Author: Mallory MacDonald | Majors: Biology and Psychology

Mallory MacDonald is a senior honors student double majoring in biology and psychology with a minor in statistics in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. She is completing her honors thesis under the mentorship of Dr. Scott Eidelman.

The Cliffs Notes of my story says: Mallory started her honors project in February of 2021. She emailed countless number of professors that she had in class and meet with some over zoom. With Form A deadline approaching, she had to find an honors thesis topic and mentor soon. She also had four tests to take the same week. Don’t be like Mallory. Start talking to people early on. Asking questions early on. Her research isn’t any of the questions or thoughts she wrote down on her word document, but those sparked conversation that led to her current research: determining the most impactful intervention technique based on how relevant a conspiracy theory is to a person.

I would like to think that my experience is unique. That no one has ever or will ever have to go through what I did to pick a thesis topic or mentor. However, that’s unreasonable. I know plenty of peers who struggle with starting this project. The students who decide on their topic early in their freshman or sophomore year are the lucky ones with the more unique story. But, hopefully, mine can be a cautionary tale. I’ll begin by giving two pieces of advice: start early and build relationships with professors.

Starting early is more than finding a professor and a topic. It’s about learning how to ask questions about the world – which you can do without having a mentor or an idea of the research you want to do. Starting freshman year, I kept a word document on my computer where I listed all of the questions that I stumbled upon in life. These topics range from how cortisol can control your behavior, how the Hunger Games taught children about different types of mental illness, or why do conspiracy theories exist. For each topic, I compiled my thoughts on methodology, why this research was significant, and existing literature. Most of the time, the literature I found would have a sentence in the conclusion that stated where the researchers saw problems in their original research or where they saw for further research. That is a great place to start to develop your own idea. This is how I stumbled onto my topic: I asked a question about pervious research and why they hadn’t considered it from a certain viewpoint.

From there, I wish I had built up relationships with professors better. I think the greatest lesson I’ve learned so far has been that people want to see me accomplish this project. I have meet with people in the honors college about how to approach a professor to be your mentor or how to make essays stronger for grant applications or a number of other items. But I didn’t realize until very late that my professors were resources as well. I feel like I was always told to pick a mentor from one of the professors I had had. Therefore, they know your work ethic, etc. But, my mentor ended up being a professor that I had only had for a month up until the point I asked if he would mentor me. I am very thankful that he has allowed me to complete my honors thesis under his guidance. However, it would have been easier had I talked to my professors before spring semester of my junior year about the topics I was interested in researching. They might not have wanted to be my mentor – which is okay – but they would have connected me with other professors in the department who had shared research interests. While you can go to the department website to learn about what each professor researches, having someone introduce you to that teacher might be worth your while, especially if you haven’t had them for class yet.

Finally, and you have probably heard this a thousand times, make the honors project something you would enjoy! I struggled as a biology major because I thought that I had to be in a research lab, come up with my very own question, and write an experimental paper. But if I were passionate about writing children’s books that explained how complex microbiological processes work in simple and easy to understand ways, that would work for my thesis. I would probably have to get approve from the department and also write a literature review. However, where there is a will, there is a way (https://news.uark.edu/articles/58523/hardaway-s-honors-mural-project-helps-raise-awareness-of-full-circle-food-pantry). Make this honors thesis something you are proud of and cannot wait to talk about in interviews or at family thanksgiving. Also, getting published by HarperCollins is just as cool as getting published in a peer reviewed research journal (if not cooler because you get paid).