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Step Four: Research Approval
Prospectus meeting
You are required to have a thesis prospectus meeting no later than October of your senior year, Friday, 19 October, 2008. It is very important to meet this deadline; failing to do so puts a reasonable research schedule at risk and may result in an unsatisfactory midterm report for the senior tutorial. This meeting is held with your full thesis committee: your Supervisor(s) and Reader. Again, to be explicit, you and your entire committee are required to attend one meeting for the purpose of full participation in inter-member vetting of the evaluation process, and committee consensus in the outcome. Any questions about what constitutes a valid prospectus meeting should be addressed to the Undergraduate Office. Its function is to approve or disapprove your thesis project, and to give you feedback about your project while you still have time to improve it. At the meeting you will be asked to summarize your research plans and to demonstrate that you are ready to implement them. If your proposal is approved, your Committee may also offer advice and assistance in completing the thesis.
If you are planning to conduct research during the summer before your senior year, you should try to have a prospectus meeting in the spring of your junior year. Researching before your thesis committee has approved your projects risks your having to do your research over if the committee ends up requiring significant changes to your proposed design. Because you cannot hold a meeting until your honors application has been approved by the department, you should aim to submit your application by the early deadline, Wednesday 20 March 2009, 5 pm, WJH 218.
To arrange a prospectus meeting, you should e-mail your thesis committee to schedule a mutually convenient time. (Be sure to start planning well before the prospectus meeting deadline.) Meetings should be held in William James Hall, often in your supervisor’s office, but you may also reserve a different room through the William James Hall Center Office (617-495-3801). You may also reserve any audiovisual equipment you need through the Center Office. In unusual situations, your prospectus meeting may need to include a member via conference call on the telephone; to arrange such a meeting, contact Laura Chivers or Rebecca Stoodley to reserve a room and then the Center Office to reserve the equipment. Finally, if any of your committee members will need parking near William James Hall for your prospectus meeting, you should e-mail the Center Office well before the meeting day to arrange for a parking sticker; e-mail Bill Santoro (wjs at wjh) and copy Laura Chivers (lchivers at wjh) on the note also. Because parking is very restricted in Harvard lots, it is best to do this as soon as you have set the date of your prospectus meeting.
Once you have scheduled a meeting, you should distribute copies of your prospectus or the latest revision to all members of your committee and the Undergraduate Office, if you have not already done this. Some students e-mail copy of their prospectus to their committee, and if you would like to do so, ask your committee members first if they are willing to receive the prospectus in this format. Be sure to leave your committee members enough time before the meeting to read the prospectus. You should also print a copy of the Prospectus Evaluation Form to bring to the meeting. After the meeting has concluded, your full committee should sign the prospectus form and you or your adviser should submit the form to the Psychology Undergraduate Office.
After the prospectus meeting, we strongly recommend that you e-mail your thesis committee members with a summary of what was agreed at the meeting. This makes you doubly sure you have understood how the committee expects you to proceed with your research, as your committee can e-mail back if they have a different understanding.
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