Honors Timeline

This page lays out when each step of an honors project in the lab happens. See Honors projects for what the project involves, and the Honors College’s Honors Project/Thesis page for its official forms and deadlines.

Students interested in doing an honors thesis with ZEAL must discuss this option with Matt by the beginning of the second semester of your Junior year (at the latest). In order to complete a thesis, you will generally have to have completed a significant amount of work on a project during your sophomore or junior years, or commit to working on a project during the summer before your senior year (note: financial support for this summer work may be limited). You will also be expected to put in substantial effort on your project throughout your senior year. It is essential that you put a lot of thought into this project before committing yourself to an honors thesis.

In any case, you need to be able to articulate a clear, feasible project for your thesis. This will usually be the project you’ve been working on, but it may also be possible to expand the work in a new direction.

Deadlines are available here: https://www.uml.edu/honors/program/project-thesis/forms.aspx. Note that these deadlines differ depending on which semester you plan on graduating, but typically we will follow the “Two-Semester Project (Commencing Fall Semester)” timeline.

Timeline:

Second semester Junior year:

  1. Confirm eligibility with Matt, and discuss project ideas. Be prepared to discuss the data you already have collected, and outline what you think remains to be done for a thesis.
  2. Sign up for BIOL 4110L-810 for the upcoming Fall semester - you will need to get a permission number from Matt. This class counts as an upper level lecture plus lab

Before the start of your first semester senior year:

  1. Decide who your other committee member will be (typically will be another biology faculty member). Discuss this person with Matt.
  2. Submit the mentor form: https://uml.infoready4.com/#freeformCompetitionDetail/1992114
    • NOTE: The mentor form must be submitted before the approval form
  3. Submit form to honors college expressing intent to conduct a thesis: https://uml.infoready4.com/#freeformCompetitionDetail/1991715

First semester senior year:

  1. Complete ~15 hours of work per week for BIOL 4110L-810 (this includes lab maintenance activities / lab meeting / one-on-one meetings / reading / etc.).
  2. Before the Add/Drop deadline, submit a request for your Senior Research Grant.
  3. Matt submits the Honors Fellowship proposal for your project in early September - you must apply for this position once it’s posted. This fellowship provides the stipend to cover your time in lab for the year.
    • Note: The approval of this fellowship may be sent out very close to / on the Add/Drop deadline - be sure to enroll in the Tracking course as soon as possible.
  4. Write proposal and submit to Matt by September 15th. This draft will go through several rounds of revision with Matt.
    • Example proposals can be found here. Use the provided .qmd template to write your draft.
  5. Once approved by Matt, send the proposal to your committee member for feedback by October 15 (or two weeks before deadline for proposal submission to honors college).
  6. Submit proposal to honors college by October 31 (if fall semester): https://uml.infoready4.com/#freeformCompetitionDetail/1995383
  7. Schedule an update meeting with your committee for the end of the semester to discuss progress on your project.
  8. Get a permission number for BIOL 4120L-809 from Matt for the upcoming Spring semester.
  9. Register for 0 credit hour honors class (for next semester) HONR 4910 Honors Project Placeholder.

Second semester senior year:

  1. Complete 15 hours of work per week for BIOL 4120L-809 (this includes hours for lab maintenance activities / lab meeting).
    • Note: these hours can be spent wrapping up any experiments and data analysis, but should primarily be dedicated to preparing your thesis and presentation. Remember, your written thesis needs to be thoroughly referenced - you are expected to read broadly towards this goal.
  2. Send Matt a draft of the thesis by April 15th (exact date TBD).
  3. Schedule thesis presentation.
  4. Go over your draft presentation with Matt at least three weeks before your presentation date.
  5. Schedule a practice presentation during lab meeting at least two weeks before your presentation date.
  6. Make revisions to the thesis and presentation based on feedback from Matt and the rest of the lab.
  7. Submit thesis document to committee at least one week before presentation.
  8. Give your presentation.
  9. Fill out form indicating completion of thesis requirements and submit thesis document: https://uml.infoready4.com/#freeformCompetitionDetail/1996906