April 19, 2004 Vol. 93, No. 24 Archives   Previous   Next Contents Page one • Senior thesis: A rite of passage • Proposals presented to curb grade inflation Senior thesis • Research gets under the skin • Performer takes on the role of a lifetime • Engineer crunches literary data to seek truth about fiction • Playwright puts new twist on minstrel comedy Inside • Increase in student body deferred until fall 2007 • Reality can be stranger than myth when it comes to espionage • Board approves 14 promotions Sections • Calendar of events • Nassau Notes • People, spotlight • By the numbers   The Bulletin is published weekly during the academic year, except during University breaks and exam weeks, by the Office of Communications. Second class postage paid at Princeton. Postmaster: Send address changes to Princeton Weekly Bulletin, Office of Communications, Princeton University, 22 Chambers St., Suite 201, Princeton, NJ 08542. Permission is given to adapt, reprint or excerpt material from the Bulletin for use in other media. Subscriptions. The Bulletin is distributed free to faculty, staff and students. Others may subscribe to the Bulletin for $14 for the spring semester of the academic year (half price for current Princeton parents and people over 65). Send a check to Office of Communications, Princeton University, 22 Chambers St., Suite 201, Princeton, NJ 08542. Deadline. In general, the copy deadline for each issue is the Friday 10 days in advance of the Monday cover date. The deadline for the Bulletin that covers May 3-16 is Friday, April 23. A complete publication schedule is available at deadlines or by calling (609) 258-3601. Editor: Ruth Stevens Calendar editor: Carolyn Geller Staff writers: Jennifer Greenstein Altmann, Steven Schultz Contributing writers: Dimitra Kessenides, Eric Quinones, Cynthia Yoder Photographer: Denise Applewhite Design: Mahlon Lovett, Laurel Masten Cantor, Margaret Westergaard Web edition: Mahlon Lovett

Senior thesis: A rite of passage

Potentially useful thesis tip #1: The thesis is a journey and not a destination.

Princeton NJ -- Christine Barrett, a member of Princeton's class of 2003, gives that piece of advice, along with 10 other "potentially useful tips," to seniors embarking on their independent work in a book, "The Thesis: Quintessentially Princeton," distributed to incoming students, juniors and faculty members.

". . . the thesis is the most rewarding not when it is turned in, but rather when one is in the throes of wrestling with the material, trying to fit a fascinated mind around the topic," she writes.

Requiring a thesis of its undergraduates sets Princeton apart from other colleges and universities where it often is an option. The thesis, an independent work that typically runs about 100 pages, gives seniors the opportunity to pursue original research and scholarship on a topic of their own choice under the guidance of faculty advisers. All theses are archived in Mudd Manuscript Library.

The thesis book, published by the Office of the Dean of the College, includes 31 essays by students in the classes of 2002 and 2003 describing their experience. It also contains companion essays by faculty members about working with students on these in-depth projects, which can be a paper, a play or some other work that caps their undergraduate years.

". . . the most rewarding aspect of advising seniors is the joy I derive in interacting with the students and seeing them transformed from receptors of information to innovators of useful ideas," writes Salvatore Torquato, professor of chemistry.

This issue of the Princeton Weekly Bulletin features stories about four members of the class of 2004 who are completing their journeys this spring.

• Research gets under the skin
• Performer takes on the role of a lifetime
• Engineer crunches literary data to seek truth about fiction
• Playwright puts new twist on minstrel comedy

 

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