“Our new faculty have been particularly eager to incorporate undergraduates into their labs and research programs,” Harriman wrote.

Kate G. Ward ’05, a psychology concentrator who plans to write a thesis next year, said she had not encountered any obstacles but that she thought “it would be hard for someone who didn’t put a lot of thought into it beforehand.”

In Ward’s case, the process was smoothed by relationships with faculty members. Ward’s adviser taught a seminar she took, and she works in the lab of her reader, Cabot Professor of Social Ethics Mahzarin Banaji.

“The department can only do so much,” said Ward, because the number of advisers available “depends on the instructors.”

Some psychology concentrators choose to forgo the intensity of the thesis process in favor of other coursework.

Esther R. Bisker ’04 decided not to write a thesis because of medical school applications. Instead of a thesis, she embarked on a course of supervised research, which she said was a “fulfilling experience.”

Nonetheless, she says she felt the option was available.

“I got an impression that they would support me,” she said, “but no pressure to write one.”

—Staff writer Ross A. Macdonald can be reached at jrmacdon@fas.harvard.edu.