After the current academic year (2007-2008), the individual college-based honors thesis programs will no longer be offered. Beginning with the coming academic year (2008-2009), all students wishing to complete a senior honors thesis will do so either through the appropriate department-based Departmental Honors Program, or through the SAS Interdisciplinary Honors Thesis (01:090:493,494).  Information about department-based Departmental Honors Programs is available at individual department websites; information about the SAS Interdisciplinary Honors Thesis is available on the SAS Interdisciplinary Honors Thesis website.

Overview

The senior honors thesis is designed as a graduate level experience for outstanding undergraduates. By pursuing research to produce a thesis, a student acquires skills which may otherwise be neglected during the undergraduate years: how to work closely with an advisor, how to conduct intensive original research, how to budget time and money, how to produce and edit a significant body of work, and finally, how to present this work to experts in the field.

Beginning in 2008-2009, each SAS student, including those following the academic requirements as set by the former colleges (Douglass, Livingston, Rutgers, and University), who is completing a department-based honors thesis or an SAS Interdisciplinary Honors Thesis will be designated an SAS Paul Robeson Scholar.

All Paul Robeson Scholars will be eligible for extended library borrowing privileges, and will be invited to attend a fall and a spring gathering.

Departments and individual faculty members will nominate Paul Robeson Scholars' theses to be considered for the Henry Rutgers Scholars Awards (see below).

Funds in support of research

All applications for funds in support of research from SAS students completing a senior honors thesis (departmental or interdisciplinary) will be handled by the Aresty Research Center for Undergraduates (ARC). Students must submit an application for funds directly to the ARC.

Awards

Several research awards, known collectively as Henry Rutgers Scholars Awards, will be made to outstanding SAS Paul Robeson Scholars based on the quality of the thesis and overall academic record. These awards include the Jerome and Lorraine Aresty Undergraduate Research Scholarship, the Franklin J. Marryott Undergraduate Research Award, and the Alan Marc Schreiber Memorial Undergraduate Research Award.

Henry Rutgers Scholars Awards will be awarded to outstanding theses for the academic year. All SAS departments, and individual faculty advisors, will be invited to nominate Paul Robeson Scholars to be considered for the Henry Rutgers Scholars Awards.

Each award will be no less than $1,000.

To be considered for a Henry Rutgers Scholar Award, a student must have presented his/her research at the Aresty Research Center Symposium or a department-based research event. (The oral defense does not satisfy this requirement.)

SAS Policies

No more than 30 degree credits are awarded for out-of-class work, such as independent study, cooperative education courses, research, and approved SAS internship courses. In those uncommon cases where credit may have been awarded for life experiences, these credits are viewed as out-of-class work. Students wishing to register for more than 8 credits of independent study in any one term must have the approval of an academic dean.

For more information

Please contact Dean Muffin Lord at lord@sas.rutgers.edu or 732-932-7964.