Guidelines for Finding a Thesis Supervisor
The Honours Thesis represents the culmination of skills you have obtained as an undergraduate student
in psychology. It not only allows you to practice research skills you have already obtained, but helps
you gain hands-on experience in a specific area of psychology that may help you in the future (e.g.
graduate school, research assistant positions, etc).
Every year students are disappointed because their desired supervisors have already picked their
students. It is recommended that the strategic psychology major should start in their earlier years of
undergraduate study to prepare her/himself for being competitive for enrolling in the PSYC 4000 6.00
Honours thesis. Year 2 psychology majors, for example, are encouraged to go to faculty websites
within areas of research interest (e.g. clinical, clinical developmental, developmental cognitive
processes, social/personality, brain behaviour cognitive science, history and theory, quantitative –see
point 1 below for how to do this) and contact faculty about volunteering in their lab. The first round of
honours student selection for thesis projects often takes place sometime during your third year.
To secure a chance to complete a thesis project with the faculty member of your choice, you should
send your information (see below) to each professor by mid-March, BEFORE you start fourth year.
Note that some professors will accept students over the summer and even at the beginning of the fall
term, however, many others will have selected students by January or February of the third year and
expect students to start in their lab the summer before the official September enrollment date. It is your
responsibility to check the faculty profiles web page (see below) to see if professors are still taking on
honours thesis students.
1) Begin early!
a. Go to http://www.yorku.ca/health/psyc/PsychologyHonoursstudent.html and download the
document describing ‘Faculty areas of research interest’ (found in the grey task bar on the
right). Use this to start finding out who does what type of research in the department. Also
go to http://www.yorku.ca/health/people/index.php?dept=P and search by research area and
availability to see if anyone is taking on a thesis student.
b. Take the time to read an article (or articles) they have published recently.
c. Explore their website (if they have one) as some will post on their website if they are
interested in taking on students for their undergraduate thesis and what type of projects they
have ongoing.
2) Between November and mid-March contact individual faculty members via email.
a. Indicate the following in a succinct, well-written email:
-who you are,
-what is your overall GPA
-how you know of the faculty member. e.g., if you took a course with the faculty
member mention how well you did in their class or something unique about you that would help
them to remember you, or perhaps you heard them give a talk, or you read about them online.
-describe why you want to complete a thesis project with them (what about their
research interests you).
b. summarize your strengths (e.g., perhaps you have worked with or have access to a specific
research population, perhaps you have volunteered in other labs, perhaps you have great grades
in statistics, etc.).
c. attach an unofficial copy of your transcript
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d. attach a copy of your resume
e. attach an example of your writing
3) Be prepared to provide any further information about your research skills and academic
abilities the faculty member requests.
4) Note these are just guidelines to help you be more strategic at finding a thesis supervisor. If you are
unsuccessful following these guidelines and you feel your skills and experiences make you highly
competitive (e.g., overall GPA > B+, good grades in stats and research methods, volunteer research
experience) you should continue to contact the faculty members you are interested in as they still might
be looking or they might have a space become available in their lab later in the summer.
October 27, 2011