Putting a prize on the thesis

Many departments declined to release information about the selection process for prize recipients or the size of monetary rewards. Because these details are not publicized, many seniors said they are mystified about the process but added that the prizes themselves are less important than the triumph of completing a thesis.

Some University departments go further than others in keeping information about thesis awards private before they are conferred.

“Seniors are not even aware of the possible prizes; it is not something we publish,” history department undergraduate administrator Etta Recke said in an e-mail.

Details regarding the financial benefits are even more confidential.

“If I remember correctly, the [economics] department gave us a list of the prizes and categories at the beginning of the year,” Matthew Davis ’09 said. “I had no idea there were monetary prizes associated with them.”

But despite the financial incentives, many seniors and faculty members said money is not a primary main motivation for writing high-quality theses.

Like Davis, history major David Thorpe ’09 said he was unaware of his department’s prize offerings. “I was mostly driven by a desire to just produce the best work I could, not to compete against classmates for a trophy,” he explained.

In most University departments, all seniors are automatically considered for thesis prizes, while undergraduates at some peer institutions, like Yale and Columbia, must apply for consideration.

History professor Robert Tignor explained in an e-mail that he considers these awards to be affirmations of fruitful academic endeavors rather than as ends in themselves.

“I don’t think that [the awards] served as strong motivation at the outset of work on the thesis,” he said. “I think the awards come at the end as recognition of a process that really worked.”

Tignor noted that winning a thesis award sometimes reflects the meritorious partnership built between a student and adviser, adding that “students who may not have been the best in the department often find a good topic and a dedicated adviser and produce outstanding theses that go on to win one of the department’s prizes.”

For history concentrator Frederick Hall ’09, the idea of financial compensation was far less important than just completing his thesis.

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“When I first started researching and writing in the fall semester, the prospect of winning an award was a nice thought, but by the crunch time in February and March, winning an award was not even a passing consideration,” he explained. “I was much more interested in getting it done.”

English professor Jeff Dolven said in an e-mail that his department did not publish the thesis prize amounts because they are contingent on a variety of factors, including the size of the original gift and how long it has been accumulating interest.

“The dollar figures do not always correspond to the importance of the prize in the eyes of the department,” he explained.