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Senior Honors Thesis Guidelines

Are you curious about writing a Senior Honors Thesis?

HSSP majors have the opportunity to develop and conduct an independent study involving original research (field-based or lab-based) in close consultation with an HSSP faculty advisor, culminating in a Senior Honors Thesis. Undertaking a Senior Honors Thesis is a unique opportunity for students to develop and hone their intellectual ability to conceptualize, implement, and complete an original health-related research project.

A Senior Honors Thesis (HSSP 99d) is completely elective and not a requirement at Brandeis. The Senior Honors Thesis requires a considerable time investment, discipline, and focus. Therefore, typically each year, fewer than 3 of our ~100 HSSP seniors undertake a Senior Honors Thesis. When considering whether to undertake a thesis, a student should keep in mind that this is a self-directed study requiring motivation and discipline

Ideally, undertaking a thesis results in a product that can showcase your research abilities as you move forward in your professional journey. Students who successfully complete and defend their thesis will graduate with the Honors distinction in HSSP.

Our Senior Honors Coordinator is Prof. Thuy Lam.

1. Criteria for a Senior Honors Thesis

To be eligible to write a thesis, you must have at least a 3.25 overall GPA or a 3.5 GPA in your HSSP courses and obtain the written approval of the HSSP Chair.

2. The Basics

A Senior Honors Thesis - a substantial, scholarly, research-based paper and an oral defense that demonstrates a student's in-depth knowledge and original research - is completed over 2+ semesters. The thesis should address a particular problem or question relevant to HSSP: all three elements of HSSP (i.e., science, society, and policy) must be represented.

Examples of appropriate research methods include laboratory-based analyses, surveys, qualitative interviews, ethnography, historical/archival research, and secondary analysis of large quantitative datasets.

Students who successfully complete and defend their thesis can use their Senior Honors Thesis to fulfill the HSSP HOE requirement. However, we recommend you complete another HOE (see HSSP HOE) before you undertake HSSP99d in the unfortunate event that the Senior Honors Thesis is not feasible; doing so offers practical experience and may even give you ideas for your Senior Honors Thesis.

Joint theses (i.e., that count for another major in addition to HSSP) are sometimes possible, depending on the department/program involved and might require separate “99d” requirements and advisors. If you have questions, consult with the HSSP Chair or Senior Honors Coordinator.

3. Finding a Thesis Advisor & Review Committee

You are strongly encouraged to find a thesis advisor early in the second semester of your junior year. Your thesis advisor must be an HSSP faculty member (exceptions may be made in rare circumstances). You will also form a Review Committee of three faculty members, including your thesis advisor.

Finding a thesis advisor can be particularly challenging because not all HSSP faculty have the time or bandwidth to serve as thesis advisors. It is very helpful to reach out to a potential thesis advisor early on in your Junior year by preparing and submitting a one or two-page concept proposal that includes:

The HSSP topic or research question you are interested in. 
The relevance and or implication of this topic, from a science, society, and policy perspective. 
The methods you intend to use to examine these questions in your proposed research. 
A brief review of relevant literature, being sure to cite primary and secondary sources.
1. Primary sources: An original document created at the time under study that provides firsthand accounts or evidence of an event, experience, or idea. These sources are the raw materials of research, offering direct insight into the past (e.g., primary research data, interviews, oral history), and
2. Secondary sources: Materials that analyze, interpret, or synthesize information from primary sources (e.g., meta-analyses, general websites, textbooks, encyclopedias).

4. Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research (IRB)

When conducting research with human subjects, you must submit a protocol to Brandeis University’s IRB. You and your thesis advisor should submit your application as soon as you have agreed on a topic and a study design, since it can take 2-3 months to prepare, submit, revise, and receive final approval for an application. You can not collect any data for your thesis before IRB approval, unless it is part of another project that is already IRB approved. For more information regarding human subject research, see the IRB website.

5. Thesis Timeline: Junior Year & Senior Year

Expand All

Junior Fall/Spring

Confirm you have a 3.25 overall GPA or a 3.5 GPA in HSSP courses.
Determine an area and general topic that you would like to study that is related to HSSP. 
Identify a thesis advisor who is an HSSP faculty member. 
Schedule a meeting with the Senior Honors Coordinator (Prof. Thuy Lam) to discuss preliminary ideas for your thesis.
Schedule a meeting to review potential thesis topics/research questions with your thesis advisor.
Review relevant peer-reviewed literature and other sources during the summer months leading into your Senior year; be sure to read primary sources and secondary sources (see above for what constitutes a primary source and secondary source).
Submit to the HSSP Chair a one- to two-page concept proposal that includes the following:
- HSSP thesis topic of interest or research question of interest
- Relevant background information obtained from a preliminary literature review using primary and secondary sources (see above)
- Relevance and/or implication of this HSSP thesis topic from a science, society, and policy perspective
- Intended methods to examine this thesis topic
Obtain written approval from the HSSP Chair.

Senior Fall

Register for HSSP 99d during course registration.
- You must register for HSSP 99d - Senior Honors Thesis in both the Fall and Spring semesters of your Senior year.

Identify two Brandeis faculty members to serve on your thesis Review Committee with the help of your thesis advisor. Consult with the HSSP Chair or the Honors Coordinator if you are having any difficulty finding other Committee members.

Set up meetings with these Review Committee members to formulate a plan for the upcoming Fall and Spring.
Prepare a timeline with your thesis advisor for deadlines of your thesis installments (e.g., sections/chapters).
Prepare and submit an outline of your thesis to your thesis advisor, including the research question, relevant preliminary literature review, potential methods, and the impact (i.e., scientific, policy, public health, or other).
- Include a review of peer-reviewed primary and secondary sources (e.g., general review websites such as CDC, EPA, ATSDR, etc, meta-analyses)
Does your research involve human subjects?
- If yes, complete and submit an IRB Initial Protocol to the Brandeis IRB by October 1.
- Plan to collect primary data before the Spring semester begins.

Senior Spring

Review and maintain deadlines for thesis installments.
Keep track of drop dates if your thesis is no longer feasible.
- Mid-March: Last day to drop HSSP 99d without a “W”.
- April 15: Last day to drop HSSP 99d with a “W”.
Confirm with Review Committee members’ their preference for thesis installments (e.g., by chapter/section or as a whole).
April 1: Submit a complete draft of your Thesis to your Review Committee members to provide them with adequate time to provide feedback.
Identify and schedule a date for your Thesis Defense.
- Email Barbara Strauss, HSSP’s Academic Administrator, to schedule a room for your oral defense.
- Typical oral defenses are scheduled between mid-April and the first week of May.

6. The Thesis Review Committee

Typically, students work with their thesis advisor to identify two other faculty members to serve as readers on the Review Committee. One of the two other members must also be HSSP faculty. The Review Committee must be approved by the Chair of HSSP. Decisions about Review Committee membership should be made as early as possible in the Fall of your Senior Year.

7. Oral Defense

Towards the end of the second semester (typically done in mid-April or early May), you will defend your thesis to the Review Committee in an oral defense (i.e., your presentation and questions/answers).

You must schedule the oral defense for a date and time that is agreeable for all three Review Committee members, leaving time after the oral defense to make any required revisions before graduation.
- Prepare for the oral defense to last for an hour and a half.
- Email Barbara Strauss, HSSP’s Academic Administrator, for help scheduling a room for your oral defense.
- The oral defense is open to family, friends, and the Brandeis community. Zoom accommodations can be made on a case-by-case basis.
No later than one week before your oral defense date, a final, clean version of the thesis should be submitted to the Review Committee to allow your Review Committee time to read and provide feedback.
Print a thesis sign-off form (or obtain it from the HSSP Senior Honors Coordinator, Prof. Thuy Lam) and bring it to your oral hearing.
At the end of this oral defense, your Review Committee will ask you and any others in the room to step outside. The Review Committee will then determine the level of honors (i.e., honors, high honors, or highest honors).
- Once your thesis advisor and other Review Committee members have signed your thesis sign-off form, your thesis advisor will send it to Barbara Strauss, HSSP’s Academic Administrator., who will forward it to the Registrar.

8. Wrapping Up

Before departing campus, you must:

Email an electronic PDF copy to Barbara Strauss, HSSP’s Academic Administrator.
If you have conducted human subjects research, terminate your protocol with the IRB Office.

Although not required, we strongly encourage students to submit their thesis electronically to ScholarWorks and the repository for Brandeis scholarship and/or to submit a paper copy to the University Archives. Instructions about each option are available from Brandeis Library’s Publishing Support.

9. Resources: Prior Theses

Majors contemplating writing a thesis are encouraged and advised to look through successfully defended theses, which can be found electronically using the Brandeis OneSearch library catalog or in print/hard copy in the Archives & Special Collections section in the Brandeis Library.