The number of concentrators is 326, according to the Office of the Registrar.

Harriman also points out that 20 new courses have been added in the last two years after an extensive process of polling both faculty and students about their interests.

These include courses such as Psychology 1503, “Psychology and Law,” Psychology 1808, “Neurobiological Aspects of Psychopathology,” Psychology 1358, “Behavioral Genetics” and Psychology 1569, “Psychosocial Aspects of HIV/AIDS.”

Harriman adds that expanded options also exist in the form of several new graduate-level seminars open to qualified undergraduates.

Procrastinators Need Not Apply

Writing a thesis in psychology requires long-term planning and close collaboration with a faculty adviser—a luxury many of the seniors haven’t had in the past few years. It is also greatly helped by a research interest in a faculty member’s area of inquiry.

Psychology concentrator Lauren S. Hirshon ’03 says that depending on their area of interest, students have to start the process of writing a thesis as early as their sophomore year.

“You have to know really early on what you want to write on, get a lab job related to it sophomore year in order to not feel rushed,” she says.

Working in a lab can be one of the few ways concentrators find sought-after thesis advisers, students say.

“If I had done something lab-wise sophomore year I would have written [a thesis],” Hirshon says, but without that experience finding an adviser proved too difficult.

Gasgarth adds that she was discouraged from writing a thesis during sophomore year when her faculty mentor “told us not to even consider asking her to advise us since she would only work with people who worked in her lab.”

But Kosslyn says the department has “been realistic, given our limited resources” and “suggested that students work in a lab on a topic of interest to their advisers.”

“It’s definitely the case that not all theses are written on the topics of faculty research,” Kosslyn says. “We will approve any thesis for which there is an adviser and a committee.”

Committee Phobia

But assembling a committee can often be the greatest obstacle to an aspiring thesis writer—especially for one whose interests do not match those of the faculty.