OUTSIDE THE RANKS

Another way of increasing the number of thesis advisers available to students is to move outside the realm of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS)—by connecting thesis writers with graduate students and faculty from Harvard’s various graduate and professional schools, or even from outside the University.

“It’s surprising often how faculty at other schools are interested and excited in working with Harvard undergraduates,” says Economics Assistant DUS Robert H. Neugeboren.

Philosophy Head Tutor Warren Goldfarb says he occasionally helps students find thesis advisers in other departments or even in other universities if their thesis proposals do not seem to fall within any department member’s fields of expertise.

According to Goldfarb, one student in the last thesis cycle was advised by a lecturer in the Department of the Study of Religion and he says he once convinced an MIT professor to advise a student thesis.

Biological Studies and Chemical and Chemical Biology concentrators often find thesis advisers in the Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Harvard’s hospitals.

A growing number of graduate students also supplement faculty supervision by advising or helping to advise theses.

According to Nakayama, nearly half of psychology thesis writers are co-advised by a graduate student; New says many English concentrators also have graduate co-advisers.

To guide searching students, the Government department has compiled a database of its graduate students’ research interests.

According to Campbell, exit surveys show that on average, students are more satisfied with graduate student advisers than with faculty advisers. Campbell says a possible reason is that graduate students can give more time and attention to their advisees’ projects.

This holds true in other departments as well.

Fridberg says she knows thesis writers whose graduate advisers tended to have more time and were very involved in the advising process.

“Having a full professor...can cause a lot of problems,” she says. “Unless they’re tenured, their position’s sort of up in the air; even with a professor’s best intentions, you’re still competing with his classes and other obligations.”

“I actually really enjoyed the opportunity to work with a graduate student,” Dewitz says. “He was much closer to my personal position, and was willing to make time for me whenever I wanted.”

But Wootten says he tried very hard to find a faculty member to advise him, thinking that a professor’s experience would be a valuable asset to his project.