<p>I am a junior graduating in '09 with a double major in Political Science and Communication Studies. </p>
<p>Having worked with faculty in both departments, I ended up asking professors in both of my majors to assist me with a senior thesis next year.</p>
<p>My interests are pretty broad and I'm pretty sure I can handle the work, but I wanted to ask -- will graduate schools look at this favorably? Or will it look like I lack direction in my studies?</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that I'm going to proceed with this, but just wanted to get your opinions.</p>
<p>Why not write an interdisciplinary thesis that combines both majors (your research interests)? You don't need to write two different senior theses.</p>
<p>Have you really looked into what a senior thesis takes? Some schools I know its minor and just a 10 pg paper, but where I am at many students take an extra semester of just "thesis" work to complete a single one. It takes original survey or other research, analyzing the results, and a 30+ page paper. So just make sure you know the EXACT details before you commit to something like this. If you screw it up it will look very bad (while a single, focused well done thesis will look very good).</p>
<p>Well ProfessorX, that's not entirely true. A list of papers or publications, as long as it's not just trivial nonsense, will be favorably viewed by graduate schools. All research is research; and if you can do research in several fields and produce quality papers, that's very important to most graduate schools.</p>
<p>That being said, I would agree that you should learn the requirements of the thesis. Where I am, it's a two-semester independent study and research program, requiring independent research and thorough analysis. Some theses end up being several hundred pages long, and not all of them are of high enough quality to pass.</p>
<p>Do you really want to risk blowing both senior theses if you get swamped?</p>
<p>I think the best idea would be a strong interdisciplinary thesis which combines your two interests. Classifications are largely artificial, anyway. Your thesis is a statement that you're an academic; and academics don't pander to artificial taxonomies of knowledge. You know your stuff, and you'll write your thesis on whatever you want, if your idea's good. Don't let anybody push you around... but writing two theses at the same time might be dangerous.</p>
<p>csprof,
Let me restate: In admissions to the program I direct, we would not care one bit about a thesis done in another field. As a matter of fact, in some cases, we might wonder whether the student is currently sufficiently focused enough in OUR field to be a good candidate for OUR program.</p>
<p>I don't know the field you're in, but consider this situation: a student that has a lot of quality research in one area of a field (in my case cognitive psychology), but who would like to apply to a different area of psychology. (The reason for this is that in my school there isn't at the moment a professor in the sub-field I want to pursue, and I get along very well and learned a lot of things from the professor I currently work with). Will this experience count at all if I apply let's say to a social psychology program? Or any program other than a cognitive one?
Thank you for your answer.</p>
<p>You are still applying in the same subject field -- Psychology. There are different subfields within Psychology but it's still the same department. If I had written a Sociology thesis and was applying to Biology PhD programs, they will quickly discard my application. Programs want to see quality research papers IN the subject area.</p>
<p>This is something to explain in your statement of purpose. Will your experience "count"? Of course. But use the SOP to elaborate upon what you just wrote here.</p>
<p>Thank you for both your answers. The thing is, I want to focus my SOP on why I want that field and what skills I already have that I could bring into that program/department. I will be doing some research this summer in the social area, but I believe my final thesis will be in cognitive. </p>
<p>One more thing: do you believe it is better to contact professors ahead of time and ask politely if they are taking new students or whether you are a good candidate for the program? Or will that be considered inappropriate?
The reason for this is that my financial resources constrain me when it comes to how many applications I can send out for grad school.</p>
<p>I see nothing wrong with contacting professors to ask if they are taking new students. If I was a professor, I would be flattered to receive an email from someone who just loved my work and wanted to be taught by me. I wouldn't ask if you were a good candidate, persay, but you could engage in a dialogue about your research interests and see if they react favorably to your ideas.</p>
<p>I just completed two senior distinction projects in different fields. One was a 60-page English thesis, another was the composition of a full-length musical with a fellow Theater Studies major, who wrote book and lyrics. It is definitely do-able and very rewarding to complete two honors projects, but you have to be passionate about them ... because the workload can be extreme!</p>
<p>I was just accepted to UCLA's Theater and Performance Studies program, and apparently the adcom took interest in both my projects, since I met with both 18th/19th century English professors and musical theater professors during my recent campus visit.</p>
<p>Definitely check on the requirements of the thesis. People do often underestimate the amount of work and research and thinking that goes into it. I mean, I did start my senior thesis back in the fall but I don't think it was well done and it deserved the grade it got. Then I ended up scrapping the ENTIRE thesis and rewrote it over the course of two months. The minimum senior thesis requirement for my history department is 30 pages but for the honors is 40-60 pages. However, if you get very, very involved and somehow set it up in a certain way, it can go beyond the minimum requirements. Ahem.</p>
<p>If it's all in the same general field (psych) regarldess of the sub-specialites like cognitive and neuro, it won't matter as long you've done lots of lab work.</p>
<p>I would plan on applying to at least 10-15 psych programs, seems to be normal because it's so, so competitive and people get rejected and have to reapply. So if that range wasn't what you had in mind, then I would consider finding an extra job to pay for the extra fees if your future means that much to you to apply to wherever you can so you can go to grad school.</p>
<p>Wait a minute, aren't you going to grad school already? I looked back on some of your posts, you've already been accepted to LSE for grad school.. how is that possible that you're still a junior planning to graduate next May and go to grad school THIS fall??</p>
<p>I applied to the LSE basically just to see if I could get in, since I had senior standing and it didn't require any kind of standardized tests. They have a pretty liberal deferment policy, so I figured I could just put it off a year and bask in the glory of having one good option as I prepared to take the GRE this fall.</p>
<p>So that's why I was going to do the theses. But last Friday, I found out I was awarded a full tuition scholarship to go there from the LSE alumni association in the United States, plus funding from their graduate support scheme, which I can't defer, so now it looks like I'm going to be graduating early and going over there this year. Never planned on graduating early, but looks like it's in the cards for me now.</p>