Honors thesis worth it? Forum

[HarvardHopeful93]

Or would I just be better off using that extra time next year to study for the LSAT?

[HarvardHopeful93]

Need to qualify that doing a thesis is 12 credits worth of guaranteed A+

[cotiger]

Um, do both?

[A. Nony Mouse]

How on earth is an honors thesis guaranteed an A+ grade? That seems kind of bogus, frankly.

(she says, jealous that her school didn't have this policy)

[SFrost]

How on earth is an honors thesis guaranteed an A+ grade? That seems kind of bogus, frankly.

(she says, jealous that her school didn't have this policy)

Same where I was from. Nobody ever got anything but an A unless they really messed up.

I had 10 credit hours of A.

[dwyf]

I can't really speak to the admissions side of it, but I've been happy to have an honors thesis on my resume now that I'm in school. For things like applying for an RA spot or a fellowship for my 1L summer, I thought it helped my resume (particularly because I was from a no-name undergrad).

Especially if you go to a school with an ungraded legal writing class, anything you can do that tells an interviewer that you can write is nice.

And, for the record, I feel jipped. Not only did I not get A+, I didn't even get any credits for my honors thesis. I was part of the honors program at my school, but my major didn't have a thesis requirement. To finish the honors program I needed a thesis, so I got to find time for it during my other senior year courses.

[A. Nony Mouse]

How on earth is an honors thesis guaranteed an A+ grade? That seems kind of bogus, frankly.

(she says, jealous that her school didn't have this policy)

Same where I was from. Nobody ever got anything but an A unless they really messed up.

But then it's not guaranteed.

(Sorry, I'm just being ornery today. )

[cotiger]

If you're only considering doing a thesis for the grades or the resume line, just ugh. Go out and have a chill last semester. Save the whoring for professional school.

[jbagelboy]

If your thesis is anything like mine was, it's not a fly by night thing.. as cotiger suggested, you've gotta be at least somewhat invested in it as an intrinsically fulfilling academic endeavor. Mine was mandatory for my major, so it's not like I had a choice, but I can't imagine completing an optional one just for the insignificant resume boost. So get inspired about a topic in your field or a professor's research you can piggyback onto or it won't be worth it for you personally.

[Kimikho]

Outside of the experience of working on a thesis and learning new things, come waitlists, I'm glad I've been working on an honors thesis, but it has made my senior year very stressful and has actually led to my lowest grades in college (outside of the thesis). It's also required me to be more entrenched in my department and have more connections and participate more, which is saying something since the department is so large.

More importantly, it (quickly) convinced me I did not want to get an econ PhD. I think that is a large reason why honors programs require them.

[redbull12]

LSAT