<p>I majored in Visual and Environmental Studies when I was at Harvard because I hadn’t enjoyed any of the paper writing I’d had to do as a freshman. I loved my major, ended up taking lots of architectural history. I even enjoyed writing papers for those courses, and when the time came instead of doing an art project as a final thesis, I wrote a 100+ page thesis on low-cost housing in London and Berlin. I would never have predicted that’s what I’d end up doing when I was a freshman. I chose the major because it had the courses I’d like most. One thing led to another…</p>
<p>Read profiles of the professors in the departments that interest you, then find faculty members doing research in areas that you enjoy or think you may enjoy. Then, go talk to each about their research interests and perhaps ask their opinion on your conception of the “interpretative” in relation to their own work.</p>
<p>You’re trying to plan ahead, but you’re unlikely to be advanced enough in your thinking or subject area knowledge to make any substantive progress as a freshman. I can understand your issue with the way academic articles are presented in certain humanities fields: I have a slightly different criticism in that I constantly try to see their relevance beyond simply “advancing knowledge” and often failing to see any. Still, all it takes is finding a professor who thinks similarly to you and discussing these things – it’ll be helpful. You’re not in graduate school trying to make yourself an academic, the undergraduate thesis is meant as a challenge. </p>
<p>I’ve read a book on the history of Princeton, and since the creation of the thesis requirement, some have been brilliant and published, while the great majority serve as the high-point of the academic experience. Why? I don’t believe that you can understand a topic all that well without formally writing about it. It forces you to confront your arguments and logic in view of your sources all at once, making any flaws quite visible; whereas the jumble of your thoughts can often obscure faulty thinking if not laid out in such a way.</p>
<p>More importantly, pick an area (major selection is 2nd semester sophomore year, correct?) and worry about the rest once you know more. It sounds like you’re debating between humanities and social science, but with the exception of additional math classes for certain social science majors, you shouldn’t have other prereq difficulties. Take a bit of economics, history, and political science perhaps.</p>
<p>If you still have no preferences, just pick the one that has a greater number of interesting classes.</p>
<p>Thank you for the feedback; it is all useful and appreciated.</p>
<p>Along the same lines as JHS: Even research papers require a thesis, a theory, an assertion or there is nothing to research. And they require a conclusion. It’s just that the evidence may be more concrete.</p>
<p>Classics is less theory-laden than English right now. I am English professor and S is a Classics major at Williams. Between studies of archeology, language, history and culture a Classics major does not need to write an inordinate amount of theory based papers, although s/he can if the literature is a dominant interest. Right now S is writing a paper about why Virgil chose the word “hesitate” when Aeneas picks the golden bough – who hesitated and why? Virgil doesn’t say, but the prof thinks each reader should have a theory.</p>
<p>Barnard and Bard among other schools also have the thesis requirement. My D, a Barnard grad, found if you pursue the field whose methodology is most congenial to your own way of thinking the thesis is not difficult because the profs think along the same lines you do. To that end, she chose American Studies over History or English because she found the interdisciplinary approach more congenial. She did write a credible thesis.</p>
<p>I used to teach at Princeton, so I am familiar with its requirements. The whole point of the junior independent project is to get you used to doing the kind of research and writing that you will later be doing in your senior project. Many of my students used the junior project as a springboard to the senior project, often incorporating big chunks of the first year’s work into the second.</p>
<p>So don’t freak out; you’re not going to have to write 100 pages cold, without advice and help along the way. Nor do you need to write a Putlitzer Prize winning, brilliantly original tome. Lots of Princeton theses are, frankly, pretty mediocre products. But they are very useful for teaching students how to organize their thoughts, manage their time, and work on their own.</p>
<p>Helping students through their independent project process is part of the faculty job at Princeton; everybody is used to doing it. That’s a big advantage, because students run into predictable problems and faculty get used to advising them. If you are in a department where students can choose their advisors, see if you can talk to seniors about faculty that have been particularly helpful. A good advisor can make an enormous difference.</p>
<p>Given your interests and Princeton’s majors, economics sounds like a good option for you.</p>