Every Harvard Student Should Write a Thesis

When choosing a concentration in October of my sophomore year, I had a strategy: I would avoid any field that required a thesis.

In my mind, writing at least 30 pages of original scholarship was too daunting to even attempt. But I have realized that for Harvard students to be truly competent in any area of study, we must be required to write a thesis. While learning the accepted facts of a field is indispensable, producing our own scholarship is the only way to demonstrate genuine mastery of a subject.

For many students — especially those whose last writing class was Expository Writing 20 in freshman year — this task seems (understandably) unbearable. But it is necessary. Memorizing facts for a midterm exam or synthesizing course readings for an end-of-semester paper does not indicate the level of knowledge worthy of a Harvard degree.

Currently, those who pursue a joint concentration, honors, or a number of notorious concentrations like Social Studies must typically write a thesis. For everyone else, a thesis is usually optional — but those who don’t complete one miss out on tangible academic and professional benefits.

A thesis requires many hours of brainstorming, research, and writing, which enhances time management skills. Persevering, even when an idea fails, builds discipline and problem solving abilities. The continual development of a research question requires creativity and unconventional thinking. Although we can build these skills by other means, no other academic project hones all of them as efficiently as a thesis.

At Princeton University, every student is mandated to write a thesis — or for engineering students, to complete a substantial independent research project. Planning begins with a substantial paper written junior year, the first step in developing a research question. By working closely with their respective departments, often through summer internships or lab work, students have access to resources and departmental funding. It’s no surprise that many students look back on their thesis as the most rewarding part of their undergraduate careers.

Princeton has shown that with careful planning and adequate support from faculty, a college-mandated senior thesis program can be successful.

Some might be concerned that a universal thesis requirement could penalize students who change their concentration later in their academic career. After all, a student who writes a thesis in a field they have studied since arriving at Harvard will have an easier time than those who switch their concentration senior year. Others might worry that the rigor of a thesis requirement would be overwhelming for ill-prepared students.

To mitigate these concerns, Harvard should also offer one-on-one support for undergraduates, especially those who switch concentrations. Moreover, Harvard can teach the necessary skills for thesis writing as a core part of the curriculum. Each concentration should offer more tutorial-style classes, or for STEM courses, more mandated research classes.

Given the wide array of concentrations, a thesis cannot, and should not, look the same for every field. A thesis in the humanities will be vastly different from a thesis in the natural sciences. Understanding the format and layout of a thesis in these fields is crucial to success in writing one.

Therefore, Harvard should require freshman year thesis workshops for all disciplines that discuss the overall format and requirements of a thesis. Harvard should also expand departmental funding so that students can pursue thesis research both on and off campus.

If we are truly going to change the world and make an impact in our respective fields someday, then we must strive to produce original knowledge. We can only do so, however, through an institution whose foundation and core curriculum includes original thought and scholarship.

That foundation begins with a mandated senior thesis.

Dalevyon L.J. Knight ’27, an Associate Editorial Editor, is a double concentrator in Chemistry and History and Science in Adams House. He plans on writing a Chemistry thesis.