Capstone Courses

FAQ’s

How to go about emailing a professor to ask to be a thesis supervisor?    Students should think about professors who taught courses of interest to them and who may have discussed their research during their course.   Most professors have research websites for their labs.    Students are encouraged to review faculty publications in Google scholar, Scopus etc. to learn about their current research

Timing? When is a good time to begin looking for thesis supervisors? (ex. When is too early and when is considered too late).   Usually fall term of third year is a good time to begin researching areas of interest and to start emailing professors.   Students may want to think about having 2-3 options for supervisors in case professors are on sabbatical or already have committed to their maximum number of thesis students.   If research is to be completed outdoors during the summer months, it is recommended to have a supervisor arranged by May. It is often too late to arrange a thesis supervisor by the time registration\time tickets are active in July for the student’s 4th year registration.

Who exactly is eligible to be a supervisor or co-supervisor?  Full time faculty members at Carleton may supervise undergraduate students.  Contract Instructors or Instructors are not eligible.   If an external supervisor is arranged, a full time faculty member from Carleton must be arranged as the Co-supervisor.

External Supervisors are experts who are employed outside of Carleton.  Research Scientists from federal government, hospitals, labs in the region may be available as supervisors. Lists of potential external supervisors (Adjuncts) can be found in various departments in Science. You may need to do some research to find their primary organization, lab website, recent publications to get a sense of their research areas.  You may also have your own connections to a potential supervisor via networking or employment For the latter, you must email the Administrator with the researcher’s name and nature of the project in order to get approval. When discussing potential supervision with a researcher outside of Carleton you can ask them if they currently collaborate with a faculty member at Carleton.  If so, that would be the first person to approach about co-supervision. Otherwise, please email the IEIS Administrator for more information as to how to proceed.

Do students pick their thesis topic or do their supervisors? Students should bring ideas and areas of interest when meeting the potential supervisor.   A topic can be formulated from discussions and based on mutual interests.  Supervisors will ensure the “scope” of the topic is within reason for the successful completion of the thesis.

Difference between directed study and a thesis and what it means to complete one or the other, or both?  Directed Study is non-experimental, literature based review and smaller in scope.  Thesis must include some hands on, experimental research including field work, laboratory work etc.

Is funding necessary? (ex. when would you apply for funding and how would you go about it) No, funding is not necessary to complete an undergraduate Honours thesis. However, professors may have funds available to hire a student to work as a summer field technician or in some other capacity.

Getting your thesis published (Carleton Undergraduate journal?) Getting a thesis published depends largely on the quality of the thesis and a student’s ability to stick with the submission and revision process, which typically extends well beyond a student’s graduation date. Pursuing publication is typically at the discretion of a student’s supervisor (in part because a professor has to pay too have the research published and so the quality of the thesis must warrant that expense), but submitting to something like Carleton’s Undergraduate Journal of Science is also an option that a student should discuss with their supervisor (does not require grant funds to publish in it).