Receiving Honors in Mathematics:

To get honors in math you need to satisfy the concentration requirements with excellent grades and write an undergraduate thesis.  

An undergraduate thesis is a single-authored mathematics document, usually between 10 and 80 pages, on some topic in mathematics. The thesis is typically a mixture of exposition of known mathematics and an account of your own research.

Writing an Honors Thesis:

To write an honors thesis, you must propose your plan either to the Department’s Directors of Undergraduate Studies team or to your faculty advisor.  (This means that you need to find a faculty advisor.)

 If your thesis is mainly mathematical exposition, then the standards for acceptance will be quite high. We would need to see a polished, mature, and thorough account of a serious and advanced topic.

If your thesis consists mainly of your own research, the thesis should be correct and contain at least one original idea. When a thesis involves original research it can be fairly short. Just state your theorem and give a complete proof.

When/How do I get Started?

Your thesis must be read by your advisor and approved before the Registrar’s Office submission deadline of May 1st of your senior year. It is strongly advised that you find a faculty advisor sometime during your junior year. Please reach out via email to the faculty member you are interested in working with.  They will almost likely be a member of the pure math department, though on occasion, we have accepted theses written by people with applied math advisors. In these rare cases, the theses have been essentially pure-math theses.

You don’t need to start working on your thesis during your junior year, but it is a good idea to have a plan in place before you start your senior year. You don’t need to have a topic picked out in advance.  If you already have an area of interest, it is advised that you ask someone who does research in an area related to your preferences.