Undergraduate Thesis Requirement

The Geol 498B senior thesis requirement in Geological Sciences is intended to provide students with a high-quality collaborative research experience under the guidance of a faculty mentor. The Department has a long history – over 40 years - of providing such opportunities for our undergraduate students, many of whom have presented results of their research at professional meetings and/or published results in professional journals. Via this requirement, students get to experience firsthand the process of scholarly research, are better prepared for graduate school, and are better equipped to make career decisions. Graduating seniors make an oral presentation of their research on “thesis defense day” at the end of Spring semester and a faculty committee selects the outstanding thesis.  Love Library houses the collection – which totals many hundreds - of our undergraduate theses.

In order to benefit most from the thesis requirement – you are encouraged to select a faculty mentor and thesis topic as early as possible in your undergraduate training – and in general at least two semesters prior to your expected graduation date. Settling all this by the end of your junior year - prior to summer - is an ideal situation that will allow you plenty of time to do a good job.

If you have a specific thesis topic in mind – this is great!  If not, don’t worry because most students in fact collaborate with faculty to define and develop a research topic.  The listing below indicates the general areas of research expertise and interest of individual faculty members.  Students are responsible for initiating discussion with faculty members about possible thesis work.