dropping] vary," Gray says. "Sometimes they think their grades aren't good enough, some don't feel passionate enough about a topic to stick it through."

Senior James S. Keller '89 says he is not writing a thesis because he could not find a topic that "captivated" him enough to "dedicate a semester to." Without the pressure of a thesis, Keller says he can devote more time applying for jobs and playing rugby.

Career-minded students often find this route attractive. Government concentrator Kathaleen A. Kelly '89, who has not decided whether to write a thesis, says she has been advised not to, because theses do not matter for law or graduate school or what she does after college.

After all, students who choose the non-honors track within their department can still graduate with a form of honors. Students with grade point averages better than "B" are granted a cum laude degree in general studies.

And they won't have to work as hard come March, when most theses are due.

Seniors who opt for a "quieter"--or maybe not so quiet--final year say that they have more freedom.

"It opens up my senior year," says Daniel A. Kaufman '89. "I want to take more time to spend with my friends and just do what I feel like."

Kaufman admits "it's sort of a cop out," but adds that he did spend much time thinking about writing a thesis after writing his junior paper and "just couldn't come up with something that interested him."

Lack of interest is also one of the reasons Gorm H. Ginsberg '89 cites for his decision not to go for honors. "The most important thing is to have some kind of intense experience before you leave [Harvard], but not necessarily academic," Ginsburg says.

Although most students who choose to honors actually complete a senior thesis, some do not. Ten percent of all honors history concentrators drop down into the non-honors track over the course of their time at Harvard, Kuhn says.

The largest drop-off occurs during junior year, but some students wait until later. The English Department's Assistant Head Tutor for Seniors A.W. Phinney says that approximately five seniors annually drop honors in September of their senior year, and two to five additional honors candidates drop their theses over the course of the year. The English Department currently has 87 honors seniors and 54 non-honors seniors, he adds.

Phinney says seniors who drop honors often find the thesis work a burden and less interesting than other electives, but he adds that there are "not too many cases where they get into trouble with the thesis."

And then there are the government concentrators like Prior who basically feel forced to go non-honors.

Government concentrator Kelly also complains about the lack of thesis advisers. She says she was given a runaround when she went looking for a supervisor. When she asked three people for assistance--all of whom said they were either too busy or didn't think they could help her--she was given a list of other possible advisers to call.

And if that doesn't work, she can look for an adviser elsewhere at Harvard. "After [concentrators] have made a serious effort to find an adviser in the department, they can get advisers outside of the department--usually from the Law School or the Kennedy School--with the permission of the head tutor," Gray says.

But, Kelly says, while she may seek further for an adviser, she now has doubts about writing a thesis at all.

"I'm having trouble with two to three pages [her thesis proposal] in the beginning," she says. "With no one to help me and talk to me, how can I do 80 to 100 pages?"

If Kelly decides that a thesis is just too much trouble, she will join the ranks of the group that Professor of Government Joseph S. Nye, Jr. once called "the forgotten third of the Harvard class."

Many non-honors seniors say they feel unconnected to their department and somewhat adrift.

Harvard places "much too much importance" on thesis writing, and that "if you don't write a thesis, your major doesn't seem to count," says Ginsberg, an East Asian Language and Civilizations (EALC) concentrator.

Other non-honors seniors share Ginsberg's sentiment. "I feel like things [at Harvard] are geared toward those who write a thesis," says non-honors history concentrator Millard B. Rice '89. "The whole tutorial system climaxes with a thesis."

Kaufman, too, says he feels that as a non-honors concentrator, "there's just not a whole lot to talk about, not a whole lot the department can do for you after you've fulfilled all requirements."

But Regine D. Johnson, acting head tutor for the EALC Department, says there is "absolutely no difference" in the way the department regards honors versus non-honors seniors.

Johnson says she is equally accessible to all EALC concentrators, both honors and non-honors, and says she sees every student in the department for an interview before signing study cards each term.

Other departments say that although honors students get thesis-oriented advising, non-honors students have equal access to faculty and advisers.

"It's very important that non-honors seniors understand that we are very concerned about them," says the History Department's Kuhn. "They are very much part of our program."

Kuhn says each history concentrator receives an adviser who is available to assist with academic problems and help prepare him or her for the general examination at the end of the senior year.

But Rice says his adviser told him the general exam was "not something to be concerned about at this point."

"Essentially we agreed I'd hang out until January," Rice says. "[And in January] it'll definitely be up to me to contact him."