Honors Theses

 

Eligibility

A student with 3.0 QPR at the end of three years of collegiate study, and of 3.2 in a major concentration may write an Honors Thesis in order to graduate from SCSU with Departmental Honors.

 

Registration

• Students should select faculty advisors.

• The First semester, with permission of the Dean, students enroll in MAT499 (Independent Study). The dual purpose of this course is to write an Honors Thesis prospectus and to conduct research necessary for the completion of an Honors Thesis.
• At the beginning of the independent study semester, students obtain a 2-page application for independent study from the Dean.
• The second semester, the student registers for Thesis Research Departmental Honors 495, provided that the thesis prospectus was accepted by the Reader.

 

Procedures

• Thesis Prospectus

The Thesis prospectus is due in late October in the fall semester and in late March in the spring semester to be submitted to the chairperson of the UHC. Most prospectuses are six to ten pages long, and contain a fairly complete description of the student's project, including background literature that forms the context of the study, a statement of purpose or hypotheses, methodology, the nature of the evidence to be used, the limits of the study, and its significance.

• Thesis Writing

  
  

The student should steadily work on research and writing steadily in order to complete the thesis by the March deadline (for graduation in May) or the November deadline (for graduation in December). The student should be urged to submit a complete draft to the Sponsor and other readers about a month before the deadline in order to receive critical comments from them and be able to revise or correct the thesis as indicated.

• Thesis Defense

When the thesis is complete, the student distributes copies to the Examining Committee. The student should also deposit one copy of his/her thesis in Buley Library (Cataloging Department). The student is responsible for arranging a time and a place for the oral exam (approximately one hour long) before the Examining Committee.

 

List of Honors Theses 

The faculty research interests can be found here.

 

YEAR	Student	Advisor	Thesis Title
2011	Rachael Ivison	T. Bennett	Bezier curves: An investigation into mathematical curves and handwriting
2009	Cameron Bishop	J. Hong	Integral closure of ideals
2007	Melissa Harrigan	R. Mugno	Maximization of Profit : An application of the bootstrap and regression analysis
2003	Mihaela Facaianu	T. Bennett	The proportional plan and the electoral college. A new analysis of the electoral college using the Shapley-Snubik index.
2003	Jonathan Knickerbocker	J. Fields	Conditions for the existence of finite projective planes
2002	David Fried	J. Fields	Deconstructing polyminoes