what is the senior essay

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The senior essay.

*Please note that the new 4-digit numbers for The Senior Essay, ENGL 4100, and The Senior Essay II, ENGL 4101, will take effect in Spring 2025. The course numbers through Fall 2024 are ENGL 490 and ENGL 491, respectively.

The Senior Essay Handbook

Requirements and Guidelines for the Senior Essay

In the English Department, as in other departments, the Senior Essay consists of an extended research and writing project (critical, not creative) undertaken with the guidance of a faculty advisor. The Senior Essay is not a requirement for completing the English major, nor is it required for receiving distinction in the major. It does, however, offer a satisfying way to fulfill one semester of the senior requirement. Writing an essay provides an opportunity for those who are eager to pursue a special interest, who like to write long papers, and who work well independently. Be warned that it entails inexorable deadlines and exacting effort; it can be thrilling to write a senior essay, but only if you are committed to the project. Procrastination has repeatedly proved a grave mistake. Given an essay of this magnitude, you cannot leave reading, writing, and ruminating until the last minute. If you have any doubts, take a Senior Seminar.

In addition to the prospectus and final draft, you will be asked to hand in, at the end of four weeks, five to ten pages of writing or, if appropriate, an annotated bibliography so that you, your advisor, and the department will know how your work is proceeding relatively early in the term.  By the end of the seventh week, an extended piece of writing should be submitted.  And by the end of the tenth week, a rough draft is due (to ensure the essay will be carefully thought through and receives feedback from your advisor before you revise).

You will be expected to consult frequently with your advisor throughout the semester, both about your research and about the substance of your developing argument; we recommend at least four meetings, with bi-weekly meetings as the norm. Typically, finished senior essays range from 30-40 pages. Some drafts are considerably longer (40-50 pages) and require cutting as well as revising; other drafts are shorter (25-30 pages) and require expansion as well as revision of the argument.

Specific requirements are as follows:

1. In the term before you intend to write your essay (see I mportant Dates ), you must hand in to the DUS office a completed proposal form for ENGL 4100 or 4101 and a prospectus, which includes the following information:

(a) a description of your topic (approximately 2 pages)

(b) a bibliography of the reading and research, both primary and secondary, you intend to undertake (If part of your project will consist in looking for sources, you must still indicate subjects that you will pursue in your research.)

(c) a list of the introductory and advanced courses you have taken that have prepared you to do independent work on your topic

(d) a schedule of meetings with your advisor

(e) your advisor’s signature

If you intend to pursue a two-semester essay (not commonly done, but a possibility for substantial research projects), please conceptualize your project in two parts so that you can submit an essay for evaluation at the end of the fall semester.

Within two weeks after you submit your prospectus, you will receive an email from the senior essay committee, via the Registrar in the DUS’s office, granting approval or asking for clarification. Approval is not automatic, and the Senior Essay committee may stipulate revisions to the project as a condition of approval.

2. By the end of Week 4 of classes, you must hand in five to ten pages of writing, along with an annotated list of at least two secondary sources relevant to your essay;  or , if the project requires a substantial amount of research, an annotated bibliography of the works you have consulted together with an outline of the reading you have still to do. You may decide, in consultation with your advisor, which of these options is the more appropriate for you. This work should be turned in to your advisor.

3. By the end of Week 7 of classes, you must hand in ten to twelve pages of writing (possibly inclusive of your earlier five pages) and, as part of that writing or separately, a brief discussion of your project’s engagement with one or more secondary sources.  This work should be turned in to your advisor.

4. By the end of Week 10, you must hand in a full or almost full draft to your advisor: consult your advisor for details.

Failure to submit the draft on time or the preliminary work described above may affect the final grade received for the essay.

5. The final essay is due by noon on the last day of classes in the fall term and on the Friday before the last day of classes in the spring term (see  I mportant Dates ); it should include a bibliography of works consulted. Submit the essay to the DUS office electronically (pdf preferred) by emailing it to the departmental registrar.

Your essay will be read, graded, and commented upon both by your advisor and by a second reader chosen by the Senior Essay Committee. The two readers’ reports, will be available from the DUS office two to three weeks after you hand in the final draft. The department will keep a copy on file so that students in the future can see what kinds of projects have been undertaken.

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Click here to complete the online request form to schedule a meeting with your librarian. The appropriate subject specialist will reply to you via email.

Finding a Manageable Senior Essay Topic

Take a deep breath … you’re writing a senior essay, not a dissertation or a book! Here are some thoughts on keeping the process manageable throughout the upcoming academic year.

First, it usually takes some time at the outset to define a specific research topic. Engage with the ideas and arguments of the sources you're finding and think about where you'd like to join the scholarly conversation. Remember that the research process will often take you in unexpected directions, and that the interplay between your research questions and the sources you unearth is a cornerstone of historical research. Give yourself time to allow that interplay to happen during your senior essay research!

Some books that might prove useful:

• The Craft of Research Wayne C. Booth et al.
• Essaying the Past: How to Read, Write, and Think about History Jim Cullen
• Going to the Sources: A Guide to Historical Research and Writing Anthony Brundage
• How To Write a Thesis Umberto Eco

Subject Specialists & Research Guides

Every subject taught at Yale has a librarian assigned to it. A list of these librarians, or "subject specialists," can be found here.

Subject specialists curate subject guides that are a great starting point in finding resources on your potential research topic. The guides bring together the most useful and important resources that are available, whether encyclopedias, bibliographies or other "reference" works, databases of primary and secondary sources, archival materials at Yale and beyond, or freely available websites created by libraries, museums, and academic centers around the world.

On the first page of a subject guide, you will generally find substantial information on subject-specific databases and other library resources. Every subject librarian organizes their guides a little differently, but most follow this approach. While Quicksearch and even Google are valuable tools for research, for a senior thesis it is essential to engage with these specialized databases and resources to thoroughly mine what is available for use in the research. Bear in mind that the publishers who create the databases and reference sources don’t always give them meaningful names that help you to understand what the resource could be useful for. Take time to explore the subject guides as they are chock-full of information and help.

Reach out to a subject specialist if you have questions about getting started!

For questions about library services for your Senior Essay, contact James Kessenides at [email protected].

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• Last Updated: Jun 12, 2023 4:20 PM
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Department of Comparative Literature

You are here, the senior essay.

Feeling a little intimidated? Don’t be. The senior essay gives you the opportunity you’ve always wanted to sink yourself fully into your favorite literary topic under the supervision of a Yale faculty member.

Normally, unless there’s a very, very good reason not to, you’ll find yourself working with texts in the language of their original composition. But that won’t be a problem for you by then. You’ll welcome it.

Nuts and Bolts     |      Senior Essay Due Dates      |      Senior Essay Prizes

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Junior and senior essays.

The senior essay is often the longest and most complex paper a student will write during a Yale career. While the Writing Center supports all student writers, we’re especially eager to help as you plan, develop, and revise your senior essay.

The expectations for a good essay vary by department, because different fields have different standards for evidence, analysis, and argument. Below we offer some general good advice for developing a senior essay, followed by a list of some of the additional resources available to help you complete your essay.

Tip #1: Write about something you’re curious about or don’t quite understand. Although this advice applies to any writing project, it’s especially crucial for a long essay. If you don’t begin with something you’re curious about - something you really care about figuring out - you’ll have trouble sustaining interest in your essay, either for yourself or for your readers. Papers you’ve written for coursework can be a great source for topics, if there are issues that were just starting to excite you when it was time to turn in the initial paper. Think, too, about unanswered questions you’ve had from the courses in your major; your senior essay can be an opportunity to explore more deeply an issue that you feel has been neglected. Most advisors will want to begin discussions of your topic as far in advance as possible. If yours hasn’t initiated that conversation, take the first step and set up an appointment today.

Tip #2: Use writing to help shape your research - not just to record your results. The most productive change most students need to make in working on their essay is to begin writing sooner. We don’t mean by this just avoiding procrastination. Even if you begin researching and meeting with your advisor early in the year, you may still be tempted to delay writing until you have a strong sense of your direction, or even an outline. But research shows that taking time to write all throughout the process will help you develop a richer, more complex thesis. Here are some occasions to write that you may not have thought of on your own:

Write about your ideas as a way to find and explore your initial topic.

Don’t just underline and take notes on our early research; take ten minutes to write at the beginning and end of each research session about what you’ve learned and the new questions you’ve discovered.

Write before and after meeting with your advisor. Even if you have a draft or chapter to show, take an extra ten minutes to write about your sense of the project - where it’s going well and where you need help.

It’s possible that you won’t incorporate this writing directly into your final essay, but doing it will help you reflect more effectively on the progress of your research, which will lead to fuller and more satisfying results.

Tip #3: Develop a bigger network of readers. Ideally, you will have the opportunity to meet with your advisor several times in both terms while working on your essay. This is the person who can help you the most with questions of general direction, with focusing on the most productive parts of your topic, and with finding the most relevant research sources. But most professional writers get feedback from several readers before publication, and so should you. One obvious source for additional readers is the Writing Center, which offers several different kinds of tutoring. But showing your work to friends, roommates, and classmates can also be immensely helpful. If you haven’t shared your work with other writers before, let us give you some advice about how to make these opportunities productive: don’t expect student readers to offer solutions. Instead, get your readers to raise questions that you can talk and think through more deeply. Or ask them just to say what they understand and where they get stuck, then use your own judgment about whether your advisor will have the same kinds of questions. Until you’ve tried it, you have no idea how valuable it is just to show your work in progress to someone. Even before they say anything back, the meeting will allow you to think about your own writing differently. If they also give you helpful advice, well that’s just a bonus.

Departmental Guidelines Many departments publish guidelines for senior essay writers. We’ve compiled a few of these below. If your department is not listed, ask your DUS if any guidelines exist. The Writing Center Director, Alfred Guy, is available to help departments create and post advice for their senior essay writers.

History Senior Essay

Residential College Writing Tutors Every residential college has a dedicated writing tutor, and they have experience with senior essays from a wide range of departments. Students who work with a tutor write better essays, and the sooner you start, the better. Go to the tutoring section of this Web site and contact your tutor today.

Workshops for Senior Essay Writers Many departments offer a senior essay colloquium—the Writing Center directors are available to lead discussions about any topic related to developing your essay, including: setting a timetable, soliciting and using feedback, and structuring a long essay. In the past few years, we’ve worked with colloquia in American Studies, Sociology, and African Studies, and we’d love to meet with your group. Ask the coordinator of your colloquium to contact us to arrange a meeting.

Other Yale Resources

The Mellon Seminars

Each residential college organizes a Mellon seminar for senior essay writers. During these seminars, you’ll have the chance to talk about your work in progress with other seniors. Check with the Master’s office in your college for more details.

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN

Drop-In Writing Partners

Writing Partners are Yale College or graduate school students selected for both their writing skills and their ability to talk about writing. They have a student’s-eye view of the challenges you’ll face in writing papers.

Writing with Turnitin

The Poorvu Center organizes resources to help students use Turnitin to improve their writing - see patterns of source use and misuse, and learn best practices for the revision process.

Reserve a Room

The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning partners with departments and groups on-campus throughout the year to share its space. Please review the reservation form and submit a request.

Program on Ethics, Politics and Economics

The senior essay.

The EPE Senior Essay

A senior essay is required for the major and should constitute an intellectual culmination of the student’s work in Ethics, Politics, and Economics. The essay should fall within the student’s area of concentration and may be written within a relevant seminar, with the consent of the instructor and approval of the director of undergraduate studies, provided that the EPE essay constitutes most of the grade for the seminar. The senior essay must be written by the EPE deadline, which may in some cases be earlier than the course deadline, and the overall grade for the course will constitute the grade for the EPE essay. If no appropriate seminar is offered in which the essay might be written, the student may instead enroll in EP&E 491 with approval of the director of undergraduate studies and a faculty member who will supervise the essay. Students who wish to undertake a more substantial yearlong essay may enroll in EP&E 492, 493. In either case the grade will be calculated on the basis of evaluations by the primary and secondary readers, in the proportion of two thirds to one third.

The senior essay reflects more extensive research than an ordinary Yale College seminar paper and employs a method of research appropriate to its topic, which should address a topic in each of the three dimensions – normative, institutional, and economic. Some papers might be written entirely from library sources; others may employ field interviews and direct observation; still others may require statistical or econometric analysis. The student should consult frequently with the seminar instructor or adviser, offering partial and preliminary drafts for criticism. One semester essays should be about 40-50 pages in length, while year-long essays should be about 80-100 pages long. 

Whether students are writing in a thesis or in a seminar or 491-493, regular attendance at the EPE senior essay workshop and contact with the advisor is mandatory.

Click here for a list of past EPE senior essay titles.

The Advisor and Second Reader

The senior essay grade will be calculated on the basis of evaluations by the primary and secondary readers, in the proportion of two thirds to one third.  All students and their faculty advisors devise a schedule for regular meetings to discuss progress on the essay and consider drafts throughout the writing process. All students will also choose a Second Reader, regardless if the essay is written independently or in a seminar.

Students should consult frequently with the seminar instructor or adviser, offering preliminary but carefully written and organized drafts for criticism.  The body of a one-semester essay should be about 40-50 pages in length.  The body of a year-long essay should be about 80-100 pages in length.

Joint Senior Essay

If an EPE student decides to write a joint senior essay, he or she must satisfy each major’s distinct senior essay requirements in one senior essay.  Also, please know that no additional overlap in course credits is permitted.  Additionally, you must meet with the EPE DUS for approval if you want to write a joint senior essay.

The Senior Essay Consultant

An advanced graduate student from one of EP&E’s affiliate departments will serve as a senior essay consultant, available to essay writers for consultation on the formulation of research questions, integrating normative and positive analysis, working with data and evidence, and drafting and revising essays.

The Senior Essay Writing Workshop

The Department of EP&E offers senior essay writers the opportunity to participate in a workshop organized by the Senior Essay Consultant and the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Participants will share proposals, literature reviews, and drafts of their essays amongst themselves, receiving feedback on ideas and methods from their peers. Students writing the essay in a seminar are require to attend at least one of these workshops; students writing the essay as an independent study are required to attend all three. All meetings will be held in the first-floor conference room in the EP&E building at 31 Hillhouse Avenue.

All seniors must submit a Senior Essay Form and Requirements Progress Report (both available on the EP&E forms page) signed by their senior essay advisor, indicating their writing plans (dates TBD).  If you are writing your essay in in the fall semester the due date is December 4, 2023; if writing a spring semester or yearlong essay the due date is April 15, 2024.  Students and their advisors are encouraged to develop their own deadlines and mechanisms for marking progress, but the Department maintains deadlines, which correspond to meetings of the Senior Essay Writing Workshop, for both participants and non-participants.

Submission and Grading

On the day the senior essay is due, students should submit an electronic copy of their essay to the EPE registrar and cc the Senior Essay Consultant and their two readers by noon of the due date. Any recognized standard writing format is acceptable. You must list the names of both readers on the title page.  Grades are determined by averaging the grades of the advisor (2/3) and the second reader (1/3).

The EP&E Program awards two departmental senior essay prizes -

• The George Hume Prize is awarded to the senior essay that best investigates both the normative and empirical components of public issues.
• The William H. Orrick Jr. Prize is awarded to the essay that best integrates EP&E’s constituent disciplines while illuminating a concrete problem.

• Senior Essay

The senior essay for economics majors is optional. However, the senior essay is required for consideration for Distinction in the Major. Most students who write a senior essay find it immensely rewarding and consider it one of their best experiences at Yale.

Senior essays are an opportunity for students to engage in independent, original economic research. Essays are not reviews of the literature, rather they are an examination of an hypothesis using the tools of economics. In particular, the essay must contain original research and/or analysis. They can be theoretical, empirical or computational. The senior essays that receive A’s and are awarded prizes are typically those that use economics tools (and, where appropriate, data) to offer fresh insights on questions. Topics are as diverse as recording and analyzing the behavior of black jack players, the effect of charter schools on student performance, the effect of China’s development on trade, the effect of the Fed on the stock market…. Examples of past essays are available on the department website .

See below for a guide written by thesis writers in the class of 2023.

There are no page requirements or formatting requirements for senior essays in economics. Advice regarding bibliographies, graphs, etc. should be given by your advisor. Generally, essays run about 30 pages.

Senior essay writers may receive a maximum of $500 for legitimate research expenses, provided the student has made a good-faith effort to obtain funding from Yale College. There are many funding opportunities available for research which can be found here: https://funding.yale.edu/find-funding/class-year#toc2 . Funding requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and must be approved by the DUS and Chair.

NOTE: Students must take two econometrics courses (or ECON 135 plus one econometrics course) in order to write a senior essay. The second econometrics course can be taken Cr/D/F for the purposes of the senior essay (but in this case it will not count toward the major requirements). The second econometrics course can be taken in the fall of senior year.

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Senior essays can be 1-term or 2-term essays. The difference between a 1-term and a 2-term essay is that the 2-term essay is broader in scope and/or goes in greater depth. Most economics majors do 2-term essays.

Senior essays can be done in one of several ways:

1-Term Essays

• Enroll in Econ 491a in the fall of your senior year.
• Expand a term paper from a fall-term seminar in your senior year ( depends on availability of seminar instructor )
• Please note that a 1-term essay cannot be done in the spring term of your senior year.

2-Term Essays

• Enroll in Econ 491a and Econ 492b
• Expand a term paper from a fall-term seminar in your senior year and enroll in Econ 492b ( depends on availability of seminar instructor for both semesters )

For the class of 2024

• Enroll in Econ 491a ( not necessary if you are doing a senior essay out of a fall seminar)
• Choose an advisor and a topic. You should refer to the Potential Advisors webpage for help finding an advisor who is available and is appropriate for your topic. If you have difficulty finding an advisor, see the ECON 491 instructor or the DUS for suggestions. There are many economics faculty members who may be ideal advisors for your topic.  Students may also choose a campus economist from outside of the department. (Permission of the DUS required to choose a non-economist adviser.) In order to do an essay out of a fall seminar, you need the seminar professor to agree to be your advisor (for both semesters in the case of a 2-term essay).
• Meet with your advisor regularly. It is the student’s responsibility to make sure that these regular meetings occur.
• Submit a “Senior Essay Prospectus” on or before Monday, October 2, 2023 by 4:30 pm. The prospectus must be signed by your advisor. All students planning to write a senior essay must hand in a prospectus at this time. Failure to do so results in your not being permitted to write an essay. A late prospectus will not be accepted without a Dean’s note.
• Students enrolled in a 2-term essay must submit a written progress report to their advisor on Wednesday, November 8, 2023. For essays involving substantial data collection and statistical analysis, a description of the research question and the data that has been gathered for analysis may be appropriate. For others, a portion of the essay itself or a detailed outline describing the thesis question, existing literature, and planned method of analysis is suitable. Based on this report, your advisor will be asked to give you a temporary grade of satisfactory or not satisfactory for the fall term. This temporary grade will be replaced by the final grade on your senior essay in April.
• You are allowed to switch advisor, with DUS permission, but no later than the progress report due date . In this case you need to submit a new prospectus form signed by the new advisor by the progress report due date .
• A student who wishes to change a 1-term essay to a 2-term essay must get permission from the advisor and the DUS prior to the Thanksgiving break. To convert, a student must have made satisfactory progress on the essay by that time. No conversions will be allowed after Thanksgiving.
• 1-term senior essays are due to your advisor on Wednesday, December 6, 2023 by 4:30 pm. For students doing a 1-term essay by enrolling in Econ 491a, the advisor will evaluate and grade the paper, which will be your grade for the course. For students doing a 1-term essay out of a seminar, the advisor will evaluate and grade the paper, but the essay grade will not appear on your transcript. The grade and evaluation will be used for determination of distinction and departmental prizes. A final version of the 1-term senior essay must be submitted on or before Wednesday, April 3, 2024 by 4:30 pm via email to Dan Rehberg, Interim Undergraduate Registrar, at [email protected] for grading by the outside anonymous reader. Late essays will be accepted only with a Dean’s Extension. Essays that are submitted late without a Dean's Extension will receive a grade penalty (which will grow with the length of the delay).
• Note: students doing the 1-term essay may continue to make additional revisions beyond the fall term before the April due date. Please bear in mind, however, that advisors of 1-term essays may have other commitments and are not obligated to advise you beyond the fall term.

Spring 2024

• For students doing 2-term essays, enroll in Econ 492b.
• 2-term senior essays must be submitted on or before Wednesday, April 3, 2024 at 4:30 pm via email to Dan Rehberg, Interim Undergraduate Registrar, at [email protected] . Late essays will be accepted only with a Dean’s Extension. Essays that are submitted after the deadline without a Dean's Extension will receive a grade penalty (which will grow with the length of the delay).
• Advisor’s Reports with grades and comments and Reader’s Reports with grades and comments are usually available by the end of reading week in the Economics Undergraduate Registrar’s Office.

Hi Juniors, If you are reading this guide, this means (we hope) that you’re considering writing a senior essay in economics! Writing an economics thesis is an incredibly fulfilling experience, and we hope that if you feel prepared, you write one! To help clarify the process and give advice, the Economics Peer Mentors from the 2022-2023 academic year have made an updated version of this guide from the Class of 2021 that was created by Alya Ahmed and Lara Varela Gajewski, with responses from the Class of 2023.

Link to Class of 2023 Guide

Best of luck, Sarah Moon ‘23, Economics & Mathematics Ayumi Sudo ‘23, Economics

Some Takeaways: 

Most seniors, including all seniors that responded to our survey, wrote a two-term thesis. 

Seniors wrote essays on topics in:

• Labor economics
• Macroeconomics
• Econometrics
• Behavioral economics
• Public economics 
• Environmental economics
• ...and more 

Advisors were chosen from: 

• Herb Scarf RA and Tobin RA positions
• Classes taken in junior year or in the fall semester senior seminars
• Recommended by other professors/ECON 491 TA's
• Cold emailing

Econ thesis advisors are from:

• Yale Economics Department
• Yale School of Management 
• Yale School of Environment
• ...and more

Topics were inspired by: 

• Personal interests 
• Previously taken classes
• Summer research work
• Interesting data sets

Economics 491 counts as a 400 level, senior requirement course. Economics 492 counts as an elective.

Students writing a one-semester essay out of Economics 491 will receive a letter grade at the end of the fall semester based on the quality of their senior thesis. Students writing a one-semester essay out of a senior seminar will only receive a grade for the seminar on their transcript. They will not see their senior essay grade on their transcript, but it will be recorded by the department for distinction purposes. Students writing a two-semester essay by taking 491 and 492, will receive a temporary 491 grade (Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory) at the end of the fall semester. That grade will be replaced by a letter grade given for 491 and 492 based on the quality of the senior essay. Students who write a two-semester essay by taking a seminar and then 492 will receive a grade based on the requirements of the seminar in the fall. In the spring they will receive a grade for 492 based on the quality of the senior essay. Your senior essay will be graded by your advisor.

To qualify for distinction, a senior must receive a grade of A or A- from their advisor on the senior essay and have 3/4 of their economics grades be A’s or A-’s. For the purpose of distinction economics grades include related course credit, but do not include introductory microeconomics, introductory macroeconomics, the math requirement nor courses taken outside of Yale.

Senior Essay Course Lecturer:

Rebecca Toseland will be the Fall 2024 lecturer for The Senior Essay (Econ 491a) course.

Lecturer and TF office hours are by appointment only. Schedule a time on office hours sign-up sheet below.

Senior Essay TF:

Carles Aulés-Blancher will be the Fall 2024 TF for The Senior Essay (Econ 491a) course.

Office Hours Sign-up Sheet

Lecturer and TF office hours are by appointment only. Schedule a time on this sign-up sheet (must be signed-in with Eli Apps to view and edit).

If you would like to request an appointment at a different time, please email the Lecturer or TF.

Senior Essay Prizes

Essays will also be read by an anonymous economics department faculty member. Only the advisor’s grade will appear on the transcript. However, both the advisor and the anonymous readers must nominate an essay for that essay to move on to the awards committee.

Three or more prizes for outstanding senior essays are awarded each year by the economics undergraduate prize committee. The  Charles Heber Dickerman Memorial Prize  is awarded for the best senior essay; the  Ronald Meltzer/Cornelia Awdziewicz Economic Award  is awarded for one or two more outstanding senior essays and the  Ellington Prize  is awarded for one or more outstanding essays in the field of finance.

Senior Essays Nominated for Prizes

Women in Economics 2021 Senior Thesis Spotlight

Department of English

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The English department offers qualified majors the option of writing a senior essay. This is a one-semester project undertaken in the fall of the senior year, resulting in an essay of 30–35 pages. The senior essay counts as a 3-credit course, which can be applied toward the requirements for the major.

Each project will be assigned both an adviser and a second reader. In addition, students writing essays will meet as a group with the director of undergraduate studies once or twice in the course of the project.

The senior essay option is open to all students with a cumulative GPA of 3.6 or higher in English department courses at the end of the fall term of their junior year. Project descriptions (generally of one to two pages) and a preliminary bibliography should be submitted to a prospective adviser selected by the student from the core faculty. All proposals must be received at least two weeks prior to the beginning of registration period during the spring term of the junior year. Students should meet with the prospective adviser to discuss the project in general terms before submitting a formal proposal. The adviser will determine whether the proposed project is feasible and worthwhile. Individual faculty need not direct more than one approved senior essay per academic year. Acceptance of a proposal will therefore depend on faculty availability as well as on the strength of the proposal itself.

When completed, the senior essay will be judged and graded by the adviser in consultation with the second reader.

The senior essay is not part of the department’s honors program, which is based solely on a cumulative GPA of 3.6 in English department courses.

American Studies

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Senior essay requirement.

Prospectus and Signed Application Form: 

The prospectus should be a one- to two-page document describing the aims and scope of the project and explaining the methods/plans of research to be used. The prospectus should also include a preliminary bibliography of primary and secondary resources. The departmental application form (which can be downloaded below) must be completed by you and signed by your faculty advisor.  Your signed application form and attached prospectus must be submitted via email to the DUS, with your advisor and the undergraduate registrar on copy, by 5pm on the final day of registration for the term.  For example, if registration for the fall semester closes on September 15th, then your signed prospectus form is due by 5pm on September 15th.  For those students enrolled in the intensive yearlong course, the form need only be completed once.  Remember, you cannot register for the course without submitting a signed prospectus form by the stated date, unless you receive permission to do so from the DUS.

Annotated bibliography:

This document should list a number of secondary sources that will play an important role in your own writing. For annotations, you should include summaries of how each work’s argument or content intersects with your proposed project, and the ways in which you expect to make use of it. Rather than randomly adding in any and all potential citations with brief summaries in the style of a book report, take time to assemble a thoughtful overview of the main pieces of scholarship with which you expect to engage. This document is for your own future use; thus, you may organize and assemble it how you please—as long as you demonstrate a relatively thorough and intelligent overview of sources that you’ve examined and expect to rely upon in a substantial way.  Some students find it useful to write a bibliographic essay, which becomes the foundation of a literature review for their longer work. Speak with your advisor about what would be best for you.

For yearlong participants, you are required to submit 15-page installments of your essay.  Spring and fall term students will be required to submit a full draft at least three weeks before the deadline for the final manuscript (see dates above). You may still have gaps that you need to fill in, but this draft should demonstrate that you have substantially completed your research, organizing, and drafting stages and that you are moving into final-revisions mode. Immediately after submitting the full draft, you should set up an appointment with your faculty advisor to discuss what revisions this draft will require before final submission.  The spring essay is due the Monday of the 3rd to last week of classes.

Final essay:

Students enrolled in a one-semester version of the process must submit a manuscript of 30 pages, while students in the yearlong version must submit a manuscript of 60 pages. For submission, an electronic copy should be sent to the undergraduate registrar, with the DUS and your advisor on copy. For AMST 491 in the fall term, the deadline is the Monday of the last week of classes.  For AMST 491 in the spring term, and AMST 493/494 (the full year senior essay/project), the deadline is the Monday of the 3rd to last week of undergraduate classes.  View the calendar here for dates and deadlines. Submissions of the full year senior essay/project will be delivered to the student’s advisor, a second reader, the DUS, and the undergraduate registrar by the student. 

The format of the final essay should be as follows:  double-spaced with 1-inch margins in a font such as Times New Roman 12-point.  It should include a title page with your name, the title of your work, your advisor’s name, and whether your essay was written for the fall, spring, or intensive yearlong course.  Page numbers should be placed in the bottom center of the page.  Consult with your advisor regarding citation style and placement of illustrations.  If no preference is specified, use the Chicago style of citation with endnotes at the back of the text.  Place illustrations within the text rather than in a separate folio.  For more information on citation styles, click here .

Senior Seminar Colloquium: 

At the end of the spring semester, participants in the yearlong sequence will be expected to participate in the American Studies Senior Project Colloquium.  You will present your work to your colleagues and faculty members, delivering a short presentation and fielding questions.  

Department of Political Science

Undergraduate Senior Essay

Guidelines and requirements, fall 2023 deadlines for senior essays.

Seniors planning to write a one–semester essay in the spring semester must submit a Fall Senior Essay Prospectus form signed by the faculty member who has agreed to advise the essay. The signed form is due by September 5, 2023, for students writing the essay in PLSC 480 and by September 7, 2023, for students writing it in a seminar.

All yearlong and fall semester senior essays are due by 4:00 pm on Friday, December 8, 2023.  This deadline applies to senior essays being written in a seminar, as well as essays written in PLSC 480, PLSC 491 and PLSC 493.

Rev. 06-20-23

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The Senior Essay or Senior Thesis

Every student who completes the major in Comparative Studies writes a senior essay or a thesis.  The essay or the thesis is completed in CS 4990, “Senior Seminar,” a writing workshop offered every Spring in which students share drafts, present their work orally, and receive detailed feedback from their peers. 

You may choose between two options:

• The Senior Essay , usually between 12 to 15 pages, written largely during the semester you take CS 4990, though often building on earlier class work.
• The Senior Thesis , which requires a semester of CS 4999 or 4999H (usually taken autumn of senior year; that is, ideally before the spring term you plan to graduate), “Undergraduate Thesis” or “Honors Thesis,” working closely with a professor who you select to serve as advisor to your thesis. This option is usually between 25 to 40 pages. Students who choose to write a Senior Thesis may plan to fulfill the requirements for either “Research Distinction” or “Honors Research Distinction" . Details on these options are offered below.

Whichever is chosen, the senior research project serves as a capstone experience for students in the major, and results in a piece of original work that can be shared with the Comparative Studies community.  The essay or thesis may also be valuable as a writing sample if students apply to graduate or professional schools, or pursue a wide range of careers that value individual initiative and effective communication.

The Process: What You Need to Know to Get Started

Both the senior essay and the thesis require some advance planning, though the timeline for the thesis is typically longer.  If you choose to write the senior essay, you should have selected a paper to revise and expand, or else identified a topic for a new research paper, no later than the semester  before  you enroll in COMPSTD 4990.  You will need to submit your draft or proposal for a first round of peer review early in Spring semester. 

If you choose to write the thesis, you should have identified a topic and an advisor by the start of Autumn term of your senior year (some students choose a topic in the Spring of junior year and begin work in the summer) so you can enroll in COMPSTD 4999/4999H and begin your research.

In either case, take note that prior to enrolling in COMPSTD 4990, you'll have already taken the required 4000-level course (all of which require the completion of a research paper). The research paper written for that course often provides / may provide the paper that you choose to use for the senior essay or the senior thesis option.

Whether you write the senior essay or the thesis, nothing is more important than the choice of a topic.  It should be something that engages you, that sparks your curiosity or imagination, and that has stakes that matter to you.   But it should also be a topic of manageable scale, one that can adequately be explored in the time available to you.  Your faculty advisor can help you to shape your project at the outset, and to make any necessary adjustments along the way.

No formal advisor is required for the senior essay.  If you choose to revise and expand an earlier paper (such as the one you would have written for your 4000-level research course), you may want to reconnect with the instructor for whom you wrote the original.  They may be willing to serve as an informal advisor as you undertake your revisions.  If choosing a new topic, you may wish to speak with a professor in the department or on our affiliated faculty with expertise in the subject matter.  Each of you also has your own faculty advisor with whom you can confer, as well as the professor who will be teaching COMPSTD 4990.

If you write a thesis you must have a formal thesis advisor; you may also elect to have a co-advisor. They will supervise any thesis research courses you take (COMPSTD 4999), the writing of the thesis itself, and the oral exam at the end of the process. This might be the same person as your faculty advisor but it need not be. You should choose someone with whom you are comfortable (usually because you have been in a class together before) and who has enough knowledge of the subject matter to guide your work. You may wish to speak informally with more than one professor before making a final decision.

Senior Essay or Thesis?

If you choose to write the senior essay you will complete most of the work of research and writing during the Spring semester of your senior year, while enrolled in CS 4990, “Senior Seminar.”  You may either revise and expand a paper you wrote for another course (usually, but not always, a course in Comparative Studies), or begin and complete a research paper on a new topic.  Senior essays vary in length, but are typically around 12–15 pages (and sometimes longer if they are expanded versions of earlier essays).

If you who choose to write a thesis you will typically begin working on it during the Autumn semester of senior year (and sometimes during the preceding summer) by enrolling in CS 4999 or 4999H (“Undergraduate Thesis” or “Honors Thesis”).  You will then complete the writing while enrolled in CS 4990, “Senior Seminar.”  Theses vary considerably in length, but are typically between 25 and 40 pages.  The thesis process also includes an oral "defense" (really more like a conversation about the completed work with your advisor and one or more other faculty members).  If you choose the thesis option you may be eligible to graduate with “Research Distinction” or “Honors Research Distinction.”

To graduate with Research Distinction in Comparative Studies or with Research Distinction (if the thesis is completed in another discipline), you must meet the following requirements:

• Complete a minimum of 60 graded credit hours at Ohio State
• Graduate with minimum GPA of 3.0
• Students intending to graduate at the end of Autumn term: Application due no later than the first Friday of the previous February
• Students intending to graduate at the end of the Spring term: Application due no later than the first Friday of the previous October
• Students intending to graduate at the end of the Summer term: Application due by the first Friday of December
• Complete at least 4 credit hours of COMPSTD 4999 (these may be spread over more than one term)
• Complete and successfully defend the thesis during an oral examination

For a more detailed list of instructions, see:  https://artsandsciences.osu.edu/academics/current-students/advising-academics/graduation

If you are in the Honors Program you may graduate with Honors Research Distinction in Comparative Studies or with Honors Research Distinction (if the thesis is completed in another discipline) by meeting the following requirements:

• Be enrolled in the ASC Honors Program and complete an approved Honors Contract
• Graduate with minimum GPA of 3.4
• Submit “Undergraduate Thesis Application” to the ASC Honors Office upon enrolling in COMPSTD 4999H, or no later than the 3rd Friday of the semester you intend to graduate
• Complete at least 4 credit hours of COMPSTD 4999H (may be spread over more than one term)

For a more detailed list of instructions, see:  https://aschonors.osu.edu/honors/research-thesis

Other Useful Information

There are several sources of funding for undergraduate research.  Arts and Sciences awards two kinds of scholarships on a competitive basis each academic year; each requires a letter of support from an academic advisor, and preference is given to students planning to write a thesis. Undergraduate Research Scholarships range from $500 to $12,000.  Applications for a given academic year are due in early February of the preceding year.  International Research Grants provide up to $4,000 for research-related travel abroad for students in Arts and Sciences.  There are two application cycles per academic year.  For more information, see:  http://aschonors.osu.edu/opportunities/scholarships/undergrad .

The Division of Arts and Humanities provides Undergraduate Research Small Grants (up to $500) to help fund travel to things like conferences, research collections, and exhibitions and to purchase materials for research or creative activity.  The Aida Cannarsa Endowment Fund offers grants of $500 to $3,000 to students in arts and humanities, with priority given to those with demonstrated financial need.  Applications for both are reviewed twice a year.

See:  https://artsandsciences.osu.edu/academics/current-students/scholarships-grants/research .

There may be additional sources of funding, on and off campus, for particular kinds of projects.  You should consult with your advisor and the Office of Undergraduate Research.

Please note that research funding involving human subjects may require prior IRB approval .

Every Spring, there are opportunities for Comparative Studies students to present the results of their research, whether they choose to write the senior essay or the thesis.  The Richard J. and Martha D. Denman Undergraduate Research Forum is a university-wide showcase of undergraduate work that awards prizes by areas of interest (for example, Humanities).  There is a competitive abstract submission process in January, and a day devoted to presentations in late March.  Though most of the forum involves poster presentations, Humanities majors give brief oral presentations (8-10 minutes) on their work to faculty judges.

In April, the Department of Comparative Studies hosts its own Undergraduate Research Colloquium.  Working closely with their advisor, students prepare and submit paper abstracts in February—300 words or fewer that describe the project’s central questions, methodologies, theoretical framework, and (tentative) conclusions.  Students may choose to give a 10-minute presentation on work in progress or a 20-minute presentation on completed work (by April everyone enrolled in 4990 should be ready to give a presentation).  This is a more relaxed atmosphere, with an audience of your peers and friends, as well as faculty and graduate students in the department.

Autumn of senior year

• Choose a topic

Spring of senior year

• Enroll in COMPSTD 4990, “Senior Seminar”

Spring of junior year

• Identify an advisor

Summer between junior and senior years (optional)

• Enroll in COMPSTD 4998 or 4998H, “Undergraduate Research in Comparative Studies” (2 credits)
• Submit “Application for Graduation with Research Distinction” or “Undergraduate Thesis Application”
• Enroll in COMPSTD 4999, “Undergraduate Thesis” or 4999H, “Honors Thesis” (2 credits)
• Enroll in Enroll in COMPSTD 4999, “Undergraduate Thesis” or 4999H, “Honors Thesis” (2 credits)

Additional Information

• You can find copies of undergraduate theses online at the OSU Knowledge Bank:  https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/handle/1811/134 .
• Further information on undergraduate research opportunities is available at:  http://www.undergraduateresearch.osu.edu/ .

St. John's College

Senior Essays

The senior essay is the signature effort of a student’s career at St. John’s College. The essay is a sustained performance in the liberal arts and culmination of the student’s learning. The essay is not a work of specialized research, but the extended pursuit of a difficult question in dialogue with a great author.

In the first semester each senior selects a book, a question, and a faculty advisor. The student and advisor meet periodically in the first semester to discuss the book and define the project. In the first four weeks of the second semester, senior classes are suspended for essay writing. Each completed essay is assigned to a committee of three tutors, who examine the student on the essay in a one-hour, public conversation. Submission of a satisfactory senior essay and completion of the oral are conditions for receiving the degree. 

Learn more about the essay writing process and oral examination for seniors, and read about the student who wrote a prize-winning essay on “The Probability Function in Quantum Mechanics: A Formal Cause Beyond Space and Time.”

See senior essay topics for the St. John’s Class of 2019.

Seniors Talk Essays

Read what students wrote about for their senior essays.

“I wanted to write on a Hispanic author, especially a Latin American author. The book is about how to approach life, and how we need some sort of shared experience with the things that we are taking our learning from. He approaches Machu Picchu, and thinks it’s just this thing that he can grab and mine and take some sort of life from—but it turns out the ruins resist him in a particular way, and they have to change him in order for him to be able to take anything. Especially here, with all that we read, we need to be changed by the things that we read as much as we take from them.”

“Despite its vast dramatic territory, Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen is largely focused on a single character: Wotan, the chief god of oaths and contracts. Without attempting to account for the entire work, I wanted to examine Wotan as Wagner initially presents him. This meant narrowing my essay to the first two operas: Das Rheingold and Die Walküre. I discovered that despite its heavy-handed political allusions, Wagner’s work is ultimately focused on the question of Wotan’s will. What is Wotan’s will? And what does it mean for the will to exist at all? My resulting work was a surprising revelation of both the significance of the will and Wagner’s creative genius. ”

“I wrote about The Lord of the Rings because it’s been a mainstay in my life. I learned how to read from The Hobbit, and have re-read Lord of the Rings every year since. It has helped me through a lot of trying times. In junior year, we learned to separate head and heart, and we have ennui: where everyone is existentially bored. I think fantasy and escapism can be a solution to that. This was a huge culmination of everything I learned here, philosophically.”

“I wrote my senior essay on The Phenomenology of Spirit . Hegel is one of the hardest philosophers in the Program. He expresses that we have a deep spirit in us that needs to be moved. Once that spirit is moved, our self-consciousness develops. But that self-consciousness must go through stages in order to arrive at what he calls ‘the absolute known’ or ‘the absolute spirit.’ If people do believe that we have this spirit in us, it can move and develop and grow to its fullness. I think I’m getting to fullness. I don’t know if I’m halfway there yet. I’m still young.”

“We begin philosophy with Plato, and we end up with Nietzche and Heidegger, where everything seems to be nihilistic. I return to Plato and articulate the theory in which love can really give birth to someone’s self and to being. I tried to extract some kind of life-affirming philosophy from a program that seems to become increasingly nihilistic as it enters the 20th century. I’ve never had this much time to think about a book. I had a month to formulate all of the thoughts that have circled unconsciously for the past four years. I didn’t realize I had this much to say, but it all spilled out. And now there’s a paper, and it’s really exciting.”

“I wrote my essay on Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. I was curious about Gulliver’s account of rationality and whether there is a universal standard or if it is relative to particular societies. By analyzing Gulliver’s infatuation with the Houyhnhnms (the ruling race of horses in the final country he visits) and his growing disdain of his own species, I found that it is impossible to rank rational beings because the facets of human rationality and reason are so intricate. I also found that Gulliver’s proclivity for learning languages and his willingness to assimilate into new societies helps him to understand the merits and value of societies different from his own.”

“I discussed getting to know yourself, and the horror of the darkness that lurks inside everyone — being able to accept that and not descend into self-hatred.”

“Why is it necessary to use straight lines in understanding curves? I am examining why the method for mathematically describing a curve using points and straight lines is fundamentally opposed to the conception of a curve as a continuous object. It was inevitable that I was going to write about math. In all my St. John’s math classes, I have been interested in how geometric objects can be measured through ratio. I considered Euclid or Apollonius, but I took Calculus 2 over the summer and the questions raised in junior math were brought up continuously (ha!), so I decided to focus my questions about ratios in geometry by using curves. ”

On Thucydides

“My senior essay is about the rise and fall of the Athenian empire, inspired by the most recent turn of events in American politics. I decided that the Athenian empire inevitably conquered itself. Though they had met no strong opponents that could do battle with them, they turned on one another and that’s what caused their entire society to collapse. When a city gives in to fear and loathing, that is when things are at their worst and that’s when the situation in the empire is irredeemable. People shouldn’t doubt for a second that we live in an empire, and fear is our greatest enemy.”

“I’ve read it every single year of college, including the year that I took off. Writing the essay was liberating. In the past, on all the other papers I’ve written, I always wished I’d had more time. With this, I finally wrote a paper where I thought, ‘This is where I wanted to end up.’”

On Dostoevsky

“My essay on The Brothers Karamazov focused on some specific irrational actions that Smerdyakov, Ivan, Alyosha, and Dimitri commit. I discussed in detail what motivated these actions if not reason or desire, how these kinds of acts affect our moral judgements (especially the system of judgement that Kant sets up in his second critique), and why Dostoevsky makes the bold decision to have such a deep and cohesive novel dictated by actions devoid of any purpose.”

“I’m writing on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. We read it at the very end of junior year. I got really stuck on food: what Huck eats throughout the novel and how he describes it. It’s a fun thread to follow throughout the Program, from the Lotus-eaters in The Odyssey to Augustine’s pear. In Huck Finn, I was struck by how much he enjoyed the cold meat served to him by the cruel Grangerford family, who are embroiled in a pointless, multi-generational feud. I wanted to know how the kind of food Huck eats speaks to his growth.”

“It’s a novel about the encroaching legal aspect of society amidst the Industrial Revolution of England. It’s a dreary tale about the loss of personal strength and the reliance upon law, especially as large families come to use [law] to crush individuals who are otherwise upstanding members of society. But it has a happy ending, as Dickens is a man of sentimental feelings, and they come out. Good characters get rewarded, bad characters get punished—it’s a fun book.”

Senior Essay Titles

The titles demonstrate how wide-ranging the topics can be for senior essays.

Department of Psychology

You are here, senior requirement information, table of contents, senior essay submission.

• Slides used during Senior Requirement Orientation, Spring 202 3
• Senior Requirements
• Enrolling in tutorial / research courses (PSYC 493, 495, and 499)
• Some common senior requirements questions
• Helpful Links for writing Psychology Papers (including Senior Essays)
• Examples of Award Winning Senior Essays

If you are submitting a senior essay this term (i.e., the so-called “substantial paper” with more than 5,000 words), the deadline for Spring 2024 is December 6 (Fri) at 5:30pm for students who are not seeking Distinction. For students who are seeking distinction, it is due November 29 (Fri) at 5:30pm (it is sooner because we need to assign it to a second reader). 

Please see below for instructions on how to submit your senior essay. 

Even if you are writing a senior essay through a senior seminar, you must submit your senior essay to the department as explained below. 

How to submit senior essays

·  You will receive (or have already received) an email from Canvas, inviting you to join “Senior Essay in Psychology.” If you haven’t done so, accept this invitation because you will be submitting your senior essay through this site. If you have not received an invitation from Canvas or can’t find it, please contact  fredericka.grant@yale.edu .

·  To submit your senior essay, log onto Canvas, and go to “Senior Essay in Psychology”. If you are taking Psyc 499 (Senior Essay), please do not confuse it with ”Senior Essay in Psychology.” 

·  Once you are at “Senior Essay in Psychology”, find an “assignment” that applies to you (distinction or no distinction). 

Under the assignment, you will see a link to fill out some information (e.g., title, abstract, and suggestions for a second reader if relevant). After filling it out, upload your senior essay as an assignment.

If you are writing your senior essay in PSYC 499, Senior Essay (required for the BS) you must enroll in PSYC 499 during the semester in which you will complete your senior essay. To enroll please follow the instructions here . 

Slides used during Senior Requirement Orientation, Mar 6, 2023

Senior requirements , majors are required to earn two course credits from courses numbered psyc 400–499. at least one of these course credits must be taken during the senior year, for which a student must write a substantial final paper (a minimum of 5,000 words) and receive a letter grade, which excludes psyc 490-495 that can only be taken pass/fail. .

The following table illustrates 400-level course combinations that are acceptable for senior requirements and comments for each combination. 

Explanations for the codes used in the table

• 495: 0.5 credit tutorial, Pass/Fail
• 493: 1 credit tutorial, Pass/Fail
• 499: Senior Essay

• Psyc 493, 495, and 499 can be repeated as many times as you wish. Though, only 3 credits from these courses can count towards psych credits. 
• Students seeking a BS degree must conduct empirical research through Psyc 499. Thus, those students can only choose from options 4-7. 
• Students seeking a BA degree can choose from options 1-7, but most do options 1-3. 
• Students in the neuroscience track have the same requirements, but both of the 400-level courses must have neuroscience content. 
• Students seeking distinction in the major have the same requirements except that their senior essays must be submitted 1 week before the last day of the class in the term they are taking the course for senior essay. 
• Option 7 is recommended for those who want to go to graduate school in Psychology, would like to publish their senior essay, plan to conduct multiple studies, or plan to do extensive literature review. If Option 7 is selected, the student must produce two substantial papers (> 5,000 words), one from each term, and the word count applies to only the non-overlapping portions. (For instance, one may submit a 7,000 words paper at the end of the second semester of Psyc 499 using some of the write-ups from the first semester of Psyc 499, but of these, 5,000 words should be new.) 

Back to Table of Content s

Enrolling in tutorial / research courses (PSYC 493, 495, 499)

In order to sign up for a  Directed Research ( PSYC   493 ), Research Topics ( PSYC  495),  or   Senior Essay (PSYC 499)  course, students must fill out  this survey  and add the course to their course sheet (being sure to request instructor permission). Students can complete this process either during course registration or during the first week of add/drop period. It is imperative that students discuss this process with their proposed advisor prior to filling out this survey or adding the course; a checklist of the information you need is available  here .

Some Common Senior Requirement Questions

Q: What qualifies for distinction in the major?

A: To qualify for distinction in the major, students must obtain grades of A or A– in three-quarters of the credits in the major as well as a grade of A or A– on the senior essay. All courses taken in the Psychology Department will be included in these calculations for Distinction in the Major (which for some students may include classes above and beyond the 12 courses used for major credit). We also include classes outside are department which are taken for major credit (e.g., MCDB classes that are used for Psychology major credit in the Neuroscience Track) in these calculations. Note that Grades of F as well as marks of CR in courses taken on a Credit/D/Fail basis are included as non-A grades.

Q: I preregistered for a 400-level senior seminar.  What are my options for fulfilling the second senior requirement credit? Can I take two senior seminars to fulfill my 2 credit senior requirement?

A: Yes, you can fulfill your senior requirement with a senior seminar (unless you are seeking a BS degree) or with a senior essay course (PSYC 499). You can take two senior seminars to fulfill both senior requirement credits, but we can pre-register you for only one seminar.  Pre-registration for senior seminars takes place at the end of the Junior year.

Q: I am planning to take two semesters of Senior Requirement Directed Research to fulfill my senior requirement.  May I still preregister for a senior seminar?

A: All rising seniors may pre-register for a senior seminar for their senior year.  However, if there is a shortage of slots available for senior seminars, priority will be given to students who need a senior seminar in order to fulfill their senior requirement.

Q: I am seeking a BA degree with Distinction.  Do I have to write a literature review for my senior essay or can I do an empirical research project?

A: There are no restrictions in research format for students seeking a BA.  For a BA degree with Distinction, the senior essay can be a literature review or empirical study.

Q: How is the senior essay graded for distinction in the major?

A:  Unlike the papers submitted for other PSYC 400-level classes (which are only graded by the faculty member supervising the 400-level class), senior essays submitted for distinction are also graded by a second reader appointed by the DUS. You and your advisor may suggest possible second readers for your essay. 

Q: What sorts of papers qualify for “substantial writing” or a senior essay?

A: “Substantial writing” or a senior essay means a paper with at least 5,000 words for a senior seminar course (PSYC 400-489) or for PSYC 499. Most senior essays will consist of a literature review and/or empirical study. A literature review summarizes and analyzes a large body of empirical research concerning a specific topic. Writing a high quality literature review requires reading a large number of journal articles, synthesizing the results of previous experiments, and highlighting areas for future research. Since the senior essay must involve an original contribution, at least some part of the literature review must approach the topic from a novel angle. An empirical study is an experiment (or series of experiments) that addresses a novel research question. Performing an empirical study for the senior essay requires identifying a question that has not been adequately explored by existing studies, developing an experiment that addresses the question, and analyzing the results and drawing conclusions. If you choose to do an empirical study for your senior essay, your essay must also include a literature review; however, the literature review will be significantly briefer than if you choose to make the literature review the focus of your senior essay. But you should also discuss this issue with your advisor who may have more specific suggestions based on the nature of your senior essay project.

Q: How do I choosing a lab and advisor for the directed research course I’ll use for my senior requirement?

A: If you plan to conduct an empirical research study for your senior requirement, you will need to join a research lab affiliated with the psychology department. The three most important criteria for choosing a lab are (1) the amount of overlap between your research interests and the lab’s research interests, (2) the quality of mentorship afforded undergraduate students in the lab, and (3) personal compatibility between you and your advisor. First, It is essential that there is some overlap between your interests and the interests of the other members of the lab. Faculty members are most knowledgeable about topics relating to their research interests, and furthermore, if your interests do not intersect with those of other lab members, it is likely that either you or your advisor will not be enthusiastic about your essay. The psychology department website contains information about faculty research interests . Faculty member websites often contain more detailed information about their research and links to journal articles they have recently published. It is especially important to read recent publications to find out about your faculty advisor’s current interests. Second, different labs vary greatly in the nature of responsibilities and support given to undergraduates. In some cases, students will join existing essays and gradually develop their own essays, whereas in other cases, students will be encouraged to start their own essay immediately. In some labs, the professor works closely with undergraduates and in other labs, graduate students are primarily responsible for advising undergraduates. It is important to ask (i) “what do you expect from me?” and (ii) “what is the nature of the mentoring I will receive?” before joining a lab. Here are some specific considerations you might want to ask about. (i) What is the expected time commitment? What will my responsibilities be (e.g., running experiments, designing experiments, data analysis, writing a paper based on the results)? How much input will I have in the experiment’s design and other intellectual aspects of the essay? Are there opportunities for becoming a co-author on research studies? (ii) What is the advising structure in the lab? What contact will I have with the professor (e.g., weekly one-on-one meetings, group lab meetings)? To what extent will I be expected to work independently and to what extent will I be expected to work collaboratively with other members of the lab? Third, academic considerations are very important when choosing a lab, but you also need to consider the personal compatibility between you and your advisor. As is the case with any endeavor, if you can’t stand the people you are working with, you probably won’t have a good research experience. Alternatively, if you have a positive working relationship with your advisor, this will increase your enthusiasm and improve your attitude toward your essay. Thus, you should consider “personality” and “fit” issues in addition to academic issues when selecting a lab and an advisor. Other undergraduates working in labs are an excellent source of information regarding their experiences. They are likely to speak candidly concerning the pros and cons of their labs. Speaking with current seniors is particularly helpful for learning which professors are especially good senior essay advisors.

Q: How do I make contact with a potential advisor for a directed research course for my senior requirement?

A: Once you’ve decided that you want to work in a particular lab, you should contact the professor with an e-mail describing your background and why you are interested in joining their lab. Professors want to see that you’ve taken the time to think about why their lab is a good fit for you and that you are familiar with the lab’s research. An ideal candidate will have read several of the lab’s recent publications. This shows that you are genuinely interested in their work.

Q: What’s the best timeline if I want to do an empirical project for my senior requirement?

A: If you have a passion for research (or want to find out if you would enjoy doing research), you should consider doing research as early as possible during your Yale career. Research takes a long time and many studies that are eventually successful don’t work at first and undergo lots of fine-tuning. It is ideal to start thinking seriously about the senior essay in the spring of the junior year.  Since it is easy to underestimate the amount of time needed to complete a senior essay and you will undoubtedly run into a few snags along the way, it helps to start early. We suggest that at least by the spring of junior year, you should start thinking seriously about potential topics for a senior essay. Once you have some idea of what topic you want to explore, contact faculty members who may be suitable advisors. You don’t need to have a concrete plan for a specific research study at this point, but potential advisors will want to guage your interests before deciding to accept you into their lab. If you plan to work in a psychology lab over the summer, you will need to apply for positions during the spring semester. Many labs at Yale offer summer research opportunities for rising seniors. If you plan to pursue graduate school in psychology or want to get a head start on your senior essay, seriously consider working in a lab over the summer. The summer is a great time to work in a lab because you won’t have to balance your commitment to the lab with other classes and extracurricular activities, allowing you to immerse yourself in your essay and make significant progress.

Q: I’d like to do an empirical research project. Who can I talk to about study design/analysis?

A: We now have a Senior Thesis Advisor who holds regular office hours and is available to meet by appointment. See more information here .

Back to Table of Contents

Other Helpful Links on Writing A Substantial Psychology Paper

• Technical Writing: By Gray et al.  [ pdf ]
• Writing Narrative Literature Reviews: By Baumeister & Leary [ pdf ]
• Writing the empirical journal article: by Bem [ pdf ]
• Writing a Review Article: by Bem [ pdf ]
• The Science of Scientific Writing: by Gopen and Swan  [ pdf ]
• Revision Strategies: by Sommers [ pdf ]

Examples of Award Winning Psychology Senior Essays

• Len Chan ‘21,  Angier Prize Winning Senior Essay entitled ”Classification of Conduct Disorder using a biopsychological model and machne learning method” [ pdf ]
• Arianna Neal ‘19 “Interneurons and Amyloid-Beta in Alzheimer’s Disease” [ pdf ]
• Alice Oh ‘19 “Characterizing relationships between resource insecurity, internalizing symptoms, and functional brain connectivity in children” [ pdf ]
• Kate Zendel ‘19, “All the Money in the World” Americans’ Misperception of Gender Economic Equality [ pdf ]
• Hong Bui ‘17, “Gender Categorization in Infants and Children” [ pdf ]
• Amanda Royka ‘17, “Metacognition across Domestication: A comparison of Dogs and Dingoes” [ pdf ]
• Suzanne Estrada ‘16, “The Impact of Individual Differences and Community Factors on Altruistic Behavior” [pdf]
• Madeleine Marino ’15, “Prosocial Helping in Dogs: A Strategy to Secure Loyalty?” [ pdf ]
• Deanna Palenzuela ’15, “Growing Up in Neverland: An assessment of the long-term physical and cognitive correlates of the Operation Pedro Pan exodus” [ pdf ]
• Scott Snyder ’10, Angier Prize Winning Senior Essay entitled “Adaptive Traits Associated with Psychopathy in a “Successful,” Non-Criminal Population” [ pdf ]
• Meg Martinez ’10, Angier Prize Winning Senior Essay entitled “The Blame Game: Lay causal Theories and Familiarity with Mental Illness.” [ pdf ]
• Stav Atir ’10, “Memory for Information Paired with Humorous, Relevant Jokes” [ pdf ]

If you still have questions, contact the DUS  (Yarrow Dunham) or the departmental registrar,  fredericka.grant@yale.edu .

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You are here, senior essay.

For ful​l details on requirements, format, and deadlines for the Senior Essay in the History of Art, see:

*** Guidelines For Writing the Senior Essay ***

Note that these guidelines are updated each year.

Below is a summary of this year’s senior essay calendar:

SENIOR ESSAY KEY DATES AND DEADLINES 2023-24

FALL 2023 Sept. 11           Senior Essay Proposals Due @ 12:00 pm Sept. 20         Senior Thesis Essay Workshop 1 (5:00-6:30 pm) (HoA Dept Conference Rm) Oct.   06        Project outline and annotated bibliography DUE Oct.   23         Senior Thesis Workshop II 5:00-6:30 pm (HoA Dept Conference Rm) Oct.   24         Senior Thesis Workshop II 5:30-7:00 pm (HoA Dept Conference Rm) Nov.  10         Complete draft of essay due Nov.  15          Senior Essay Colloquium: 5:30-7:30 pm (HoA Dept Conference Rm) Nov.  16          Senior Essay Colloquium: 5:30-7:30 pm (HoA Dept Conference Rm) Dec.  08         SENIOR ESSAYS DUE (to nicole.chardiet@yale.edu and DUS @12:00 pm)

SPRING 2024 Jan. 26           Senior Essay Proposals Due (to nicole.chardiet@yale.edu and DUS) Jan. 30           Senior Thesis Essay Workshop 1 (5:00-7:00 pm) (HoA Dept Conference Rm) Feb. 20          Project outline and annotated bibliography DUE Mar. 5            Senior Thesis Workshop II 5:00-6:30 pm (HoA Dept Conference Rm) Mar. 6            Senior Thesis Workshop II 5:00-6:30 pm (HoA Dept. Conference Rm) Mar. 27         Complete essay draft due Apr. 2             Senior Essay Colloquium: 5:30-7:30 pm (HoA Dept. Conference Rm) Apr. 3.            Senior Essay Colloquium: 5:30-7:30 pm (HoA Dept. Conference Rm) Apr. 19          SENIOR ESSAYS DUE (to nicole.chardiet@yale.edu and DUS @12:00 pm) 

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The Senior Essay

In November of your senior year, you will submit a proposal for your essay to the Department of Literatures in English. The purpose of your proposal is to define the project for your senior thesis, demonstrate the viability of your project, and locate yourself within the critical debate about your chosen literary texts.

The essay should be 30-40 pages long, not including notes, bibliography and other apparatus. In late April of your senior year, you will submit a bound copy and an electronic copy of the Senior Essay in its final form . The hard copy should be delivered to the English House Office and the electronic copy should be sent to Daniel Parker [email protected]

Once you turn your bound essay in, it is distributed to your thesis adviser and to a second reader for response and evaluation . 

Essay Schedule Spring 2024

Department of Literatures in English

English House Bryn Mawr College 101 N. Merion Avenue Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-2899 Phone: 610-526-5306

Daniel Parker , Administrative Assistant [email protected]

What’s the Common App? Everything to Know for Senior Year

The Common Application, or Common App , is an online platform used by students to apply to multiple colleges and universities with one application. Over 900 institutions worldwide participate, saving students time applying to colleges during a hectic senior year . The application usually opens on August 1 each year. But be sure to verify the exact date.

Why Use the Common App?  

1. simplifies applications:  .

During your senior year, balancing academics, extracurricular activities, and college applications can be challenging. The Common App allows you to enter your personal details, academic history, and extracurricular activities just once, and then send this information to any  participating colleges you wish to apply to. 

2. Manages College Essays Efficiently:  

One of the key components of the Common App is that it eliminates the need for multiple  college essays . With the Common App, you write a single personal essay that’s sent to all the colleges on your list. This saves you time and effort. It allows you to focus on crafting a strong essay that highlights your unique experiences and strengths. Some colleges may require supplemental essays, which can also be managed through the Common App. 

3. Streamlines Recommendation Process:  

The Common App makes it simpler to submit  letters of recommendation . You can invite your teachers and counselors to upload their letters directly to the platform. It’s easy to track the status and be assured that all required documents are submitted.

4. Includes a Fee Waiver Option:  

Applications come with fees, but if that’s a concern, the Common App offers a fee waiver request option. If you’re eligible for  SAT fee waivers , you can have your application fees waived at many colleges. This makes it less burdensome for students from various financial backgrounds to apply .

5. Provides Deadline Management:  

The Common App lets you keep track of all your application deadlines in one place, which is especially useful during your busy senior year. This feature helps you stay organized so you won’t miss any deadlines. 

More From Forbes

What a president harris would mean for seniors.

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HOUSTON, TEXAS - JULY 25: Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the American Federation of ... [+] Teachers' 88th National Convention. (Photo by Montinique Monroe/Getty Images)

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is working hard to win the support of older voters, but what would she do to address their many concerns if she is elected president?

In a campaign that has not yet shown many of its policy cards, Harris has offered only the roughest sketch of a governing agenda. But her time as vice president and senator provides some important clues. Among the issues she has addressed in some fashion: Paid family leave, more aggressively lowering the cost of Medicare drugs, unspecified Social Security reforms, tougher nursing home regulation, more funding for Medicaid home and community-based long-term care, and better pay for direct care workers.

The Republican platform , released during its July convention, also was long on promises and short on details. But Harris at least has a track record on some of these issues. Let’s look at how she might approach some as president:

Paid Family Leave : Harris has been a strong supporter of a federal paid leave program for years. She made it a priority in her very first appearance after President Biden withdrew from the campaign in June. The Democratic platform , approved at the party convention but written while Biden was still a candidate, calls for 12 weeks of paid time off to “care for a loved one.” While Harris most often speaks about the idea in the context of raising young children, she has supported efforts to provide leave for those caring for aging parents as well.

Prescription drugs. The Biden Administration and congressional Democrats succeeded in passing legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate prices for 10 prescription drugs starting in 2026, gradually increasing by 20-a-year by 2029. Harris promises to accelerate that schedule and boost the number of drugs subject to price negotiations.

That Democratic platform, which Harris has not explicitly endorsed, would raise the number of drugs subject to price negotiation to 500 by 2030.

Other Medicare benefits : The platform also calls for expanding Medicare benefits to include hearing, vision, and dental coverage. These benefits often are offered though Medicare Advantage managed care plans but are not available in traditional Medicare.

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Social Security: Harris frequently vows to protect Social Security and Medicare but does not say how. In the Senate, she cosponsored a bill authored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that would have increased benefits, subjected wage income in excess of $250,000 to the payroll tax, and expanded the Social Security tax to include investment income.

However, she already has implicitly disavowed one part of the bill by promising to stick with Biden’s commitment to not raise taxes on those making $400,000 or less. The party platform backs the idea of raising Social Security taxes on “the wealthiest Americans” but does not define either who they are or how a tax increase would function.

Without significant changes to Social Security, the program will become insolvent in a decade, r esulting in across-the-board benefits cuts of more than one-fifth, a median annual benefit cut of $5,900.

Long-term care. As vice president, Harris became the face of the Biden Administration’s efforts to toughen nursing home staffing rules and safety regulations, expanding Medicaid home and community-based services, and paying aides and other direct care workers higher wages.

Biden’s bold efforts to increase federal funding for Medicaid home care had only limited, temporary success. In his 2025 budget, Biden proposed a scaled back, but still substantial , plan to increase the federal payments for Medicaid home care by $150 billion over 10 years. While the party platform does not explicitly echo that call, it does support eliminating Medicaid’s home care waiting list, which may be as many 700,000 people across the country.

While we don’t know many details of Harris’s agenda for older adults, she speaks often about the importance of the “caring economy.”

The biggest question for a President Harris will be where support for older adults fits in her exceedingly ambitious—and costly—agenda. At best, newly elected presidents usually get to achieve one big thing. For example, Barack Obama got the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Donald Trump won congressional passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Biden, often underestimated, accomplished much more. But he was the exception.

Even with a Democratic Congress, Harris won’t get everything she wants. How will those promises to prioritize the needs of older adults fit with her plans to reduce the costs of housing and groceries, increase support for young families with children, and raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations while cutting them for low- and middle-income families?

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How to make friends in college: 8 tips from real students

Is one of your biggest concerns how to make friends in college? You aren’t alone. Every college student wants to find their people who they can comfortably confide in and enjoy spending time with. Keep reading to learn from some real University of Northern Iowa students about their experiences making friends in college.

How to make friends in college

Have a positive outlook on making friends.

If you go into your college experience believing you can’t make friends in college, you may find it more challenging to foster new connections. But if you believe that you will make friends and you put in the proper effort, you’ll be more likely to leave your time in college with fulfilling relationships.

“When I was a freshman, I was very nervous to make friends here at UNI,” said William Palma, a third-year student majoring in computer science. “I had the belief, however, that I would find meaningful people, and I was able to meet great people with this positive mindset.”

Even if you didn’t have a lot of friends in high school, have the belief that college will be different. “This is a fresh start for you, and you have the ability to control your college experience,” said Meggan Barrow, a third-year student majoring in comprehensive secondary science education.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of constantly scrolling on your phone. This is especially true while you’re in a classroom waiting for a lecture to begin. Challenge yourself to be in the moment and off your phone. For Carissa Demings, a senior accounting and business analytics student, this is one way she has figured out how to make friends in college. Even while she is walking to class, she tries to avoid being on her phone. “People are more likely to approach you or talk to you before class if you aren’t occupied with your phone,” she said.

Remember you aren’t alone

‌ Whether a person is introverted or extroverted, the thought of making new friends in college will be a little nerve-wracking. “I remember feeling very nervous about how I might be perceived if I was the first to start a conversation with someone new,” said Samantha Robinson, a senior majoring in communication sciences and disorders. “What helped me to overcome that feeling was knowing that EVERYONE is feeling nervous about the same thing. I quickly learned that most people starting college are looking around, hoping for someone else to start the conversation. By knowing that everyone is nervous about the same thing, it made me feel a lot better about putting myself out there and making new friends.”

Leave your comfort zone

Perhaps the most important advice you can take when it comes to thinking about how to make friends in college is to be willing to take risks. That may mean getting involved with a group where you don’t know anyone or showing up to a sporting event even though you don’t know all the rules. Put yourself out there! “Leaving your dorm room or apartment to get involved is the first, easiest step to making friends, even when you may not feel like it,” said Robinson. 

“Be open to meeting new people and don’t hesitate to introduce yourself with someone new,” said Lizbeth Garcia Tellez, a senior majoring in strategic public relations. “Embrace the chance to connect with others!”

Put in the work

Friendship is a two-way street. It takes time and effort on the part of both parties to create a lasting relationship. Organize get-togethers with new connections such as movie nights or coffee meet-ups. Even if you aren’t in the same classes, asking someone to study with you is also a great way to further a connection. “Collaborating on study sessions gives us a chance to spend more time together and support each other academically, which deepens our connection,” said Garcia Tellez.

“With being so involved, it’s hard to block off time to make friends or even hang out,” said Barrow. “I have overcome this by allowing myself more breaks in my schedule and not going to everything possible.”

Be the friend you want

It can be hard to make the first move in a friendship by introducing yourself to someone new. But you can’t always be expecting other people to introduce themselves to you first. In general, you will make more friends if you treat others the way you would like them to treat you. “Even if you’ve found your group, be open to it growing,” said Madison Duong, senior majoring in marketing: advertising and digital media. “Invite others to join you when your friends hangout. The small action of including someone in your plans makes all the difference.”

Let your friends increase your connections

Often, when you make a friend, you will have the opportunity to meet their friends, too. This will multiply your connections in college. Don’t be afraid of mixing your friend groups or asking your friends to introduce you to more people. When everyone is helping each other foster community, knowing how to make friends in college gets a lot easier!

Be yourself

Whether you’re conversing with your dorm neighbor or meeting your intramural teammates, make sure you are always your authentic self. “I tried to be someone I wasn’t my freshman year,” said Caleb Brothers, a senior majoring in interactive digital studies and graphic technology. “I had to realize that if people didn’t want to know me for who I really was, what was the point? Don’t be afraid to be who you truly are. The friends will come, so there’s no need to hide behind a mask or a facade.”

Where to make friends

There is no shortage of places where you can make friends at college. According to students, some of the best places include:

• Orientation  - Orientation is really your first chance to start making friends at college. Because it can be overwhelming, it might be a good idea to focus on just one or two people you could become friends with.
• Welcome Week activities   - The first week at UNI is filled with all kinds of events for students. Take advantage of these opportunities.
• On-campus jobs   - Whether you work in an office on campus or the dining centers, jobs are a great way to spend an extended period of time with other students.
• Classes  - Try to converse with your classmates before and after class. It’s usually pretty easy to ask them if they’d like to study for an upcoming test together.
• Campus events - Keep an eye out for events happening on campus throughout the school that you can go to and meet more people. Read your weekly Panther Experience emails, check out the  UNI Calendar and look for flyers and sidewalk chalk signs across campus. You can also follow various departments and student organizations on social media.
• Student organizations - Get involved with student groups right away. These are a great place to find people with common interests.
• Residence halls - Leave your door open whenever possible and look for other open doors on your floor. Don’t be afraid to stop by and say “hello.”
• Dining centers - Ask others in the dining center if you can sit with them, or if you see someone eating alone invite them to sit with you.

Make lifelong friends at UNI

Hopefully, these tips will help you flip your mindset from “I can’t make friends in college” to “I CAN make friends in college.” Remember that making friends gets easier with practice, so if you don’t feel like you’ve made friends in the first few days on campus, just keep trying! It will get better.

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Guest Essay

How Harris Has Completely Upended the Presidential Race, in 14 Maps

Daniel Zvereff

By Doug Sosnik Graphics by Quoctrung Bui

Mr. Sosnik was a senior adviser to President Bill Clinton from 1994 to 2000 and has advised more than 50 governors and U.S. senators.

With Kamala Harris now at the top of the ticket, the enthusiasm and confidence within the Democratic Party feel stronger than at any point I’ve seen since Barack Obama ran for president in 2008. And it’s not just vibes: The paths to victory in the Electoral College have been completely reshaped for the Democrats – and for Donald Trump – since my last analysis of the electoral map on July 12, nine days before Joe Biden exited the race.

Not only have Democrats come home to support their party’s nominee, they are now also more energized about the election than Republicans. Ms. Harris has quickly picked up support from nonwhite and younger voters.

We are now back to the same electoral map that we had before Mr. Biden’s summertime polling collapse: Once again, the winner in November will come down to the seven battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The seven swing states that will most likely decide the 2024 presidential election.

Current polling shows the transformed race: While Mr. Biden trailed Mr. Trump in all seven battleground states last month, Ms. Harris is now leading Mr. Trump by four points in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the latest New York Times/Siena College polls . Other polls show Ms. Harris in a statistical dead heat in Georgia and Arizona .

Those polls also reveal one of Mr. Trump’s biggest obstacles to winning the election: A majority of the country has never supported him, either as president or as a candidate for office. In the Times/Siena surveys, Mr. Trump had polled at only 46 percent in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And with the race no longer between two unpopular nominees, support for third-party candidates has dropped, making it much more difficult for Mr. Trump to win.

And yet: Republicans have a structural advantage in the Electoral College system of voting, giving Mr. Trump at least one advantage against a surging Ms. Harris.

The G.O.P. lost the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections, yet won the White House in three of those elections. In 2016, Mr. Trump eked out Electoral College wins in swing states like Wisconsin even as Hillary Clinton crushed him in the most populous states like California. The Republican edge has only grown stronger with the reallocation of electoral votes based on the most recent census.

Given that structural advantage, Georgia, and its 16 Electoral College votes, is increasingly becoming a pivotal state that Mr. Trump can’t lose. If Ms. Harris is able to carry Georgia – and Mr. Trump seems to be trying to help her by inexplicably attacking the popular incumbent Republican governor and his wife – then she would have 242 electoral votes, only 28 short of the 270 needed to win.

Mr. Trump may not understand the political consequences of losing Georgia, but his advisers appear to: His campaign and biggest aligned super PAC spent four times as much in advertising in the state in the two weeks since Ms. Harris became the Democratic Party nominee as they did in the rest of 2024 combined. And in this coming week, of the $37 million in ad buys that the Trump campaign has placed nationally, almost $24 million are in Georgia.

Pennsylvania looks increasingly to be the other key battleground state, and both parties know it. According to AdImpact , over $211 million in paid media has so far been purchased in Pennsylvania from March 6 until Election Day, which is more than double the amount in any other state.

Given its size and support for Democratic candidates in the past, if Ms. Harris loses Pennsylvania, that could be just as damaging to her candidacy as a loss in Georgia would be to Mr. Trump’s chances.

This is why Georgia and Pennsylvania are the two most important states to watch to see if one candidate is able to establish a decisive path to 270 electoral votes.

Ms. Harris starts out with 226 likely electoral votes compared to 219 for Mr. Trump, with 93 votes up for grabs. However, unlike Mr. Biden last month, she has multiple paths to 270 electoral votes.

The first path for Ms. Harris is to carry Pennsylvania , which Mr. Biden won by more than 80,000 votes in 2020 and has voted for the Democratic candidate in seven out of the last eight presidential elections. Assuming that Ms. Harris wins Pennsylvania, she will have 245 electoral votes and six paths to 270.

Scenario 1 Then all Ms. Harris needs are Michigan and Wisconsin (assuming that she carries the Second Congressional District in Nebraska) …

Scenario 2 … or Wisconsin and Georgia …

Scenario 3 … or Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada …

Scenario 4 … or Michigan and Arizona …

Scenario 5 … or Michigan and Georgia …

Scenario 6 … or Georgia and Arizona.

The second path for Ms. Harris does not require her winning Pennsylvania. Instead she needs to win Wisconsin , Michigan , Georgia and …

Scenario 1 … Arizona …

Scenario 2 … or Nevada .

Based on past elections, Mr. Trump starts out with 219 Electoral College votes, compared to 226 for Ms. Harris, with 93 votes up for grabs.

It’s difficult to see how Mr. Trump could win the election if he cannot carry North Carolina , which generally favors Republican presidential candidates. That would give Mr. Trump 235 electoral votes and multiple paths to 270.

The first path involves carrying Georgia , a state he lost by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020. Before then, Republicans won Georgia in every election since 1992. If Mr. Trump carried North Carolina and Georgia, he would have a base of 251 electoral votes.

Scenario 1 Then all Mr. Trump needs is Pennsylvania …

Scenario 2 … or Michigan and Nevada …

Scenario 3 … or Michigan and Arizona …

Scenario 4 … or Arizona and Wisconsin …

The second and more difficult path for Mr. Trump would be if he carried North Carolina but lost Georgia. He would then have only 235 electoral votes and would need to win three of the six remaining battleground states.

Scenario 1 Like Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin …

Scenario 2 … or Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania .

A Look Ahead to November

Ms. Harris clearly has the momentum going into the Democratic National Convention, but she has not really been tested yet. At some point she will need to demonstrate that she can perform under pressure in order to win over undecided voters and less enthusiastic moderates and independents.

As unruly as this election year has been, there are still certain rules of politics that apply to the presidential race. History has repeatedly shown that the winning candidates are usually the ones best able to define who they are, whom they are running against and what the election is about.

Mr. Trump had made the election a referendum of his presidency compared to Mr. Biden’s – that he was a strong leader and Mr. Biden was weak.

In the past three weeks, Ms. Harris has set the terms of the campaign as a choice between change versus going backward – a positive view of the future compared to a dystopian view of the present with a desire to go back to the past.

But even though Ms. Harris’s favorability has gone up significantly since she announced her candidacy, the increase in support is soft. That is the reason that the Democratic convention is such an important opportunity for her to close the deal with key swing voters.

Mr. Trump, on the other hand, is fully defined in the minds of most voters, and has elected to double down on catering to his MAGA base despite alienating the key swing voter blocs that will determine the outcome of the election. During the last hour of his convention speech, and every day since then, Mr. Trump has offered words and actions that remind Americans why they voted him out of office in 2020.

Mr. Trump has increasingly looked like a washed-up rock star who can play only his greatest hits for his dwindling group of fans. If he loses in November, he will have been a one-hit wonder who led the Republican Party to four presidential and midterm election-cycle losses in a row.

More on the 2024 presidential election

What the Polls Say About Harris That the Trump Team Doesn’t Like

If a major change on the Democratic ticket fires up progressives, it wouldn’t be unusual to see a slightly higher number of progressive likely voters.

By Kristen Soltis Anderson

Don’t Listen to the Right. The Kamalanomenon Is Real.

There was Obama-level excitement at Harris’s Atlanta rally.

By Michelle Goldberg

Biden’s Path to Re-election Has All But Vanished

A Democratic strategist explains just how difficult the Electoral College math is getting for President Biden.

By Doug Sosnik

Doug Sosnik was a senior adviser to President Bill Clinton from 1994 to 2000 and has advised over 50 governors and U.S. senators.

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