<p>Hey current Princetonians,</p>
<p>I have a small question to ask about Princeton's academics and graduation requirements. If one is majoring a major (say Econ) while pursuing a certficate program (say Neuroscience), and if both the major and the certificate require the completion of a senior thesis, does one then have to write two senior theses in his senior year (one for Econ and one for Neuroscience)? Or does one have to complete only one senior thesis for the major?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>I am not certain how it would work for the combination you described but I know my son had considered doing a certificate in a foreign language in addition to his concentration in engineering. He said one of the ways he could have accomplished all the requirements would have been to write part of his thesis in the foreign language. This would seem to indicate that the thesis work for a certificate is not nearly as extensive as for a concentration. In the end he decided against pursuing the certificate believing that verbal and written proficiency in the language (with or without a certificate) was the more important component and that it would have been a significant challenge to try to work the two areas together. However this scenario is an example of how the senior year work could have been completed with both a concentration and a certificate. It seems there are creative ways of getting it all done. It might be worth contacting the departments you are interested in and see if they have ever had similar scenarios to the one the gave above. </p>
<p>@Cantiger: Thanks for the response! Could you tell me another example of how the senior theses of a major and a certificate program might be fulfilled without having to write both? </p>
<p>Also, do you think Princeton is a great fit for a person who wants to merge different academic interests (Computer Science, Neuroscience, Economics) into a single program of study? I’m still deciding where to file my early application (not much time left though!): at this point, Brown’s New Curriculum and Duke’s Program II/Interdepartmental Major really appeal to me, but I’m not sure whether I would get the same academic flexibility at Princeton, given the rigor of the senior thesis.</p>
<p>Students only write one thesis, but there might be a requirement that the certificate subject matter is incorporated into the paper. Things can be fairly flexible. My son had no trouble bridging his concentration and his certificate and, as I recall, a couple years ago a student studying Physics and Dance covered both topics in one thesis.</p>
<p>@MBVLoveless There’s Computational Neuroscience which my son has done work in. Might have to be a little creative to weave in economics with that. </p>