Whitman College Magazine Winter 2022

Collaboration,
critical thinking,
creativity,
research, analytical
skills and writing,
writing, writing.
It might sound like a rundown of the
top human skills demanded by the 21stcentury
workplace. But these elements
are also at the heart of Whitman College
students’ most challenging assignment of
their college careers: the senior thesis.
More than two-thirds of academic
departments at Whitman require seniors
to complete thesis projects. Some, like
history, require the thesis only of honors
students. (Other history students complete
a shorter paper that serves as a capstone.)
Students typically take a thesis-oriented
course or independent study, where they
get support for the process from faculty
and other students.
Beyond the written thesis, senior
projects can vary markedly by major. For
instance, seniors in the sciences typically
expand on research they’ve done with
a Whitman professor or as part of a
summer research internship at another
institution. Music performance majors
participate in a senior recital. Computer
science majors work as a team to design
and implement an integrative project.
Art majors create a work to be presented
in the Sheehan Gallery Senior Thesis
Art Exhibition. A thesis isn’t required
for English majors; those who choose to
write one might elect to write an analytic
study of literary work or craft a work
of poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction.
Many majors require oral and/or written
exams as part of or instead of the thesis.
But no matter the student’s major, one
thing everyone agrees on is that the thesis
is a challenging endeavor. Even faculty are
awed by how much students accomplish in
a short period of time.
“From my perspective, I couldn’t
believe it was possible—that everyone
is completing an empirical study in one
year,” says Tom Armstrong, associate
professor of psychology.
Senior psychology students typically
design their thesis study and write up
the introduction and methods in the fall,
says Armstrong. That leaves only a few
months to collect and analyze data and
write up the results, since they need to
submit the thesis 10 days after spring
break. “It’s a really condensed time frame
for doing a lot of work,” he says.
Mentoring thesis projects can also
be time-intensive for faculty, though
it’s deeply rewarding work, says Sarah
Davies, associate professor of history.
“The reward is to see things in new
ways—to see through the students
seeing things in new ways. Each one of
these thesis projects has changed how I
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