For those of you deciding what to do your theses on, you will have the option to apply for a grant to complete your thesis in a lab, collecting data with a scientist or researcher. With this option, the student is given a topic and a mentor who will be researching alongside them. This can seem like a daunting option to some or the perfect option to others, but no matter how you have previously viewed science theses, I interviewed senior Evey Adams to get the inside scoop on what science theses are really like

Adams, who will be defending her thesis in a couple of weeks, tested “a drug on rats who have been given a disease that is very common in babies, called hypoxic-ischemia. We gave all of the rats the disease, and then one group got a medicine and the other did not.” They then tested to see if the rats with the medicine had improved motor skills, which would show whether or not the drug could work on human babies with the disease.

Though she admitted that it was time consuming and a lot of work, Adams said, “you will learn a lot outside of your thesis that is relevant for pursuing a career in the science world. You also get a lot of connections in the science world, and you have help the entire way. You are never lost to what you should be doing.”

Completely done with her data collection and almost finished with her paper, Adams looked back on the process of her data collection: “I did so much work over the summer, so it’s really gratifying to finally finish. It feels really good.”