Right before the last year of college, every undergraduate at NYU is given the chance to compose a senior honors thesis. The opportunity is usually optional, and application requirements vary by department and school.
The prospect of writing a thesis is pretty daunting and many reject the option in favor of a more relaxing senior year. It is indeed true that a thesis will absorb the vast majority of your free time, particularly during second semester.
A thesis demands immense dedication, an enormous amount of independent research, late night writing when you’d rather be sleeping, and weekend work when you’d rather be drinking. There were many nights when I, and most of my fellow thesis writers, desperately regretted writing one. My thesis was, without a doubt, the most challenging assignment of my academic career. Regardless of school or major, a thesis requires a lot of independent decision-making without much guidance. Advisers offer some help, but the biggest decisions are up to you.
