By Sam Goodykoontz

As the end of this year approaches, the time has come for our seniors to finish and defend their senior theses. The seniors’ entire career at Tempe Prep revolves around the senior thesis. The senior thesis is a nearly year-long process, in which the seniors choose three book recommendations during their junior year.

The seniors then get feedback from their advisors about their essays and the seniors revise their papers. Finally, the seniors have to defend their theses in front of their advisors. The seniors give a brief summary about their argument and essay, and they then have to answer questions their advisors ask. This defense can be both nerve-racking and satisfying for seniors.

I interviewed both Ahmad Jones and Lindsay Newfield about their experiences during the thesis process and asked about any advice they have for lowerclassmen.

Ahmad Jones said, “The senior thesis does take a lot of time to work on, considering it is a six-to-seven-month long project, so at times it was a little stressful. But what helped me was that I did not procrastinate. So for underclassmen, I would advise them to plan out their work, because they don’t want to have to do a huge paper in one night.”

Lindsay Newfield said, “I was at first really nervous about writing my senior thesis, but when I actually started to write my paper, it was actually a lot easier to get the page limit and word limit than I thought. I had a great experience writing my senior thesis. My advice to lowerclassmen would be to not procrastinate, because you will be in a very bad place if you do, and also I would advise them to talk with their advisors so they can know what their advisors expect.”

Many of us have a few years until we have to write our senior thesis, so this kind of advice helps us to know what to expect.