Research
Honors Theses and Projects
An honors thesis or other culminating honors project is an original contribution to inquiry or art. It typically takes a semester or two to design, complete, defend, and submit to the Honors Program for archiving. These projects are mentored, approved, and credited within majors — usually in the student’s junior or senior year.
Just as a master’s thesis consummates study for a master’s degree, or a doctoral dissertation completes work on a PhD, an honors thesis or project lets students experience and evidence the highest levels of excellence in honors education. It enables Honors Students to share directly in the highest pursuits that are the greatest glories of a major research university.
This is why some programs require and many count an honors thesis or project for graduation with honors in the major. It is why virtually all majors provide faculty supervision and 3-6 s.h. of academic credit for completing an honors thesis or similar project. (If yours doesn’t, we can probably arrange an Honors Research Practicum to do the job.) And it is why Honors at Iowa strongly encourages its students to do honors theses or projects to cap their studies. Thus each approved honors thesis or project archived by Honors earns an Honors Commendation.
Requirements for Honors Theses and Projects can be accessed on the right. The same goes for the titles and abstracts of earlier efforts.
Start thinking about possibilities for honors theses or projects no later than your third year of study. Students who leave thesis work entirely to the senior year are unduly at the mercy of unexpected complications: The perfect faculty mentor has planned a research leave for that year. Resources take longer to round up than you anticipated. Experiments or interviews consume more time than you expected.
Writing a longer essay than before is a categorically bigger organizational challenge than you understood. Family or personal illness slows your work. And so on and on. Beginning before the last couple of semesters is the best guarantee that a late thesis won’t threaten to delay your graduation. Some departments do not even let students start theses in the semesters just before their planned graduations: so check rules of your major with plenty of time to spare.
Talk early with plausible faculty mentors: professors whose courses you have found most exciting and faculty specialists in topics of personal interest to you. If you are not sure about potential mentors, speak with faculty friends whatever their specialties, departmental honors advisors, or members of the Honors Professional Staff. Many times, good projects arise from earlier situations where you have helped with a faculty member’s research or art: for honors projects, try turning the tables by having the faculty member help you with a related inquiry.
However you initiate the process, give yourself the opportunity to consider with practical care the ways that an honors project might crown your education at Iowa. Then if you are not sure how to proceed, please come to see any of us in Honors, because we are especially eager to help you have the best possible chance at this potentially superb experience!