purpose of senior essay

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How to Write a Senior Essay/Personal Statement

Ethan de la Pena  —  November 05, 2020

College applications can quickly get tedious; however, there is one part that people dread that I don’t think they should - the personal statement/essay questions. Sure, they may be time consuming, but this is where you actually get to distinguish yourself from your peers. Here are three brief tips on how to ace those essays and put yourself in the best light!

Tip 1: Don’t try to be pretentious with your wording or grammar. Everyone writes in their own voice, so do not try to write in a way that you wouldn’t otherwise. Any educated reader will be able to tell when you are writing in a voice that is not your own; it comes off as disingenuous. If your natural writing style does include an expanded vocabulary and a more erudite - see what I did there - way of writing, then do it! That may be what sets you apart! However, forcing yourself to write like that will result in your writing lacking genuineness, and a lot of readers are looking for that in your essays. That’s not an excuse to use slang, misspell words, or have terrible grammar however! As long as you write in your own voice and follow the general rules of writing, you’re well on your way!

Tip 2: Don’t just write an answer to a question just because you’re tired and want to get it over with. That won’t increase your chances of getting in, and is like throwing away the money you’re spending on the application. If the essay is prompted with a number of questions you can choose from, think about each one, and determine which question you have the most life experience to answer, including what kind of life experience is most likely to be more moving and powerful. I highly recommend brainstorming some ideas and taking your time to refine your story; make it understandable, comprehensive, representative of yourself, and entertaining! You can always choose the mood of your essays: happy, solemn, lighthearted, whatever you want. It is your story. Just make sure the mood of your essay is appropriate to the question being asked!

Tip 3: There is a lot of pressure placed on these essays, because people view them as how you actually get accepted. While there is some truth to this, that’s not all there is. You are not defined by what college you get into, how well your essay is written, or even your extracurriculars and grades . These essays are just a way for the school to get to know you better. You’ve presented yourself in your best light, and if you don’t get in, you’re not worth any less than you were before being rejected, and those who got accepted aren’t worth any more than anybody else. God just wants you somewhere else. That was my experience, and now I am so so happy that I got rejected elsewhere, so I could be at Biola, where God wants me!

I pray these were helpful to at least some of you!

With all brotherly love,

Ethan de la Pena

Ethan is a sophomore Mathematics major, born and bred in Clovis, California. His passions include filmmaking, photography, watching movies, running, biking, and hiking! He also loves to learn about almost anything and is often willing to engage in conversations. If you don’t find him studying in the library or relaxing by Flour Fountain, he’s likely to be at Disneyland or Newport Beach, getting some Lemonade at Fashion Island. Ethan’s walk with Christ is the most important part of his life, and he would love to discuss his testimony or theology; if you see him on campus, just walk up and act like old friends! Keep any eye out for his black Hume Lake hat if you want to chat.

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The senior essay.

*Please note that the new 4-digit numbers for The Senior Essay, ENGL 4100, and The Senior Essay II, ENGL 4101, will take effect in Spring 2025. The course numbers through Fall 2024 are ENGL 490 and ENGL 491, respectively.

The Senior Essay Handbook

Requirements and Guidelines for the Senior Essay

In the English Department, as in other departments, the Senior Essay consists of an extended research and writing project (critical, not creative) undertaken with the guidance of a faculty advisor. The Senior Essay is not a requirement for completing the English major, nor is it required for receiving distinction in the major. It does, however, offer a satisfying way to fulfill one semester of the senior requirement. Writing an essay provides an opportunity for those who are eager to pursue a special interest, who like to write long papers, and who work well independently. Be warned that it entails inexorable deadlines and exacting effort; it can be thrilling to write a senior essay, but only if you are committed to the project. Procrastination has repeatedly proved a grave mistake. Given an essay of this magnitude, you cannot leave reading, writing, and ruminating until the last minute. If you have any doubts, take a Senior Seminar.

In addition to the prospectus and final draft, you will be asked to hand in, at the end of four weeks, five to ten pages of writing or, if appropriate, an annotated bibliography so that you, your advisor, and the department will know how your work is proceeding relatively early in the term.  By the end of the seventh week, an extended piece of writing should be submitted.  And by the end of the tenth week, a rough draft is due (to ensure the essay will be carefully thought through and receives feedback from your advisor before you revise).

You will be expected to consult frequently with your advisor throughout the semester, both about your research and about the substance of your developing argument; we recommend at least four meetings, with bi-weekly meetings as the norm. Typically, finished senior essays range from 30-40 pages. Some drafts are considerably longer (40-50 pages) and require cutting as well as revising; other drafts are shorter (25-30 pages) and require expansion as well as revision of the argument.

Specific requirements are as follows:

1. In the term before you intend to write your essay (see I mportant Dates ), you must hand in to the DUS office a completed proposal form for ENGL 4100 or 4101 and a prospectus, which includes the following information:

(a) a description of your topic (approximately 2 pages)

(b) a bibliography of the reading and research, both primary and secondary, you intend to undertake (If part of your project will consist in looking for sources, you must still indicate subjects that you will pursue in your research.)

(c) a list of the introductory and advanced courses you have taken that have prepared you to do independent work on your topic

(d) a schedule of meetings with your advisor

(e) your advisor’s signature

If you intend to pursue a two-semester essay (not commonly done, but a possibility for substantial research projects), please conceptualize your project in two parts so that you can submit an essay for evaluation at the end of the fall semester.

Within two weeks after you submit your prospectus, you will receive an email from the senior essay committee, via the Registrar in the DUS’s office, granting approval or asking for clarification. Approval is not automatic, and the Senior Essay committee may stipulate revisions to the project as a condition of approval.

2. By the end of Week 4 of classes, you must hand in five to ten pages of writing, along with an annotated list of at least two secondary sources relevant to your essay;  or , if the project requires a substantial amount of research, an annotated bibliography of the works you have consulted together with an outline of the reading you have still to do. You may decide, in consultation with your advisor, which of these options is the more appropriate for you. This work should be turned in to your advisor.

3. By the end of Week 7 of classes, you must hand in ten to twelve pages of writing (possibly inclusive of your earlier five pages) and, as part of that writing or separately, a brief discussion of your project’s engagement with one or more secondary sources.  This work should be turned in to your advisor.

4. By the end of Week 10, you must hand in a full or almost full draft to your advisor: consult your advisor for details.

Failure to submit the draft on time or the preliminary work described above may affect the final grade received for the essay.

5. The final essay is due by noon on the last day of classes in the fall term and on the Friday before the last day of classes in the spring term (see  I mportant Dates ); it should include a bibliography of works consulted. Submit the essay to the DUS office electronically (pdf preferred) by emailing it to the departmental registrar.

Your essay will be read, graded, and commented upon both by your advisor and by a second reader chosen by the Senior Essay Committee. The two readers’ reports, will be available from the DUS office two to three weeks after you hand in the final draft. The department will keep a copy on file so that students in the future can see what kinds of projects have been undertaken.

Department of History

The senior essay.

History is more than past events; it is also the discipline of historical inquiry. As a discipline, it uses many techniques, but its basic method is the collection and careful evaluation of evidence and the written presentation of reasonable conclusions derived from that evidence. To experience history as a discipline, a student must grapple at first hand with the problems and rigors involved in this kind of systematic investigation and exposition. The Department of History therefore requires each student majoring in History to present a historical essay on a subject of the student’s choice to the department in the senior year. The range of acceptable topics is wide, but most essays fall into two categories. The first involves the study of a limited problem through research in accessible source materials. The second is a critical assessment of a significant historical controversy or historiographical issue. Whatever topic the student elects, the essay must be interpretive and analytical, not only narrative and descriptive.

In choosing the subject of the senior essay, students should be aware that lack of foreign language expertise is not necessarily a bar to researching a topic in the history of a non-English-speaking area. Many translated materials exist, and for some areas of the world (chiefly Africa, Asia, and Latin America) diaries, letters, and newspapers composed by missionaries, businessmen, and diplomats writing in English are available. Many of these sources are held in Yale’s extensive archival collections; others are available on microfilm.

Seniors receive course credit for satisfactory completion of their departmental essays by enrolling in HIST 495 and 496 . They must also complete a library research workshop for the senior essay. Students should register for the workshop on the Yale Library website .

Some graduate and professional school courses are open to qualified undergraduates with permission of the instructor and the director of graduate studies. Course descriptions may be obtained from the office of the director of graduate studies. See “Courses in the Yale Graduate and Professional Schools” in the Academic Regulations for the number of such courses that students may offer toward the bachelor’s degree.

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The Senior Essay

In November of your senior year, you will submit a proposal for your essay to the Department of Literatures in English. The purpose of your proposal is to define the project for your senior thesis, demonstrate the viability of your project, and locate yourself within the critical debate about your chosen literary texts.

The essay should be 30-40 pages long, not including notes, bibliography and other apparatus. In late April of your senior year, you will submit a bound copy and an electronic copy of the Senior Essay in its final form . The hard copy should be delivered to the English House Office and the electronic copy should be sent to Daniel Parker [email protected]

Once you turn your bound essay in, it is distributed to your thesis adviser and to a second reader for response and evaluation . 

Essay Schedule Spring 2024

Department of Literatures in English

English House Bryn Mawr College 101 N. Merion Avenue Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-2899 Phone: 610-526-5306

Daniel Parker , Administrative Assistant [email protected]

• Senior Essay

The senior essay for economics majors is optional. However, the senior essay is required for consideration for Distinction in the Major. Most students who write a senior essay find it immensely rewarding and consider it one of their best experiences at Yale.

Senior essays are an opportunity for students to engage in independent, original economic research. Essays are not reviews of the literature, rather they are an examination of an hypothesis using the tools of economics. In particular, the essay must contain original research and/or analysis. They can be theoretical, empirical or computational. The senior essays that receive A’s and are awarded prizes are typically those that use economics tools (and, where appropriate, data) to offer fresh insights on questions. Topics are as diverse as recording and analyzing the behavior of black jack players, the effect of charter schools on student performance, the effect of China’s development on trade, the effect of the Fed on the stock market…. Examples of past essays are available on the department website .

See below for a guide written by thesis writers in the class of 2023.

There are no page requirements or formatting requirements for senior essays in economics. Advice regarding bibliographies, graphs, etc. should be given by your advisor. Generally, essays run about 30 pages.

Senior essay writers may receive a maximum of $500 for legitimate research expenses, provided the student has made a good-faith effort to obtain funding from Yale College. There are many funding opportunities available for research which can be found here: https://funding.yale.edu/find-funding/class-year#toc2 . Funding requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and must be approved by the DUS and Chair.

NOTE: Students must take two econometrics courses (or ECON 135 plus one econometrics course) in order to write a senior essay. The second econometrics course can be taken Cr/D/F for the purposes of the senior essay (but in this case it will not count toward the major requirements). The second econometrics course can be taken in the fall of senior year. 400-level applied econometrics courses (which currently include ECON 419, 438 and 439) qualify.

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Senior essays can be 1-term or 2-term essays. The difference between a 1-term and a 2-term essay is that the 2-term essay is broader in scope and/or goes in greater depth. Most economics majors do 2-term essays.  Please note that a 1-term essay cannot be done in the spring term of your senior year.

Senior essays can be done in one of several ways:

1-Term Essays

• Enroll in Econ 491 in the fall of your senior year.

2-Term Essays

• Enroll in Econ 491 and Econ 492
• Expand a term paper from a fall-term seminar in your senior year and enroll in Econ 492 ( depends on availability of seminar instructor for both semesters )

For the class of 2025

• Enroll in Econ 491 ( not necessary if you are doing a senior essay out of a fall seminar)
• Choose an advisor and a topic. You should refer to the Potential Advisors webpage for help finding an advisor who is available and is appropriate for your topic. If you have difficulty finding an advisor, see the ECON 491 instructor or the DUS for suggestions. There are many economics faculty members who may be ideal advisors for your topic.  Students may also choose a campus economist from outside of the department. (Permission of the DUS required to choose a non-economist adviser.) In order to do an essay out of a fall seminar, you need the seminar professor to agree to be your advisor (for both semesters in the case of a 2-term essay).
• Meet with your advisor regularly. It is the student’s responsibility to make sure that these regular meetings occur.
• Submit a “Senior Essay Prospectus” on or before Monday, September 30, 2024 by 4:30 pm. The prospectus must be signed by your advisor. All students planning to write a senior essay must hand in a prospectus at this time. Failure to do so results in your not being permitted to write an essay. A late prospectus will not be accepted without a Dean’s note.
• Students enrolled in a 2-term essay must submit a written progress report to their advisor on Wednesday, November 6, 2024. For essays involving substantial data collection and statistical analysis, a description of the research question and the data that has been gathered for analysis may be appropriate. For others, a portion of the essay itself or a detailed outline describing the thesis question, existing literature, and planned method of analysis is suitable. Based on this report, your advisor will be asked to give you a temporary grade of satisfactory or not satisfactory for the fall term. This temporary grade will be replaced by the final grade on your senior essay in April.
• You are allowed to switch advisor, with DUS permission, but no later than the progress report due date . In this case you need to submit a new prospectus form signed by the new advisor by the progress report due date .
• A student who wishes to change a 1-term essay to a 2-term essay must get permission from the advisor and the DUS prior to the Thanksgiving break. To convert, a student must have made satisfactory progress on the essay by that time. No conversions will be allowed after Thanksgiving.
• 1-term senior essays are due to your advisor on Wednesday, December 4, 2024 by 4:30 pm. The advisor will evaluate and grade the paper, which will be your grade for the course. The grade and evaluation will be used for determination of distinction and departmental prizes. A final version of the 1-term senior essay must be submitted on or before Wednesday, April 2, 2025 by 4:30 pm via email to Maria Volonte, Undergraduate Registrar, at [email protected]  for grading by the outside anonymous reader. Late essays will be accepted only with a Dean’s Extension. Essays that are submitted late without a Dean's Extension will receive a grade penalty (which will grow with the length of the delay).
• Note: students doing the 1-term essay may continue to make additional revisions beyond the fall term before the April due date. Please bear in mind, however, that advisors of 1-term essays may have other commitments and are not obligated to advise you beyond the fall term.

Spring 2025

• For students doing 2-term essays, enroll in Econ 492b.
• 2-term senior essays must be submitted on or before Wednesday, April 2, 2025 at 4:30 pm via email to Maria Volonte, Undergraduate Registrar, at [email protected] . Late essays will be accepted only with a Dean’s Extension. Essays that are submitted after the deadline without a Dean's Extension will receive a grade penalty (which will grow with the length of the delay).
• Advisor’s Reports with grades and comments and Reader’s Reports with grades and comments are usually available by the end of reading week in the Economics Undergraduate Registrar’s Office.

Hi Juniors, If you are reading this guide, this means (we hope) that you’re considering writing a senior essay in economics! Writing an economics thesis is an incredibly fulfilling experience, and we hope that if you feel prepared, you write one! To help clarify the process and give advice, the Economics Peer Mentors from the 2022-2023 academic year have made an updated version of this guide from the Class of 2021 that was created by Alya Ahmed and Lara Varela Gajewski, with responses from the Class of 2023.

Link to Class of 2023 Guide

Best of luck, Sarah Moon ‘23, Economics & Mathematics Ayumi Sudo ‘23, Economics

Some Takeaways: 

Most seniors, including all seniors that responded to our survey, wrote a two-term thesis. 

Seniors wrote essays on topics in:

• Labor economics
• Macroeconomics
• Econometrics
• Behavioral economics
• Public economics 
• Environmental economics
• ...and more 

Advisors were chosen from: 

• Herb Scarf RA and Tobin RA positions
• Classes taken in junior year or in the fall semester senior seminars
• Recommended by other professors/ECON 491 TA's
• Cold emailing

Econ thesis advisors are from:

• Yale Economics Department
• Yale School of Management 
• Yale School of Environment
• ...and more

Topics were inspired by: 

• Personal interests 
• Previously taken classes
• Summer research work
• Interesting data sets

Economics 491 counts as a 400 level, senior requirement course. Economics 492 counts as an elective.

Students writing a one-semester essay out of Economics 491 will receive a letter grade at the end of the fall semester based on the quality of their senior thesis. Students writing a one-semester essay out of a senior seminar will only receive a grade for the seminar on their transcript. They will not see their senior essay grade on their transcript, but it will be recorded by the department for distinction purposes. Students writing a two-semester essay by taking 491 and 492, will receive a temporary 491 grade (Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory) at the end of the fall semester. That grade will be replaced by a letter grade given for 491 and 492 based on the quality of the senior essay. Students who write a two-semester essay by taking a seminar and then 492 will receive a grade based on the requirements of the seminar in the fall. In the spring they will receive a grade for 492 based on the quality of the senior essay. Your senior essay will be graded by your advisor.

To qualify for distinction, a senior must receive a grade of A or A- from their advisor on the senior essay and have 3/4 of their economics grades be A’s or A-’s. For the purpose of distinction economics grades include related course credit, but do not include introductory microeconomics, introductory macroeconomics, the math requirement nor courses taken outside of Yale.

Senior Essay Course Lecturer:

Rebecca Toseland will be the Fall 2024 lecturer for The Senior Essay (Econ 491a) course.

Lecturer and TF office hours are by appointment only. Schedule a time on office hours sign-up sheet below.

Senior Essay TF:

Carles Aulés-Blancher will be the Fall 2024 TF for The Senior Essay (Econ 491a) course.

Office Hours Sign-up Sheet

Lecturer and TF office hours are by appointment only. Schedule a time on this sign-up sheet (must be signed-in with Eli Apps to view and edit).

If you would like to request an appointment at a different time, please email the Lecturer or TF.

Senior Essay Prizes

Essays will also be read by an anonymous economics department faculty member. Only the advisor’s grade will appear on the transcript. However, both the advisor and the anonymous readers must nominate an essay for that essay to move on to the awards committee.

Three or more prizes for outstanding senior essays are awarded each year by the economics undergraduate prize committee. The  Charles Heber Dickerman Memorial Prize  is awarded for the best senior essay; the  Ronald Meltzer/Cornelia Awdziewicz Economic Award  is awarded for one or two more outstanding senior essays and the  Ellington Prize  is awarded for one or more outstanding essays in the field of finance.

Senior Essays Nominated for Prizes

Women in Economics 2021 Senior Thesis Spotlight

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Junior and senior essays.

The senior essay is often the longest and most complex paper a student will write during a Yale career. While the Writing Center supports all student writers, we’re especially eager to help as you plan, develop, and revise your senior essay.

The expectations for a good essay vary by department, because different fields have different standards for evidence, analysis, and argument. Below we offer some general good advice for developing a senior essay, followed by a list of some of the additional resources available to help you complete your essay.

Tip #1: Write about something you’re curious about or don’t quite understand. Although this advice applies to any writing project, it’s especially crucial for a long essay. If you don’t begin with something you’re curious about - something you really care about figuring out - you’ll have trouble sustaining interest in your essay, either for yourself or for your readers. Papers you’ve written for coursework can be a great source for topics, if there are issues that were just starting to excite you when it was time to turn in the initial paper. Think, too, about unanswered questions you’ve had from the courses in your major; your senior essay can be an opportunity to explore more deeply an issue that you feel has been neglected. Most advisors will want to begin discussions of your topic as far in advance as possible. If yours hasn’t initiated that conversation, take the first step and set up an appointment today.

Tip #2: Use writing to help shape your research - not just to record your results. The most productive change most students need to make in working on their essay is to begin writing sooner. We don’t mean by this just avoiding procrastination. Even if you begin researching and meeting with your advisor early in the year, you may still be tempted to delay writing until you have a strong sense of your direction, or even an outline. But research shows that taking time to write all throughout the process will help you develop a richer, more complex thesis. Here are some occasions to write that you may not have thought of on your own:

Write about your ideas as a way to find and explore your initial topic.

Don’t just underline and take notes on our early research; take ten minutes to write at the beginning and end of each research session about what you’ve learned and the new questions you’ve discovered.

Write before and after meeting with your advisor. Even if you have a draft or chapter to show, take an extra ten minutes to write about your sense of the project - where it’s going well and where you need help.

It’s possible that you won’t incorporate this writing directly into your final essay, but doing it will help you reflect more effectively on the progress of your research, which will lead to fuller and more satisfying results.

Tip #3: Develop a bigger network of readers. Ideally, you will have the opportunity to meet with your advisor several times in both terms while working on your essay. This is the person who can help you the most with questions of general direction, with focusing on the most productive parts of your topic, and with finding the most relevant research sources. But most professional writers get feedback from several readers before publication, and so should you. One obvious source for additional readers is the Writing Center, which offers several different kinds of tutoring. But showing your work to friends, roommates, and classmates can also be immensely helpful. If you haven’t shared your work with other writers before, let us give you some advice about how to make these opportunities productive: don’t expect student readers to offer solutions. Instead, get your readers to raise questions that you can talk and think through more deeply. Or ask them just to say what they understand and where they get stuck, then use your own judgment about whether your advisor will have the same kinds of questions. Until you’ve tried it, you have no idea how valuable it is just to show your work in progress to someone. Even before they say anything back, the meeting will allow you to think about your own writing differently. If they also give you helpful advice, well that’s just a bonus.

Departmental Guidelines Many departments publish guidelines for senior essay writers. We’ve compiled a few of these below. If your department is not listed, ask your DUS if any guidelines exist. The Writing Center Director, Alfred Guy, is available to help departments create and post advice for their senior essay writers.

History Senior Essay

Residential College Writing Tutors Every residential college has a dedicated writing tutor, and they have experience with senior essays from a wide range of departments. Students who work with a tutor write better essays, and the sooner you start, the better. Go to the tutoring section of this Web site and contact your tutor today.

Workshops for Senior Essay Writers Many departments offer a senior essay colloquium—the Writing Center directors are available to lead discussions about any topic related to developing your essay, including: setting a timetable, soliciting and using feedback, and structuring a long essay. In the past few years, we’ve worked with colloquia in American Studies, Sociology, and African Studies, and we’d love to meet with your group. Ask the coordinator of your colloquium to contact us to arrange a meeting.

Other Yale Resources

The Mellon Seminars

Each residential college organizes a Mellon seminar for senior essay writers. During these seminars, you’ll have the chance to talk about your work in progress with other seniors. Check with the Master’s office in your college for more details.

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Drop-In Writing Partners

Writing Partners are Yale College or graduate school students selected for both their writing skills and their ability to talk about writing. They have a student’s-eye view of the challenges you’ll face in writing papers.

Writing with Turnitin

The Poorvu Center organizes resources to help students use Turnitin to improve their writing - see patterns of source use and misuse, and learn best practices for the revision process.

Reserve a Room

The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning partners with departments and groups on-campus throughout the year to share its space. Please review the reservation form and submit a request.

St. John's College

Senior Essays

The senior essay is the signature effort of a student’s career at St. John’s College. The essay is a sustained performance in the liberal arts and culmination of the student’s learning. The essay is not a work of specialized research, but the extended pursuit of a difficult question in dialogue with a great author.

In the first semester each senior selects a book, a question, and a faculty advisor. The student and advisor meet periodically in the first semester to discuss the book and define the project. In the first four weeks of the second semester, senior classes are suspended for essay writing. Each completed essay is assigned to a committee of three tutors, who examine the student on the essay in a one-hour, public conversation. Submission of a satisfactory senior essay and completion of the oral are conditions for receiving the degree. 

Learn more about the essay writing process and oral examination for seniors, and read about the student who wrote a prize-winning essay on “The Probability Function in Quantum Mechanics: A Formal Cause Beyond Space and Time.”

See senior essay topics for the St. John’s Class of 2019.

Seniors Talk Essays

Read what students wrote about for their senior essays.

“I wanted to write on a Hispanic author, especially a Latin American author. The book is about how to approach life, and how we need some sort of shared experience with the things that we are taking our learning from. He approaches Machu Picchu, and thinks it’s just this thing that he can grab and mine and take some sort of life from—but it turns out the ruins resist him in a particular way, and they have to change him in order for him to be able to take anything. Especially here, with all that we read, we need to be changed by the things that we read as much as we take from them.”

“Despite its vast dramatic territory, Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen is largely focused on a single character: Wotan, the chief god of oaths and contracts. Without attempting to account for the entire work, I wanted to examine Wotan as Wagner initially presents him. This meant narrowing my essay to the first two operas: Das Rheingold and Die Walküre. I discovered that despite its heavy-handed political allusions, Wagner’s work is ultimately focused on the question of Wotan’s will. What is Wotan’s will? And what does it mean for the will to exist at all? My resulting work was a surprising revelation of both the significance of the will and Wagner’s creative genius. ”

“I wrote about The Lord of the Rings because it’s been a mainstay in my life. I learned how to read from The Hobbit, and have re-read Lord of the Rings every year since. It has helped me through a lot of trying times. In junior year, we learned to separate head and heart, and we have ennui: where everyone is existentially bored. I think fantasy and escapism can be a solution to that. This was a huge culmination of everything I learned here, philosophically.”

“I wrote my senior essay on The Phenomenology of Spirit . Hegel is one of the hardest philosophers in the Program. He expresses that we have a deep spirit in us that needs to be moved. Once that spirit is moved, our self-consciousness develops. But that self-consciousness must go through stages in order to arrive at what he calls ‘the absolute known’ or ‘the absolute spirit.’ If people do believe that we have this spirit in us, it can move and develop and grow to its fullness. I think I’m getting to fullness. I don’t know if I’m halfway there yet. I’m still young.”

“We begin philosophy with Plato, and we end up with Nietzche and Heidegger, where everything seems to be nihilistic. I return to Plato and articulate the theory in which love can really give birth to someone’s self and to being. I tried to extract some kind of life-affirming philosophy from a program that seems to become increasingly nihilistic as it enters the 20th century. I’ve never had this much time to think about a book. I had a month to formulate all of the thoughts that have circled unconsciously for the past four years. I didn’t realize I had this much to say, but it all spilled out. And now there’s a paper, and it’s really exciting.”

“I wrote my essay on Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. I was curious about Gulliver’s account of rationality and whether there is a universal standard or if it is relative to particular societies. By analyzing Gulliver’s infatuation with the Houyhnhnms (the ruling race of horses in the final country he visits) and his growing disdain of his own species, I found that it is impossible to rank rational beings because the facets of human rationality and reason are so intricate. I also found that Gulliver’s proclivity for learning languages and his willingness to assimilate into new societies helps him to understand the merits and value of societies different from his own.”

“I discussed getting to know yourself, and the horror of the darkness that lurks inside everyone — being able to accept that and not descend into self-hatred.”

“Why is it necessary to use straight lines in understanding curves? I am examining why the method for mathematically describing a curve using points and straight lines is fundamentally opposed to the conception of a curve as a continuous object. It was inevitable that I was going to write about math. In all my St. John’s math classes, I have been interested in how geometric objects can be measured through ratio. I considered Euclid or Apollonius, but I took Calculus 2 over the summer and the questions raised in junior math were brought up continuously (ha!), so I decided to focus my questions about ratios in geometry by using curves. ”

On Thucydides

“My senior essay is about the rise and fall of the Athenian empire, inspired by the most recent turn of events in American politics. I decided that the Athenian empire inevitably conquered itself. Though they had met no strong opponents that could do battle with them, they turned on one another and that’s what caused their entire society to collapse. When a city gives in to fear and loathing, that is when things are at their worst and that’s when the situation in the empire is irredeemable. People shouldn’t doubt for a second that we live in an empire, and fear is our greatest enemy.”

“I’ve read it every single year of college, including the year that I took off. Writing the essay was liberating. In the past, on all the other papers I’ve written, I always wished I’d had more time. With this, I finally wrote a paper where I thought, ‘This is where I wanted to end up.’”

On Dostoevsky

“My essay on The Brothers Karamazov focused on some specific irrational actions that Smerdyakov, Ivan, Alyosha, and Dimitri commit. I discussed in detail what motivated these actions if not reason or desire, how these kinds of acts affect our moral judgements (especially the system of judgement that Kant sets up in his second critique), and why Dostoevsky makes the bold decision to have such a deep and cohesive novel dictated by actions devoid of any purpose.”

“I’m writing on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. We read it at the very end of junior year. I got really stuck on food: what Huck eats throughout the novel and how he describes it. It’s a fun thread to follow throughout the Program, from the Lotus-eaters in The Odyssey to Augustine’s pear. In Huck Finn, I was struck by how much he enjoyed the cold meat served to him by the cruel Grangerford family, who are embroiled in a pointless, multi-generational feud. I wanted to know how the kind of food Huck eats speaks to his growth.”

“It’s a novel about the encroaching legal aspect of society amidst the Industrial Revolution of England. It’s a dreary tale about the loss of personal strength and the reliance upon law, especially as large families come to use [law] to crush individuals who are otherwise upstanding members of society. But it has a happy ending, as Dickens is a man of sentimental feelings, and they come out. Good characters get rewarded, bad characters get punished—it’s a fun book.”

Senior Essay Titles

The titles demonstrate how wide-ranging the topics can be for senior essays.

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The senior thesis is typically the most challenging writing project undertaken by undergraduate students. The writing guides below aim to introduce students both to the specific methods and conventions of writing original research in their area of concentration and to effective writing process.

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Undergraduate Senior Essay

Guidelines and requirements, fall 2023 deadlines for senior essays.

Seniors planning to write a one–semester essay in the spring semester must submit a Fall Senior Essay Prospectus form signed by the faculty member who has agreed to advise the essay. The signed form is due by September 5, 2023, for students writing the essay in PLSC 480 and by September 7, 2023, for students writing it in a seminar.

All yearlong and fall semester senior essays are due by 4:00 pm on Friday, December 8, 2023.  This deadline applies to senior essays being written in a seminar, as well as essays written in PLSC 480, PLSC 491 and PLSC 493.

Rev. 06-20-23

What Is a Senior Thesis?

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• B.A., History, Armstrong State University

A senior thesis is a large, independent research project that students take on during their senior year of high school or college to fulfill their graduation requirement. It is the culminating work of their studies at a particular institution, and it represents their ability to conduct research and write effectively. For some students, a senior thesis is a requirement for graduating with honors.

Students typically work closely with an advisor and choose a question or topic to explore before carrying out an extensive research plan.

Style Manuals and the Paper's Organization

The structure of your research paper will depend, in part, on the style manual that is required by your instructor. Different disciplines, such as history, science, or education, have different rules to abide by when it comes to research paper construction, organization, and modes of citation. The styles for different types of assignment include:

Modern Language Association (MLA): The disciplines that tend to prefer the MLA style guide include literature, arts, and the humanities, such as linguistics, religion, and philosophy. To follow this style, you will use parenthetical citations to indicate your sources and a works cited page to show the list of books and articles you consulted.

American Psychological Association (APA): The APA style manual tends to be used in psychology, education, and some of the social sciences. This type of report may require the following:

• Introduction

Chicago style: "The Chicago Manual of Style" is used in most college-level history courses as well as professional publications that contain scholarly articles. Chicago style may call for endnotes or footnotes corresponding to a bibliography page at the back or the author-date style of in-text citation, which uses parenthetical citations and a references page at the end.

Turabian style: Turabian is a student version of Chicago style. It requires some of the same formatting techniques as Chicago, but it includes special rules for writing college-level papers, such as book reports. A Turabian research paper may call for endnotes or footnotes and a bibliography.

Science style: Science instructors may require students to use a format that is similar to the structure used in publishing papers in scientific journals. The elements you would include in this sort of paper include:

• List of materials and methods used
• Results of your methods and experiments
• Acknowledgments

American Medical Association (AMA): The AMA style book might be required for students in medical or premedical degree programs in college. Parts of an AMA research paper might include:

• Proper headings and lists
• Tables and figures
• In-text citations
• Reference list

Choose Your Topic Carefully

Starting off with a bad, difficult, or narrow topic likely won't lead to a positive result. Don't choose a question or statement that's so broad that it's overwhelming and could comprise a lifetime of research or a topic that's so narrow you'll struggle to compose 10 pages. Consider a topic that has a lot of recent research so you won't struggle to put your hands on current or adequate sources.

Select a topic that interests you. Putting in long hours on a subject that bores you will be arduous—and ripe for procrastination. If a professor recommends an area of interest, make sure it excites you.

Also, consider expanding a paper you've already written; you'll hit the ground running because you've already done some research and know the topic. Last, consult with your advisor before finalizing your topic. You don't want to put in a lot of hours on a subject that is rejected by your instructor.

Organize Your Time

Plan to spend half of your time researching and the other half writing. Often, students spend too much time researching and then find themselves in a crunch, madly writing in the final hours. Give yourself goals to reach along certain "signposts," such as the number of hours you want to have invested each week or by a certain date or how much you want to have completed in those same timeframes.

Organize Your Research

Compose your works cited or bibliography entries as you work on your paper. This is especially important if your style manual requires you to use access dates for any online sources that you review or requires page numbers be included in the citations. You don't want to end up at the very end of the project and not know what day you looked at a particular website or have to search through a hard-copy book looking for a quote that you included in the paper. Save PDFs of online sites, too, as you wouldn't want to need to look back at something and not be able to get online or find that the article has been removed since you read it.

Choose an Advisor You Trust

This may be your first opportunity to work with direct supervision. Choose an advisor who's familiar with the field, and ideally select someone you like and whose classes you've already taken. That way you'll have a rapport from the start. 

Consult Your Instructor

Remember that your instructor is the final authority on the details and requirements of your paper. Read through all instructions, and have a conversation with your instructor at the start of the project to determine his or her preferences and requirements. Have a cheat sheet or checklist of this information; don't expect yourself to remember all year every question you asked or instruction you were given. 

• How to Write a Solid Thesis Statement
• Your Personal Essay Thesis Sentence
• Revising a Paper
• How to Narrow the Research Topic for Your Paper
• The Introductory Paragraph: Start Your Paper Off Right
• How to Develop a Research Paper Timeline
• Finding Trustworthy Sources
• World War II Research Essay Topics
• How to Use Verbs Effectively in Your Research Paper
• How to Write a 10-Page Research Paper
• Finding Statistics and Data for Research Papers
• Writing an Annotated Bibliography for a Paper
• Ethos, Logos, Pathos for Persuasion
• What Is an Autobiography?
• 5 Steps to Writing a Position Paper
• What Is a Bibliography?

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Seniors: What You Need to Know About Application Essays

Nothing causes more anxiety among applicants to top-tier colleges than the prospect of writing essays. Anxiety may arise from doubts about being up to the task as a writer, especially if you’re a prospective STEM major, or you may be intimidated by the sheer number of different essays that you’ll need to write.

Questions arise such as, “What are admissions officers looking for in essays?”, “How will my essays be evaluated?”, and, “How should I begin the essay-writing process?”.

You should ponder these and other questions now to confront and remedy concerns before the application season begins in earnest.

You should understand that admissions officers (AO’s) are looking for reasons to accept you, not reject you. They’re mainly trying to learn more about you as an individual through your essays. Of course, they also wish to see proof of your writing skills, intellectual power, and passion for learning. However, their primary interest is your unique personal characteristics. With this information, AO’s seek to determine if you’ll be a good fit within their student body. If you can demonstrate how you’ll contribute to the lifeblood of the institution, your essay will be looked upon favorably.

Essays are evaluated in a number of different ways. AO’s will consider how well you write. Your writing ability will be analyzed based on your persuasiveness, thoughtfulness, and the structure of your submissions. On a deeper level, your essays will be evaluated based on what they reveal about you — your maturity, character, personality, and goals.

What constitutes the basis of a great college essay? An essay that evokes your passions will impress an AO if it exhibits good writing skills and relates a bit of who you are. Try to demonstrate your intellectual capability and desire to learn in your essay, but if you’re writing about a topic that doesn’t permit such digressions, there’ll be other opportunities to reveal these traits elsewhere.

It’s vital that you tell a story and convey authenticity. Don’t write something because you think it’s what an AO wants to see. Often, students envision AO’s as middle-aged careerists, so they write to please that type of an audience. The great majority of AO’s are recent graduates and are only a few years older than you.

Your college essays can often be instrumental in your acceptance by a top-tier institution. What separates one student with a 4.4 GPA and a 1500 SAT score from another? The answer is nothing objective. Only a subjective assessment of the two applicants by AO’s can make a difference. The best way to show that you’ll contribute to the school and enhance its diverse student body is to write compelling essays and personal statements. If you can make a visceral connection with the person reviewing your application — the AO — you’ll have a big advantage over your peers.

Crafting essays can be a daunting process. You may soon realize that you need help. IvySelect provides the top-notch assistance you require to stand out.

IvySelect college admissions consultants are experts at assisting high-ability students craft essays that are instrumental in the application process to Ivy League and other elite institutions. We invite you to contact us to learn how we can help you maximize your competitive stature through our comprehensive, one-to-one essay-writing program.

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Search the site, search suggestions, 5 writing tips from a senior thesis writer.

Most people would not think that writing your college application essays and writing a senior thesis in college are very similar. However, as I have been writing on my thesis and reflecting over my time at college in general, I’ve realized in a lot of ways they are similar.

They both kind of mark an end of an era - your time at high school and your time at college. This can bring a lot of excitement and nostalgia. But it can also include a lot of pressure as I’ve also found myself condensing the stress of planning for the future into writing my application/thesis.

I’m still writing my thesis (deadline is March 8th ah!), but here are five tips that I think have been important for me to remember and can be helpful for writing college application essays as well!

1) Write about something that matters to you This is matters a lot! For one, if you have to spend a decent amount of time working on a paper, you need to enjoy talking about the topic. I know I would’ve been incredibly burned out researching, writing, and thinking about the same thing if I didn’t find it meaningful. It also relates to the purpose of the college application essay - for the admissions officers to get to know you who are! It's important to remember that colleges are not only adding a face to a classroom, they're adding a community member, a roommate, a friend.

I spent A LOT of days in the archives

2) Just start! This is easier said than done, but at a certain point, you just have to jump in. Waiting to get started doesn’t lessen the stress, and it certainly doesn’t get you closer to finishing. I found it easier to start when I realized I don’t have to have it all figured out to put the first words down. Start with something you know or just freeform ideas around the topic, they don’t have to be in your essay permanently. For my thesis, I know there was some tangentially related topics that I could carry over from my junior tutorial paper so I used them as a jumping off point, even I didn’t know if they would be in my final version.

3) Get on a schedule Again, this is HARD! It’s going to look different for everyone, but I think finding a routine for writing is vital. I really started cracking down on my thesis over winter break, and I set the goal of working on it everyday starting on December 26th. There were a lot of days where I did some minimal edits or thought planning/organizing, and there were a lot of other days where I completed helpful research or made a lot of progress in terms of word count. But because I made myself do something everyday, even if it wasn’t a lot, it really helped me stay motivated. On the days where you really don’t want to work on an essay, the desire to not break a streak of writing (“I’ve worked for 6 days in a row, wow that’s a lot. I feel proud! Do I want to stop that streak…?”), led me to stay dedicated and on track.

Having a schedule also meant I could reward myself with coffee breaks!

4) Realize it will never be “perfect”, and that’s okay! The thing about writing is that, to some degree, it’s always subjective. If you give a piece of writing to several people and ask for their feedback, they will all give you different comments. Of course, they all might be helpful, but sometimes they might conflict with each other. Or maybe they are about something you felt very certain was the way you wanted it to be. You have to trust yourself! There is no “perfect” because that’s going to mean something different for each person. Even if a person says you should change something, if you don’t agree with them, you shouldn’t change it! At the end of the day, it is YOUR writing, YOUR project, and in the case of college application essays, it’s often YOUR story.

5) Don’t be afraid of change Recently, after I had something resembling a first draft, I was rereading over my introduction which explained a lot of my framing/methodology. And I realized that my body chapters were actually relying on a different concept that I had originally set out to discuss. It wouldn’t take an outrageous amount of work to adjust this in my introduction, though I would need to do more research. But I was a little scared. I would have to backtrack! Remove things I had worked hard on! I’m supposed to have figured out everything by now, it’s too late for changes! Plot twist: Nope, it’s not too late, and it doesn’t indicate what you had done before was a waste of time. It’s something that happens a lot. Once you start writing and get into a flow, you often find your main point sometime after you’ve already begun. It’s a sign of being a good writer to recognize the shift and to be willing to adapt. The previous work wasn’t a waste, it was needed to get you to your final product (even if it’s not in the final product).

I found that taking walks were a great way to clear my head and organize my thoughts!

I hope some of these tips are helpful. Writing them out has been helpful to me as I head into the last month (gulp) of thesis writing. And let me leave you with two main points: trust yourself and don’t procrastinate! We’ve got this!

Alexis Class of '19 Alumni

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• How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on January 11, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on August 15, 2023 by Eoghan Ryan.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . It usually comes near the end of your introduction .

Your thesis will look a bit different depending on the type of essay you’re writing. But the thesis statement should always clearly state the main idea you want to get across. Everything else in your essay should relate back to this idea.

You can write your thesis statement by following four simple steps:

• Start with a question
• Write your initial answer
• Develop your answer
• Refine your thesis statement

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Table of contents

What is a thesis statement, placement of the thesis statement, step 1: start with a question, step 2: write your initial answer, step 3: develop your answer, step 4: refine your thesis statement, types of thesis statements, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about thesis statements.

A thesis statement summarizes the central points of your essay. It is a signpost telling the reader what the essay will argue and why.

The best thesis statements are:

• Concise: A good thesis statement is short and sweet—don’t use more words than necessary. State your point clearly and directly in one or two sentences.
• Contentious: Your thesis shouldn’t be a simple statement of fact that everyone already knows. A good thesis statement is a claim that requires further evidence or analysis to back it up.
• Coherent: Everything mentioned in your thesis statement must be supported and explained in the rest of your paper.

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The thesis statement generally appears at the end of your essay introduction or research paper introduction .

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts and among young people more generally is hotly debated. For many who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education: the internet facilitates easier access to information, exposure to different perspectives, and a flexible learning environment for both students and teachers.

You should come up with an initial thesis, sometimes called a working thesis , early in the writing process . As soon as you’ve decided on your essay topic , you need to work out what you want to say about it—a clear thesis will give your essay direction and structure.

You might already have a question in your assignment, but if not, try to come up with your own. What would you like to find out or decide about your topic?

For example, you might ask:

After some initial research, you can formulate a tentative answer to this question. At this stage it can be simple, and it should guide the research process and writing process .

Now you need to consider why this is your answer and how you will convince your reader to agree with you. As you read more about your topic and begin writing, your answer should get more detailed.

In your essay about the internet and education, the thesis states your position and sketches out the key arguments you’ll use to support it.

The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education because it facilitates easier access to information.

In your essay about braille, the thesis statement summarizes the key historical development that you’ll explain.

The invention of braille in the 19th century transformed the lives of blind people, allowing them to participate more actively in public life.

A strong thesis statement should tell the reader:

• Why you hold this position
• What they’ll learn from your essay
• The key points of your argument or narrative

The final thesis statement doesn’t just state your position, but summarizes your overall argument or the entire topic you’re going to explain. To strengthen a weak thesis statement, it can help to consider the broader context of your topic.

These examples are more specific and show that you’ll explore your topic in depth.

Your thesis statement should match the goals of your essay, which vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing:

• In an argumentative essay , your thesis statement should take a strong position. Your aim in the essay is to convince your reader of this thesis based on evidence and logical reasoning.
• In an expository essay , you’ll aim to explain the facts of a topic or process. Your thesis statement doesn’t have to include a strong opinion in this case, but it should clearly state the central point you want to make, and mention the key elements you’ll explain.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

Follow these four steps to come up with a thesis statement :

• Ask a question about your topic .
• Write your initial answer.
• Develop your answer by including reasons.
• Refine your answer, adding more detail and nuance.

The thesis statement should be placed at the end of your essay introduction .

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