Honors Program
The Honors Program in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience offers students completing the Psychology or Neuroscience major an excellent opportunity to get involved in research. The program is for students with strong academic records who wish to devote a substantial amount of time in their senior year to a senior honors thesis.
Program Details
Requirements and Due Dates
Junior Year
November 1: Honors Program Application to Participate
April: Submit your thesis proposal to your advisor and second reader.
April (Registration for Fall): Submit a Syllabus/Contract Form for PSYC4495 and PSYC4496.
May 1: Honors Thesis Proposal Approval Form
Senior Year
PSYC4495 Senior Honors Thesis I (3 credits)
PSYC4496 Senior Honors Thesis II (3 credits)
One 5000-level PSYC course (3 credits)
April: Submit your thesis to your advisor and second reader.
May 1: Honors Thesis Approval Form
Library Thesis Submission
The BC Library encourages each student writing a thesis to submit it online. Instructions can be found on their website.
Registration
The University requires a written, signed syllabus/contract between the instructor and student for all non-scheduled undergraduate courses.
Syllabus/Contract for Individually Arranged and Non-scheduled Courses
The form should be completed and signed by both instructor and student, and then the student should bring it to the Director of Undergraduate Studies for approval. Because the thesis courses require the instructor’s permission, students must register through the department's main office (psychoffice@bc.edu) with a fully signed syllabus/contract.
During registration for the fall, submit a syllabus/contract form for both parts of the thesis course. You do not need to submit a second contract during registration for the spring; however, you will need to contact psychoffice@bc.edu and request to be registered for the second course once your spring registration opens.
Restrictions
No Teaching Assistants
These courses cannot be used as compensation for teaching assistant duties.
Student Employees
If you are enrolled in Undergraduate Research, Independent Study, or a thesis course, you cannot be paid for the same work. Thus, you would not be hired as an employee for the same semester that you are enrolled in the course.
Put another way, if you are an employee in a lab and also enrolled in Undergraduate Research, Independent Study, or a thesis course in that lab, the work you are doing for pay must be entirely separate and unrelated to the work you are doing for credit.
If the two kinds of work are indeed separate, your advisor needs to email us to explain the differences between the work.
Further Information
For more information, contact the Director of the Honors Program, Karen Rosen (karen.rosen@bc.edu).
Frequently Asked Questions
One of the best ways to learn is through doing—joining the Honors Program will allow you to explore your interests in the field of psychology and learn the scientific method through hands-on experience. Joining the Honors Program helps many students discern their future career path. Some students get bit by the “research bug,” others find out that they are more interested in counseling-based psychological careers, while still others decide that their passions lie in a completely different field. Students who have completed the Honors Program have gone on to careers in psychological research, medicine, teaching, counseling, and law, to name just a few. Participation in the Honors Program is an excellent distinction in general; it is a particularly noteworthy distinction for those students who wish to apply to graduate school (in psychology or otherwise). The Honors Program provides the opportunity to work closely with a faculty member outside of the traditional classroom setting. Participating in the Honors Program will teach you to think critically, to address and test questions systematically, and to communicate your thoughts and ideas to others.
Our Honors Program is different from the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program. Students are admitted into the MCAS Honors Program when they are admitted to Boston College, while students are invited into our program based on their academic record after the first two years. Participation in both the MCAS Honors Program and our program requires the completion of an Honors Thesis. If you are in both programs, you can use the same thesis.
The Honors Program has a GPA requirement of 3.7 both in your major and overall. Students who meet the GPA requirement at the end of their sophomore year will be invited to join the program. Students must also meet the GPA requirement at the time they graduate.
You will receive a letter from the Honors Program Director prior to the start of your junior year inviting you to apply to the Honors Program. If interested, you would then identify a faculty member in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience who is willing to supervise your work. Complete your preliminary application by November 1 of your junior year. On this application, you need only indicate the topic you plan to research and the name of your thesis advisor.
Within the department are eighteen faculty members who regularly supervise undergraduate thesis students.
These include:
- Gorica Petrovich (Neurobiology of Feeding Behavior Lab)
- Scott Slotnick (Memory, Attention, and Perception Lab)
- Michael Mcdannald (Mcdannald Lab)
- Andrea Heberlein (Mind Perception Lab)
- Elizabeth Kensinger (Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience Lab)
- Katie McAuliffe (Cooperation Lab)
- John Christianson (Christianson lab)
- Regan Bernhard (Bernhard Lab)
- Jaclyn Ford (Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience Lab)
- Kengthsagn Louis (Self, Health, Identity, and Culture Lab)
- Diane-Jo Bart-Plange (Deconstructing Intergroup Social Cognition lab)
- Gregg Sparkman (Social Influence and Social Change Lab)
- Liane Young (Morality Lab)
- Angie Johnston (Canine Cognition Lab)
- Stefano Anzellotti (Social and Cognitive Computational Neuroscience Lab)
- Caroline Smith (Smith Lab)
- Deeya Mitra (Emerging Adulthood lab)
- Sara Cordes (Infant and Child Cognition Lab).
Note that some other faculty members (e.g., Brooke Magnus, Sean MacEvoy, and Mattitiyahu Zimbler) also occasionally advise theses if a student has a specific interest related to their research.
These faculty members typically work with 1-5 thesis students per year (including both honors thesis students and senior thesis students).
Some students have also completed theses with primary advisors outside of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. These advisors can be faculty members in other departments at Boston College (e.g., Lynch School, School of Social Work, or the Physics department) or can be based at other institutions. However, all students must still have a secondary advisor within the department. This person can be identified, together with your primary advisor, once you have a thesis topic.
You will work with your advisor to develop a specific and testable research question. You should set up an appointment to meet with your advisor to have a brainstorming session. The next step is to read, read, read about your topic of research. The more informed you are, the better questions you will ask.
Yes, we accommodate students studying abroad by allowing for some flexibility in meeting required deadlines. If you are planning to study abroad in the fall semester, you should contact the graduate student coordinators to identify a potential thesis topic and advisor. Before you go abroad, secure the approval of the faculty member with whom you are interested in working, and prepare your preliminary application. The application may be submitted via email to the department main office (psychoffice@bc.edu) anytime before the November 1 deadline. Students who are abroad in the spring of their junior year may work with their advisor over the summer to develop a proposal, which will be due to the department main office on the first day of classes in the fall. We do expect that you will be ready to fully engage in your proposed research by the beginning of your senior year.
During the spring of your junior year, you develop a ten-page thesis proposal due May 1. It is recommended that you take either PSYC2205 Undergraduate Research or PSYC2206 Independent Study during the second semester to work on the proposal. You and your advisor should collaboratively choose a second reader for your proposal and your honors thesis. Your second reader can be a full- or part-time faculty member, postdoc, or doctoral graduate student chosen collaboratively by you and your primary advisor. If your primary advisor is within the department, your second reader can be from another department at BC.
You will need to submit an Honors Thesis Approval Form to the honors canvas site by May 1 of your junior year; if you will be abroad during the spring semester, there is some flexibility around that deadline, but it must be before the start of your senior year (e.g., fall of junior year, or summer before senior year). Do not submit your thesis proposal to the department; it is only due to your primary advisor and second reader.
Below is one example of a research proposal format, though yours might vary depending on the nature of your research. Please check with your primary advisor for proposal formats and examples. If your lab does not have example proposals for you, please ask psych-dus@bc.edu.
I. Introduction
State your research question. (1 paragraph)
Review previous research carried out on this and related questions. (~6 pages)
II. Methods
Participants: Describe your participants. Who will they be? How will you find them? Age? Sex? How many? (1 paragraph)
Procedure: Describe precisely what your participants will be asked to do and how long the procedure will take. (1-2 pages)
III. Hypotheses
What do you predict, and why? (1 paragraph)
IV. Data Analysis
How will you score or code your data? Will you have a second coder for inter-rater reliability? How will you analyze your data? (1/2 page)
V. Discussion
If your hypotheses are confirmed, what will you conclude? What will be the significance of these findings? What study could then be carried out next? (1 page)
Your proposal will be reviewed by your primary advisor and your second reader, and a decision will then be made about whether to admit you to the Honors Program. If your advisor continues to support your proposal, and if your research ideas are clearly thought out, it is highly likely that you will then be admitted into the program. You will receive a letter approving your proposed research plan from the Honors Program Director.
Your proposal is reviewed by two faculty members and a decision is then made about whether to admit you to the Honors Program. If your advisor continues to support your proposal, and if your research ideas are clearly thought out, it is highly likely that you will then be admitted into the program. You will receive a letter approving your proposed research plan from the Honors Program Director.
Prior to the start of your senior year, you will need to submit a course contract/syllabus for PSYC4495 Senior Honors Thesis I and PSYC4496 Senior Honors Thesis II. Note that you can submit a single contract for both courses. During registration for your senior year spring semester, you will automatically be enrolled in PSYC4496.
A maximum of one semester of the thesis course may count toward your major requirements. (It counts differently depending on whether your major is Psychology B.A., Psychology B.S., or Neuroscience.) The second semester of the thesis course and the 5000-level course are required in addition to the major requirements.
By mid-April of your senior year, submit your thesis to your advisor and your second reader. The exact deadline is decided together with your advisor. If your advisor does not have example theses to share with you, please ask psych-dus@bc.edu for examples.
When your advisor and second reader approve your thesis, submit an Honors Thesis Approval Form to psych-dus@bc.edu. This form is due May 1. You will need to upload an electronic copy of your thesis to the honors canvas site.
Finally, you will present your thesis as a poster at the Undergraduate Research Conference in May of your senior year. If your advisor does not have example posters to share with you, please ask psych-dus@bc.edu for examples. At the end of your senior year, you will receive a letter signed by the Director of the Honors Program and the Chairperson of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience indicating that you have completed the Honors Program. You should keep this letter and use it to provide documentation of your exemplary work to future graduate programs and/or employers.
The Boston College Library encourages each student writing a thesis to submit it online. Instructions can be found on their website.
At the end of your senior year, you will receive a letter signed by the Director of the Honors Program and the Chairperson of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience indicating that you have completed the Honors Program. You should keep this letter and use it to provide documentation of your exemplary work to future graduate programs and/or employers.
There are other opportunities for students to be involved in research outside of the Honors Program, including the opportunity to write a senior thesis. The Research section of this page has some advice.
A thesis is a major, independent research project completed during your senior year under the guidance of a faculty advisor. In most cases, a thesis involves conducting original, empirical research, although theoretical projects may also be permitted. Students working on a thesis perform experiments, conduct data analysis, and write a thesis document. All students must obtain permission from a faculty member who agrees to serve as their thesis advisor.
Senior Thesis: Students interested in completing a senior thesis should begin developing a proposal with their advisor during their junior year. Thesis students typically enroll in PSYC4490 (Senior Thesis I) in the fall and/or PSYC4491 (Senior Thesis II) in the spring.
Senior Honors Thesis: The honors thesis is a more rigorous, structured program. Students are invited into the honors program based on GPA. For students pursuing this track, thesis proposals are due to their advisor in April of their junior year. Honors students enroll in PSYC4495 (Senior Honors Thesis I) and PSYC4496 (Senior Honors Thesis II), along with an additional 5000-level PSYC course.
Students are invited to join the Honors Program based on their GPA at the end of their sophomore year, and only students who meet this GPA are eligible to do an honors thesis. However, students who are not invited to participate in the honors program may still complete a senior thesis.
Faculty members have different expectations for thesis students, and many labs do not have the capacity to take all interested students. The majority require that students have previously worked in their lab (for at least one to two semesters) to be considered for a spot as a thesis student; others require previous lab work but not necessarily in their lab. Some faculty members may also have guidelines regarding GPA, previous coursework, and relevant interests.
The official deadline for finding an advisor for the Honors Program is November 1 of your junior year. Some faculty are fine with beginning by collaborating on that form, but many faculty members require that interested students apply earlier than this deadline: some labs require students to apply by May of sophomore year, while many others reach capacity during the summer or early fall. If you are interested in doing a thesis with a particular advisor, it’s highly recommended that you reach out as early as possible!