At present our department has two models for the senior exercise. The Linguistics major requires a senior seminar, in which students do an original research project (along with other capstone-type activities). The Linguistics senior seminar is offered every Fall (LGCS 190). The Cognitive Science major, on the other hand, requires a two-semester research project that culminates in a written senior thesis, and students must register for LGCS 191, a half-credit course, in both semesters.
What do I need to know about the Linguistics Senior Seminar?
You don’t really need to know anything before your senior year, except to enroll in the course. The instructor of this course rotates, and the course is not identical year-to-year. Some people begin their projects before starting senior year (e.g. they extend term papers from other classes, they build on a SURP project, etc). But this is not the norm, most people identify a project and begin it in September of their senior year. So all you need to do is enroll in LGCS 190 and show up! Any progress on a relevant project beforehand is just an added bonus.
Linguistics seniors don’t need thesis advisors in the normal sense: the professor teaching the Senior Seminar will supervise your thesis. Students will eventually identify a faculty consultant in the specific area of their project in order to get topic-specific advice, but generally this is done in the first weeks of the LGCS 190 course.
What do I need to know about the Cognitive Science thesis?
The first step for the senior thesis in Cognitive Science thesis is to register for LGCS 191 in the fall semester of senior year. In this course, students will spend the semester developing an original research project. Under the guidance of the course instructor, students will write a literature review and method section for their project in accordance with assignments and deadlines throughout the semester. In the spring semester of senior year, students will program the experiment and collect and analyze data. The written thesis will consist of the written work from the fall combined with the results and discussion sections, yielding a complete lab report about their research project. Students will also present their research via a poster presentation.