Thesis Timeline

Writing a Senior thesis in ESPP is a major undertaking that will require careful planning and sustained effort over many months.  The earlier you get started on each step of the process, the more time you will have to engage deeply and meaningfully with your research topic. 

The table below summarizes our suggested timeline for the planning, research, writing and presentation phases of your thesis: 

Preliminary pitch: 

In February of your Junior Year, you will be asked to pitch your proposed thesis topic to a group of ESPP faculty and students. The pitch will involve a five-minute presentation, to be followed by questions and discussion.  Your presentation should include three slides: 

• Introduction: background on the main question and idea that you are interested in pursuing. 
• Methods: a prospective roadmap of how you might pursue this line of research.  
• Results: describe the best-possible outcomes that you can realistically envision as resulting from this work. You are not going to be held to this standard, but it is useful to choose a project that has some potential of yielding novel and important results. 

Thesis advising contract: 

You should complete a thesis advising contract with your advisor and submit it to the ESPP Office (espp@harvard.edu) by May 1st of your Junior Year.