Well, if only it would have been thus… Four years have passed since, and grade deflation now seems not so much heroic but tragically heroic: potentially great but ultimately flawed with hubris. But all of this is an old story, and it appears that we’ll just have to suck it up and deal with it.
The senior thesis, on the other hand, daunting now as it ever was, does seem to give Princetonians an edge: as I’m going through the stressful job and graduate school application processes, I have little doubt that our independent research and the close working relationships we thereby form with faculty members provide us with a significant competitive advantage. I’d like to propose a change which I believe would improve on this definitive aspect of our experience here.
Specifically, I suggest that the option be made available to conduct one piece of independent research — be it a junior paper or a senior thesis — in pairs. It would be voluntary, usable for at most one piece of independent work, and would have to be justified to the relevant departmental committees as to why the collaboration is necessary, similar to the process of getting our research topics approved. Of course, each student would have to write up his or her own final paper or thesis to ensure full understanding on both sides as opposed to a mere division of labor.
Collaboration is often useful in research. One only has to browse through any academic journal to find papers with multiple authors. We all know that many disciplines have become highly specialized, but that many of the hottest problems and most promising approaches are interdisciplinary. So we get excited by such cross-disciplinary challenges ranging from quantitative biology or neuroscience to sociopolitical responses to new scientific and technological advancements. Unfortunately, we as individuals likely lack the experience and education to meaningfully engage in these tough problems. Working in complementary collaborations would give us that opportunity. Rather than wasting our JP/thesis meetings with advisors explaining to us some elementary aspects to which we lack exposure, the partners could collectively form a wider and more solid foundation and better utilize the meetings on more important and deeper points.
A large portion of research consists of what is essentially mechanical labor, be it the initial phase of skimming through as much literature as possible to find relevant material, gathering of as much useful data as possible for work in psychology or experimental sciences, or the non-insightful parts of programming or computations. Certainly, this is an indispensable and important component of doing research, and every researcher should attain competency at it, but in certain disciplines, a greater quantity of research can improve the quality of the result.
Furthermore, independent work isn’t just for those of us who plan to remain in academia as researchers. Many of us will enter the industry right after graduation, in which we will most often be required to work in collaboration. In consulting firms and financial institutions, for obvious examples, we will be working in teams of individuals who share sufficient common knowledge to be able to communicate effectively while maintaining specialties in order to be able to contribute different perspectives. Having had experience with this kind of intense collaborations would better prepare students going into any field.
There are examples of courses, such as project labs in the sciences or independent projects in engineering departments, which do allow for collaboration in small groups while still focusing intensively on independent research. Such opportunities would be beneficial in other disciplines. For a safety mechanism against misuse, self-selection would almost certainly suffice; very few of us “rationalist” Princetonians would choose a partner who would perform below ourselves.
Ultimately, this would give some of us a great opportunity to learn to work in collaboration, engage in more interdisciplinary projects, and produce research of higher standard. As a bonus, it would hopefully make the challenge of independent work a little less lonesome.
Eric Kang is a math major from Christchurch, New Zealand. He can be reached at eakang@princeton.edu.
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