October is a rather lazy time of year; most students have only a few hourlies and the rain to contend with, as they enjoy the last few weeks of fall.

But several hundred seniors can't afford to take it quite so easy. They are beginning work on what the Government Department, for one, predicts will be the "high point of their undergraduate education"--the senior honors thesis.

At many colleges the writing of something as ambitious as a senior thesis is put off until graduate school, but that is not the case at Harvard and most other Ivy League schools. At Brown and Dartmouth, for example, social science departments generally require an honors thesis for students wishing to graduate with departmental honors. At Yale, some departments, such as History, require that all students, not just those going for honors, write a "senior essay."

At Harvard the requirements are not that strict, though, and as a general rule only those students hoping for departmental honors and those in the few selective, honors-only concentrations such as Social Studies and History and Literature must write a thesis.

Nevertheless, most students who write a thesis seem to agree that there is "something" about it that makes writing one a little more nerve-wracking and a lot more time-consuming than simply writing a long paper.

"I'm going to be swamped," says Dean Spencer '78, a Government concentrator who is writing a thesis on the legitimacy of lying according to political theorists.

"I have a clearly marked tendency not to start writing things until the night before," Spencer says, and for that reason he hopes to write as he does his research. "But, on the other hand, I'm still scared," he adds. "It's kind of a frightening idea, to throw it all into one paper."

Susan Waxenberg '78 says, "I'm sometimes jealous of people who say with a smirk 'I'm not writing a thesis,'" but she adds that she hopes her thesis, on barriers to entry in the fast foods industry, will be for her "part of the growing up you do at Harvard."

But although Waxenberg says she is interested in her topic, and looks forward to the challenge of writing a thesis, she says she is "not looking forward to December, January and February" when she will have to write it. "I could have such a good senior year...sometimes I ask myself why I'm writing a thesis," she adds.

Why, then write a senior thesis, and face the prospect of long days in the library during the winter, and sleepless nights at the typewriter in April? No two people have exactly the same reasons, but graduating with honors is an obvious motive for writing one, a motive stressed by many thesis writers interviewed last week.

Writing a thesis does not, however, ensure that a student will actually receive honors in his or her department, and those who do not write theses can still graduate with honors--cum laude in general studies. Moreover, the requirements vary with each department. Some science departments, such as Chemistry and Physics, do not require a thesis for honors, while others do, such as Geological Sciences and Astronomy.

Even in the social science departments, for which a thesis is almost invariably required for departmental honors, many students never begin a thesis. Others drop them at some point during their senior year. Of about 125 seniors in Government each year, fox example, 90 or so start work on a thesis, and about 20 never complete them, according to Nancy L. Rosenblum '69, head tutor in the Government Department.

Rosenblum says that writing her senior thesis, on Hegel, was "a great experience."Yet she would only advise a student to write a senior thesis "if you have something in mind, something you want to explore," or "if the process is appealing"--that is, if the student enjoys researching and writing long papers. But someone who does not fit into either of those categories, she says, "would be well advised not to write a thesis."

Rosenblum suggested that writing a thesis does not necessarily help you get into graduate school. Admissions officers at the Law School and Business School said last week they agree. N. June Thompson, assistant director of admissions at the Law School, says she has "no feeling either way" about whether an applicant should be writing a senior thesis--particularly because acceptance notices are sent out well before the theses are written.

But writing a thesis may be more of a help in applying to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and an admissions official there said last week that because it shows a student is interested in a subject, and doing work in the field, "it would be a plus in your favor." Still, few seniors interviewed last week said their graduate school plans have much to do with their writing a thesis, and several said they think it might even hurt their chances of getting to law school, because it may take away time they would otherwise spend filling out applications.