A committee of two or more faculty will supervise the work, one of whom will be the official instructor.
A written thesis proposal must be prepared at the beginning of the first semester, and be approved by the committee and the Undergraduate Advising Head (UAH), prior to registration for the course. The UAH must sign the form. Once the form is signed, then the student must submit an override request in Workday to register for the class.
A mid-year written evaluation must be done by the student’s advisor and submitted to the UAH by the end of the first semester. Students judged to have made insufficient progress will not be permitted to continue in the second semester.
A reminder will be sent by the UAH early in the Spring semester with upcoming deadlines and important information.
Students should send a draft thesis to their advisor at least two weeks before the last day of classes to receive feedback and suggestions for the final version
Students should contact the Physics office to reserve space to practice their defense at least one week before their actual defense. Students are encouraged to invite their colleagues and others to the practice session to get feedback.
A thesis in a department-approved format must be submitted to the committee by the last day of classes in the second semester. At a minimum, the thesis must have a title page, a signature page, an abstract, description of the work performed and the conclusions reached, and references. Students are encouraged to learn the Latex typesetting system. (Is this typesetting system still relevant?)
The student must defend his/her thesis in a public oral examination of at least 30 minutes duration by the end of exams second semester. The talk should be accessible to junior physics majors. Usually the senior thesis defenses are scheduled together on the study day before the start of final exams. A list of thesis defense talks will be published.
A form with a written evaluation of the thesis and of the defense must be submitted by the committee to the UAH by the Friday preceding the department degree meeting. The completed form is to be returned to the Undergraduate Advising Head by the Friday preceding the department degree meeting. The final level of honors will be decided by the department based on an evaluation of both the thesis and the student’s academic record. This form is not for feedback to the student, and should not be shown to the student.
The level of distinction will be determined from the evaluation of both the thesis and the student’s academic record, using agreed-upon criteria to evaluate theses to ensure equitable assignment of honors levels.
Students wishing to graduate in seven semesters must start their thesis research in the spring semester of their junior year, and follow the same rules moved forward one semester.
Supervisors outside of the Physics Department are acceptable, either in other Brandeis departments or outside of the university. All the rules above apply, including the deadlines. The defense must take place in the Brandeis Physics Department. The outside advisor may be an ex officio member of the supervising committee, and advise the committee on the evaluation of the work performed. The grade for Physics 99D will be determined by the Brandeis instructor of the course.
With the permission of their advisor, the student is encouraged to deposit their thesis to the Brandeis Library. Information on and instructions can be found here.