Seniors' advice: find a thesis adviser early

In matters of the head, as in matters of the heart, it can be hard to find a partner. The beginning of the year is matchmaking season for seniors and their thesis advisers. The ultimate pairing often boils down to a question of who got there first.

For some, the process resembles an arranged marriage — departmental representatives are responsible for assigning seniors to a willing adviser. But for many, finding an adviser can be more like building a relationship using a dating website, involving awkward emails, a search for common interests and a heap of rejections.

In the Spanish and Portuguese, sociology and politics departments, students are responsible for finding their own adviser. Departments publish a list of available thesis advisers along with their research interests, and students are expected to contact possible advisers and propose topics of study.

The psychology department also encourages students to find advisers independently, but the final decision is determined by the departmental representative after looking at both students' rankings of professors and professors' rankings of students.

"The whole process was actually pretty stressful for me," said Mary Cait Walthall '08, a psychology concentrator. "It was like getting three rejection letters per hour one morning, which can be pretty disheartening."

Other departments, like philosophy, anthropology, economics and history, give students a more backseat role. Students indicate their preferences for different professors based on factors like a professor's research interests and fame, and a departmental administrator then makes the final assignments.

"There is one kink in this process," said Swati Bhatt, the economics independent work coordinator. "It does end up being on a first-come, first-served basis ... if I have a pile of 80 proposals, the first 10 will get their first preference, the later ones will have to move to number two. There has to be a better way, but I haven't found it yet."

Bhatt is responsible for making adviser assignments for all senior economics majors. "I am going to get more involved relative to the past," she said. "It's well worth the time now ... and hopefully everyone will be happy, and the result will be superior quality."

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In nearly every department, acting quickly is key. "I definitely wish that I had gotten in contact with professors sooner," Walthall said. "By the time I had started emailing professors, they all said that they were full."

Both administrators and students agree that starting the search early and having a concrete topic idea is necessary. "Once you land here your senior year, if you have no idea of your topic — which does happen — it makes it more difficult for you to think about which faculty member might best advise you," said Tamara Thatcher, the psychology student program administrator.

She suggested that students think about their theses even earlier and look for advisers during their junior year. "We offer juniors a chance to learn about the faculty during the fall of junior year through required colloquiums," she said, "So going into the spring of junior year, students should have a sense of who they would like to work with going forward."

Despite everyone's best efforts, sometimes there are mismatches. "One year we had a serious problem," Bhatt said. "This woman had done nothing and the adviser didn't care. She came to see me and was crying in my office about not being able to graduate. She had had some personal problems and I asked her 'Why didn't you talk to your adviser about this?' and she said that her adviser didn't seem interested. That should not have happened."

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Camille Adamson '08, a sociology major, said that seniors should "know by September what you want to work on ... When you come back they want you to find someone quickly, and a lot of the advisers will have filled their quota by the end of September."

Though Adamson had yet to find an adviser two days before her department's deadline, she is optimistic about the process. "I know in the end I'll have a professor who is capable of helping me, and that is all that matters right now," she said.