Careful planning is a key to successful completion of honors in the major. The timeline for completing honors in the major outlined below may be initiated at various times. Typically students begin planning sometime during their junior year. Students planning to graduate in spring term should begin planning no later than the summer before their last fall term. An important consideration is whether you will need two or three semesters to complete your project.

BEFORE YOUR PROJECT BEGINS (ideally two to six months immediately before the first term in which you register for thesis hours):

• Consider potential topics for your thesis or ideas for your creative project.
• Meet with faculty members in your department whom you are considering to serve as your thesis director. If you are not familiar with your department’s faculty members, each department’s website has a listing of its faculty members, usually with links to their current research interests and/or personal websites.
• Make an appointment to talk to the Honors in the Major administrative coordinator by sending an email to hitm@fsu.edu
• Make an appointment to talk to your department’s faculty Honors liaison (if applicable; not all departments have an Honors liaison).

FIRST RESEARCH(PROSPECTUS) TERM

• Third day of classes – last day to submit your Honors in the Major application
• Before midnight on fourth day of classes (last day of add/drop) – register for Honors thesis credit. You will register for 1-3 hours of Honors thesis credit.
• First 2-3 weeks of classes – work with your thesis director to narrow the scope and focus of your thesis and to finalize your prospectus. Select the other members of your committee.
• Friday, seventh week of classes – copy of approved prospectus and signed prospectus approval form due to Honors in the Major office.

LAST RESEARCH (DEFENSE) TERM

• Before midnight on fourth day of classes (last day of add/drop) – Register for honors thesis credit. You will register for 1-3 hours of Honors thesis credit.
• First 2-3 weeks of classes – Remind faculty committee of upcoming defense and confer with faculty to establish defense date, time and location.
• Friday, fourth week of classes – Signed defense announcement due to Honors in the Major office.
• Two weeks before scheduled defense date – final draft of thesis due to faculty committee.
• Last day of classes – all defense paperwork and electronic thesis file due to Honors in the Major office.