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B Y T H E N U M B E R S
The senior thesis• In 1923, the Upperclass Plan of Study, popularly known as the Four-Course Plan, was instituted at Princeton, leading by the end of the decade to the adoption by nearly all departments of the senior thesis as the required capstone of independent research. • The plan was proposed in the early 1920s by Luther Eisenhart, a professor of mathematics who was a member of a subcommittee of the Course of Study Committee appointed by President John Hibben to consider reinstating honors courses, which had been discontinued during World War I. • Eisenhart persuaded the committee, Hibben and the faculty to adopt a more ambitious plan that "sought to elevate the plane of endeavor and attainment of the whole undergraduate body rather than to provide honors courses for a comparatively few students." • Under the new plan, students took four courses instead of five. The free time made available by the reduction in the course load enabled students to engage in independent study and, in their senior year, write a thesis on a subject of their choice. At the end of the senior year, students took a written examination on selected subjects in their field of concentration. Honors were awarded on the basis of the examination and thesis combined. • Some undergraduates initially felt the plan was too hard. The spring after the plan became effective, the class of 1924 wore horseshoes on their beer jackets to signify their luck in escaping its rigors; the class of 1925 jacket showed a tiger crushed by four large tomes. Sources: "A Princeton Companion" and "Princeton University: The First 250 Years." |
May 6, 2002 Contents Page one Senior thesis Inside Sections
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Editor: Ruth Stevens |
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