princeton spia senior thesis

Office of Undergraduate Research

SPIA Senior Thesis Advisor Selection Guide

SPIA Majors! 

Use the Senior Thesis Advisor Selection Guide to identify thesis advisors who match your interests and possible thesis topics.

This tool is organized by faculty issue and regional expertise.

You can narrow your search for an advisor by selecting a policy area or region.

Undergraduate Announcement 2024 - 2025

Princeton school of public and international affairs, general information, program offerings:, program offerings.

The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) offers a multidisciplinary liberal arts major for students who are interested in public service and becoming leaders in the world of public and international affairs. Through immersive experiential learning courses and a solid disciplinary and thematic foundation, students acquire the tools, understanding and habits of mind to address current public policy issues.

Please note : These requirements apply only to SPIA majors in the Classes of 2026 and beyond . Students in the Class of 2025 should consult the appropriate archived Undergraduate Announcement for detailed information about departmental requirements.

Goals for Student Learning

Curricular learning goals.

• Prerequisites  are meant to provide basic social science literacy and a foundation for studying and analyzing public policy, and domestic and international affairs. Prior to major declaration, students must complete four prerequisites.  
• Core courses  introduce the practical art of policymaking and further emphasize analytical tools and theory that students will need to understand, evaluate, engage with, craft and/or implement public policy and international affairs. The core prepares students for junior and senior independent work through thematic or disciplinary depth.  
• Electives are designed to encourage disciplinary breadth required in public and international affairs; intellectual depth, by discipline or policy area; and a regional focus that recognizes relationships, institutions and effects that cut across national borders.

Independent Work Learning Goals

• To think analytically about a public policy problem.
• To critically review evidence about a public policy problem and its potential solutions.
• To present evidence in a clear, logical and well-organized manner.
• To evaluate solutions that have been tried or proposed, and potentially develop new solutions to deal with a public policy problem.
• To clearly and concisely summarize the evidence and the alternatives, and to make recommendations to stakeholders on how best to address a public policy problem.  
• Identify a knowledge gap or public policy research question and/or argument.
• Generate a logical and empirically testable hypothesis and/or make an argument.
• Identify or collect evidence that will allow you to test your hypothesis and/or support your argument.
• Apply appropriate research method(s) to analyze your data.
• Draw evidence-based conclusions from your analysis that apply to the relevant public policy debate.

Prerequisites

Students must complete four prerequisites from a list of preapproved courses prior to the fall term of their junior year. Students should consult the Undergraduate Program website for the most up-to-date list of approved courses.

All courses taken to meet these prerequisites must be taken on a graded basis. First-year seminars (FRS) may not be used to fulfill prerequisites. Students must earn a grade of C or higher in all courses counting toward prerequisites. The following courses may be used to satisfy the prerequisites:

One Course in Statistics

• SPI 200 Statistics for Social Science
• ECO 202 Statistics and Data Analysis for Economics
• ORF 245 Fundamentals of Statistics
• POL 345 Introduction to Quantitative Social Science
• SML 201 Introduction to Data Science

Note that students may not fulfill this prerequisite with AP credit.

One Course in Microeconomics

• ECO 100 Introduction to Microeconomics (or AP score of 5 in Microeconomics, IB Higher Level score of 7 in Economics or GCE A-level grade of A in Economics)

One Course in Sociology or Psychology

Students must choose from an approved list of courses. Please consult the Undergraduate Program website for the most current list of courses that meet this prerequisite.

One Course in Politics or History

All courses taken to meet prerequisites must be completed before September of junior year with a grade of C or higher. A summer course or a course taken abroad may count to satisfy a department prerequisite if the course has been approved by the relevant department and by either OIP or the student's residential college dean or assistant dean for transfer credit. All requests to use a transfer course to satisfy a department prerequisite must be approved in advance by the SPIA Undergraduate Program Office.

A course taken at Princeton and used as a prerequisite may also be used to meet either a departmental core requirement (if it is on the list of core requirements) or as a departmental elective (if it is on the electives list).

Program of Study

The curriculum consists of a wide range of courses offered through the school and through our partner departments that are relevant to the study of policymaking, policy analysis and policy evaluation. Students take courses in civil & environmental engineering, computer science, economics, ecology & evolutionary biology, geosciences, history, mechanical & aerospace engineering, politics, psychology, sociology, and Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs. An introductory public policy course is required, along with an ethics course and a course on power and identity. Students enroll in policy seminars in their junior year and write a policy thesis in senior year. To aid in students' independent work, a junior year research design seminar is also required.

Majors are required to take statistics and must be able to use the basics of single-variable calculus in order to take economics courses and some advanced elective options. Students who are concerned about their preparation should consider taking a course that provides instruction in single-variable calculus. In addition, the undergraduate program requires that students engage in an extracurricular cross-cultural experience (which may include study abroad), or policy-relevant field experience (overseas or domestic).

By the end of the fall semester of junior year, students will have to select their area of intellectual depth: disciplinary depth or thematic depth (designated by SPIA). Please consult the Undergraduate Program website  for more information.

Independent Work

To satisfy the junior independent work requirement (JP), each student must complete a research paper in connection with a non-credit-bearing fall Introduction to Research Design (SPI 299) and a credit-bearing spring Research Seminar (SPI 300).

To aid in the writing and preparation of the junior paper, the non-credit-bearing fall Introduction to Research Design (SPI 299) course will address the following questions:

• How does one define an important and researchable question?
• How does one deploy systematic concepts and evaluate competing hypotheses/arguments?
• How does one evaluate the plausibility, ethics and relative success of alternative policy solutions?

The course will focus on research design rather than specific methods. 

In the spring Research Seminar (SPI 300) course, a faculty member supervises a small group of students engaged in research on a specific topic in public and international affairs through a topical credit-bearing seminar. Faculty will introduce students to the existing body of knowledge and available evidence for research within a well-defined topic that is timely and important in the area of public policy. Supported by the separate coursework required in the Research Seminar, students will complete their junior paper.

To satisfy the senior independent work requirement, each student must complete a senior thesis that clearly articulates a research question about a significant public policy issue and draws conclusions that contribute to the debate on that issue.

Additional Requirements

Core course requirements (seven courses).

Students should review the list of core requirements for their specific class year.

Prior to graduation, students must complete the core course requirements listed below. Students are encouraged to take SPI 298 in the fall of their sophomore year and must complete the course no later than the fall of junior year. All courses used to meet these requirements must be taken at Princeton on a graded (A–F) basis. Students must earn a grade of C or higher in all courses counting toward core course requirements.

• SPI 298: Introduction to Public Policy (fall only; sophomores and juniors)
• SPI 299: Introduction to Research Design (fall only; juniors only; non-credit-bearing )
• SPI 300: Research Seminar (spring only; juniors only)
• SPI 301: Policy Task Force (fall or spring; juniors only; Prerequisite: SPI 298)
• Please consult the Undergraduate Program website for the most current list of courses that meet this requirement.
• SPI 365 Tech Ethics
• SPI 368 The Ethical Policy Maker
• SPI 370 Ethics and Public Policy
• CHV 310/PHI 385 Practical Ethics
• EGR 219 Professional Responsibility & Ethics: Succeeding Without Selling Your Soul
• PHI 309/CHV 309 Political Philosophy
• POL 307 The Just Society
• POL 313 Global Justice
• SPI 304 Microeconomics for Public Policy (formerly listed as SPI 300)
• ECO 300 Microeconomic Theory
• ECO 301 Macroeconomics
• ECO 310 Microeconomic Theory: A Mathematical Approach
• ECO 311 Macroeconomics: A Mathematical Approach

Elective Courses (six courses)

Students must complete six (6) elective courses according to the following guidelines. Students must earn a grade of C or higher in all courses counting toward elective requirements.

• Disciplinary Breadth (three courses): Take one course from each of three SPIA-related departments (CEE, COS, EEB, GEO, HIS, MAE, POL, PSY, SOC, SPI) not already covered by the intellectual depth requirement noted below. ECO is excluded because it is already a required prerequisite and core course. Prerequisites and core courses may double-count; ECO courses may not. By graduation, we strongly encourage students to have taken courses in departments where they have not yet taken a course (for example in a natural science, if they are focusing on the social sciences).  
• Disciplinary Depth: Take three courses in one SPIA-affiliated department, e.g., CEE, COS, ECO, EEB, GEO, HIS, MAE, POL, PSY, SOC, SPI OR
• Thematic Depth: Take three courses that address a given theme. Courses are drawn from SPIA-affiliated departments or SPIA-approved courses.

Among the six (6) electives , a student may take only three electives from one department. For the major as a whole , a student may not take more than five courses from one department (with the exception of SPIA courses). 

Regional Focus: Students should also pursue regional focus across their SPIA coursework. Thus, across the SPIA prerequisites, core and electives, students must take at least two courses that focus substantively on a particular continent. The senior thesis can count toward the regional focus requirement.

Up to three elective courses may be taken in semester-long study abroad programs.

Cross-Cultural or Field Experience Requirement

Prior to the second semester of senior year, each student must have completed an approved cross-cultural or field experience. The requirement may be satisfied in a number of ways, including but not limited to semester study abroad, approved summer study abroad (e.g., global seminars), policy-relevant summer jobs in a domestic or international organization, ROTC training, senior thesis research in the field, extended service in an underserved community, or an internship involving public policy work in a nonprofit, government or international agency such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the U.S. Congress or a state or federal agency.

Summer study or thesis research must be done for at least four weeks to qualify (for the former, only study abroad programs with substantive academic and cultural components qualify). Students must engage in an internship, job or community service project for at least six consecutive weeks at a minimum of 40 hours per week or a total of 240 cumulative hours to qualify. Eligible community service work must involve policy work that will enhance one's learning and understanding of public service. Work at for-profit companies will not fulfill this requirement.

Cross-cultural or field experience gained during the first or sophomore year or as a participant in the Bridge Year Program may count toward this requirement. To meet this requirement, all past or proposed work must be approved by the Undergraduate Program Office.

Senior Departmental Examination

The school's senior comprehensive examination is an oral defense of the senior thesis that assesses the student's expertise related to their thesis.

Study Abroad

SPIA majors may study abroad in one of the department's overseas programs in the first or second semester of junior year. At each site, students enroll in coursework at the host university and take a Policy Task Force directed by a faculty member at the host institution. 

Additional Information

The program provides funding during summer, fall and winter breaks for travel and living expenses related to senior thesis research in public policy. The school also provides funding to students in the department who participate in public policy internships over the summer. For additional information, consult the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs  Undergraduate Program website .

• Amaney A. Jamal
• David S. Wilcove

Director of Undergraduate Studies

• Susan L. Marquis

Director of Graduate Studies

• Elke U. Weber
• Gary J. Bass
• Roland J. Benabou
• Alan S. Blinder
• Carles Boix
• Charles M. Cameron
• Miguel A. Centeno
• Christopher F. Chyba
• Alin I. Coman
• Janet M. Currie
• Rafaela M. Dancygier
• Navroz K. Dubash
• Pascaline Dupas
• Kathryn J. Edin
• Christopher L. Eisgruber
• Aaron L. Friedberg
• Filiz Garip
• Noreen Goldman
• Bryan T. Grenfell
• Gene M. Grossman
• G. John Ikenberry
• Harold James
• Seema Jayachandran
• Jennifer L. Jennings
• Henrik J. Kleven
• Ilyana Kuziemko
• David S. Lee
• Frances E. Lee
• John B. Londregan
• Denise L. Mauzerall
• Nolan McCarty
• C. Jessica E. Metcalf
• Atif R. Mian
• Helen V. Milner
• Sanyu A. Mojola
• Eduardo Morales
• Andrew Moravcsik
• Layna Mosley
• Michael Oppenheimer
• Pietro Ortoleva
• Elizabeth L. Paluck
• Grigore Pop-Eleches
• Deborah A. Prentice
• Markus Prior
• Emily Pronin
• Laurence Ralph
• Stephen J. Redding
• Richard Rogerson
• Cecilia E. Rouse
• Aysegül Sahin
• Kim Lane Scheppele
• Eldar Shafir
• Jacob N. Shapiro
• Patrick T. Sharkey
• Stacey A. Sinclair
• Paul E. Starr
• Florencia Torche
• Zeynep Tufekci
• James Raymond Vreeland
• Keith A. Wailoo
• Leonard Wantchekon
• Mark W. Watson
• Ismail K. White
• Jennifer A. Widner
• Deborah J. Yashar
• Julian E. Zelizer
• Owen M. Zidar

Associate Professor

• Elizabeth M. Armstrong
• Thomas Fujiwara
• Alexander Glaser
• Adam M. Goldstein
• Jonathan Mayer
• Jonathan F. Mummolo
• Anuj K. Shah
• Hye Young You

Assistant Professor

• Benjamin H. Bradlow
• Pauline Carry
• Amelia Frank-Vitale
• Tanushree Goyal
• Naima N. Green-Riley
• John R. Grigsby
• Saad A. Gulzar
• Peter Henderson
• Aleksandra Korolova
• Karthik A. Sastry
• Maria Micaela Sviatschi
• Guadalupe Tuñón
• Andreas B. Wiedemann

Associated Faculty

• Alison E. Isenberg, History
• Guy J.P. Nordenson, Architecture

Lecturer with Rank of Professor

• Robert L. Hutchings
• Ethan Kapstein
• Stanley N. Katz
• W Bentley MacLeod

Professor of the Practice

• Heather H. Howard
• Alicia Adsera
• Lakshmi N. Balaji
• Frederick D. Barton
• Mark Berlin
• Barbara C. Buckinx
• Andrew Buher
• Devanne Béda-Geuder
• Zack Cooper
• Lauren Davis
• Maya Dimant
• Edward P. Freeland
• Varun Gauri
• Arbel Griner
• Jean B. Grossman
• William G. Guthe
• Kerry M. Healey
• Mehmet Hecan
• Sofie Norma Hiltner
• Thomas D. Howes
• Razia Iqbal
• Gregory B. Jaczko
• Steven A. Kelts
• Daniel C. Kurtzer
• Nicholas J. Lotito
• Tom Malinowski
• Robert Malley
• Elliot J. Mamet
• Anastasia Mann
• Carol L Martin
• Eric Medawar
• Daniel J. Meuse
• Timothy J. Nelson
• Deborah N. Pearlstein
• Sebastien Philippe
• Ransford Pinto
• Juan C. Pinzon
• Kenneth Roth
• Leslie J. Rowley
• Thomas A. Shannon
• Arian M. Sharifi
• Alyssa B. Sharkey
• Tsering Wangyal Shawa
• Sarah L. Staszak
• Hannah B. Waldfogel
• Nathaniel Zbaida
• Sam van Noort

Visiting Professor

• Martin S. Flaherty
• Yoto V. Yotov

Visiting Lecturer

• Eduardo Bhatia
• Brendan F. Boyle
• Martha B. Coven
• Salam Fayyad
• Barton D. Gellman
• Pallavi Gogoi
• Dee L. Mewbourne
• Mark A. Milley
• Teddy Nemeroff
• Steven Strauss

For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website.

SPI 200 - Statistics for Social Science Spring QCR

Spi 301 - policy task force fall/spring, spi 304 - microeconomics for public policy spring sa, spi 306 - environmental economics (also eco 329/env 319) fall sa, spi 309 - international trade (also eco 352) not offered this year sa, spi 315 - grand strategy (also pol 393) spring sa, spi 330 - population, society and public policy (also soc 328) not offered this year sa, spi 331 - race and public policy (also aas 317/pol 343/soc 312) fall sa, spi 334 - media and public policy (also soc 319) spring sa, spi 340 - the psychology of decision making and judgment (also psy 321) fall ec, spi 350 - the environment: science and policy (also env 350) not offered this year sen, spi 353 - science and global security: from nuclear weapons to cyberwarfare and artificial intelligence (also mae 353) fall sen, spi 370 - ethics and public policy (also chv 301/pol 308) spring em, spi 401 - policy seminars fall, spi 406 - issues in environmental and natural resource economics (also eco 429) not offered this year sa, spi 421 - comparative constitutional law (also chv 470/pol 479) not offered this year sa, spi 466 - financial history (also his 467) fall ha, spi 481 - special topics in institutions and networks (also soc 481/urb 481) not offered this year sa, cee 334 - global environmental issues (also ene 334/env 334/spi 452) spring sen, cos 351 - information technology and public policy (also soc 353/spi 351) not offered this year sa, env 304 - disease ecology, economics, and policy (also eco 328/eeb 304/spi 455) fall sen, geo 366 - climate change: impacts, adaptation, policy (also ene 366/env 339/spi 451) not offered this year sen, ghp 350 - critical perspectives in global health policy (also spi 380) fall sa, ghp 351 - epidemiology: unpacking health with classic tools, ecology and evolution (also eeb 351/spi 381) spring, his 393 - race, drugs, and drug policy in america (also aas 393/ams 423/spi 389) not offered this year ha, mol 425 - infection: biology, burden, policy (also ghp 425/spi 355) not offered this year sen, pol 220 - american politics (also spi 310) fall sa, pol 230 - introduction to comparative politics (also spi 325) fall sa, pol 240 - international relations (also spi 312) spring sa, pol 345 - introduction to quantitative social science (also soc 305/spi 211) fall qcr, pol 351 - the politics of development (also las 371/spi 311) spring sa, pol 362 - chinese politics (also eas 362/spi 323) fall sa, pol 367 - latin american politics (also las 367/spi 367) not offered this year sa, pol 380 - human rights (also spi 319) spring sa, pol 388 - causes of war (also spi 388) fall sa, pol 432 - seminar in comparative politics (also spi 426) spring sa, soc 201 - american society and politics (also spi 339) not offered this year sa, urb 201 - introduction to urban studies (also arc 207/soc 203/spi 201) spring sa.

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Senior Thesis

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Through their Senior Thesis, majors learn to identify interesting economics questions, survey the existing academic literature and demonstrate command of theoretical, empirical, and/or experimental methods needed to critically analyze their chosen topic.

All seniors are encouraged to browse the Senior Thesis Database for examples of past work.

To see examples of papers that won Senior Thesis Prizes, see this article about Class Day and the Class of ’24 Award Winners .

Senior Thesis Coordinator Professor Andrea Wilson [email protected] 

Key Resources for Seniors

Senior Thesis Handbook Senior Thesis At-a-Glance Senior Thesis Advisors and Their Advising Interests Senior Thesis Proposal/Advisor Request Form Senior Thesis Advisor Assignments Exit form: Senior Thesis Research Integrity Form Exit form: Senior Thesis Advisor Evaluation Exit form: Departmental Survey

Senior Prizes

At the end of senior year, the department awards several prizes to acknowledge the best Senior Thesis projects from each class. Available awards are listed below.

• John Glover Wilson Memorial Award: Awarded to the best thesis on international economics or politics.
• Walter C. Sauer ’28 Prize (joint eligibility with Politics, SPIA): Awarded to the student whose thesis or research project on any aspect of United States foreign trade is judged to be the most creative.
• The Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies Prize: Awarded annually to the best five policy-relevant theses.
• Burton G. Malkiel ’64 Senior Thesis Prize in Finance: Awarded for the most outstanding thesis in the field of finance.
• Elizabeth Bogan Prize in Economics: Awarded for the best thesis in health, education, or welfare.
• Daniel L. Rubinfeld ’67 Prize in Empirical Economics: Awarded for the best thesis in empirical economics.
• Hugo Sonnenschein Prize in Economic Theory: Awarded for the best thesis on economic theory.
• Wolf Balleisen Memorial Prize: Awarded for the best thesis on an economics subject, written by an economics major.
• Halbert White ’72 Prize in Economics: Awarded to the most outstanding senior economics major, as evidenced by excellence in departmental coursework and creativity in the Junior Paper and Senior Thesis.

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As seniors sweat theses, SPIA offers short extension

Robertson Hall houses Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Angel kuo / the daily princetonian.

“I am very grateful for the thesis extension given to seniors in SPIA. When the announcement was made, a collective sigh of relief could be heard from all SPIA seniors across campus,” Taryn Sebba ’23 said.

As seniors across campus scramble to finish their theses, the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) recently announced that the deadline for students’ senior theses would be extended from April 6 to April 10.

In a statement to The Daily Princetonian, SPIA Director of Communication Tom Durso said that, “We looked at our calendar and realized we could afford to give students a few extra days to work on their senior theses.” 

This extension is not without precedent. In recent years, the deadline was extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and last year, the Politics Department extended its deadline. When asked when the deadline usually is, Durso stated “on or close to April 6.” 

The senior thesis has been a graduation requirement since 1926, with only some engineering students excluded from completing one. The University deadline for the senior thesis this year is Monday, May 1, but each department is free to set its own deadline. Any extension beyond that date is given only for a compelling reason, and the extension must be approved by both the department and the residential college dean.

University media relations assistant Ahmad Rizvi told the ‘Prince,’ “In setting their individual deadlines, departments take into account their particular timeline for the completion of the thesis as a year-long project, as well as the time period needed to allow for a thorough evaluation of the thesis by two or more readers before submitting grades and determining departmental honors” — the deadlines for which are May 18 and May 24, respectively, according to the University’s academic calendar .

Among the different University departments, the Philosophy Department has the earliest senior thesis deadline at April 3, while the Mathematics, Physics, and African American Studies departments have thesis deadlines of May 1.

Moreover, the announcement comes months after the University piloted a program last semester that would allow 24-hour extensions on Dean’s Date assignments, amid campus discussion around academic rigor and mental health. 

Kanishkh Kanodia ’23 echoed this sentiment. 

“Even though in theory in four days, you really cannot change your thesis much … I think just having a broader time horizon has made me less stressed, and I am sure the same can be said about a lot of us.”

All students work one-on-one with a faculty advisor who guides the student through the thesis process. The University offers thesis boot camps for seniors, and the Office of the Dean of the College provides a month-by-month Senior Action Plan that helps students plan their writing. The University also provides funding for students to pursue their research. In particular, SPIA provides a Senior Thesis Advisor Selection Guide , which students can use to identify thesis advisors who share their interests, as well as a Senior Thesis Manual that guides students through the process of writing a SPIA thesis. All departments for which students must write a thesis have similar resources available to students. 

Kanodia described the support he has received from the SPIA department during the thesis process, telling the ‘Prince’ that “The Undergraduate Office is always looking for ways to make it a collaborative process, through which we don’t feel alone. And I feel like whenever I have needed help, if I have tried to find a resource, it has worked out.”  

Sebba also expressed that she believed other departments should also extend their deadlines for the sake of student mental health.

“Four days may not seem like a lot, but it is a significant enough amount of time to encourage students to rest, allow them to have unabashedly cheered on our men's basketball team, check in on their friends with looming deadlines, and simply breathe. Academic rigor must not, and doesn’t need to, come at the expense of students’ well-being. I hope other departments will follow suit.”

Olivia Sanchez is a News staff writer for the ‘Prince.’

Please direct any corrections requests to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

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Princeton Correspondents on Undergraduate Research

Senior Thesising 101: Choosing Your Adviser

Everyone has heard of the spooky ~senior thesis~ since the second that they stepped on campus for their official Princeton tour. It may feel far away at the time, but trust me, coming from a second semester senior, it comes around quicker than you expect. I am currently in the writing process, but it has been a long journey even getting to this point. Surprisingly, though, I have loved writing my thesis. It does not feel like work because it is a topic that I am truly passionate about. My goal for my final PCUR posts is to walk you through my thesis journey to hopefully make you feel better about yours. This post will start with one of the first steps of the thesis process: finding an adviser.

     In 2019, Social Sciences Correspondent Andrea Reino listed some advice on how to find the right adviser (see here ). Her advice is comprehensive, so I really suggest checking it out and then coming back here for a few more details and a new perspective. In addition to Reino’s points, here are a few more quick tips for success:

• Think Back to Previous Courses

     Close your eyes and think back to the best class that you have taken at Princeton. Why was that your #1 class? What did you learn about? Who was the Professor? Even if this class was not in your department, you can still use it to brainstorm for your thesis. Two of my favorite classes at Princeton were SPI340: Psychology of Decision Making and Judgment and PSY338: From Animal Learning to Changing People’s Minds . Though I admit that SPI340 is within my major, thinking back to these classes made me realize that I really wanted to write a thesis that changed minds for the better, and that made use of both cognitive science or psychology and policy. I remembered that Professor Eldar Shafir, who taught SPI340 and is a legend in the behavioral policy field, does impactful research on poverty and often combines psychology, economics, and politics in his research. I scheduled a meeting with Professor Shafir at the end of my junior year and the rest was history.

• Meet with your Department Adviser

     Your departmental adviser is an invaluable resource that you should definitely make use of. My adviser, Elizabeth Choe, served as an amazing mentor for me. She walked me through the process of finding an adviser and made recommendations based on what I was interested in. Furthermore, she told me about thesis adviser evaluations. Much like courses, senior thesis advisers are evaluated and these evaluations, though private and handwritten for SPIA, are available to students. I was able to browse through potential advisers and better understand if I believed we would work well together.

• Devise a Game Plan

    I was lucky in the adviser matching process in that I knew that the first adviser I met with was the one that I really wanted to work with. However, one thing that I found really helpful in making my decision was devising a plan with my adviser at our second meeting. I asked him what kind of communicator he was, what deadlines he would have for me, and what his timeline would be throughout the semester. I also asked how frequently he would be able to meet and I even read the theses that his previous advisees wrote to better understand what I was getting into.

      In sum, when looking for a thesis adviser, you should find someone who conducts research on topics that you are passionate about, that you believe can help you reach your goals, and that you believe will work well with. But, in all seriousness, all advisers at Princeton are amazing, and whoever you end up with will help you produce an original and inspiring senior thesis!

—   Ryan Champeau, Social Sciences Correspondent

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Princeton University Undergraduate Senior Theses, 1924-2024

Members of the princeton community wishing to view a senior thesis from 2014 and later while away from campus should follow the instructions outlined on the oit website for connecting to campus resources remotely..

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Senior Thesis Spotlight: Her affinity for service took an unexpected turn toward public policy

Natalia Lalin and her thesis adviser, Martin Flaherty ’81. Lalin's thesis revisits an early example of so-called "debt trap diplomacy." Flaherty says her scholarship offers "a deeper account that gives a much better understanding."

The daughter and granddaughter of physicians, Natalia Lalin entered Princeton with a strong affinity for service and an intention to major in neuroscience.

But after taking a wide swath of courses during her first year — including mathematics, computer science, and, especially, the Freshman Seminar “Sentencing and Punishment” — she began to reimagine her academic path with an eye toward public policy coursework at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA).

The summer following her sophomore year, she interned in U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s office on Capitol Hill, where she networked with Princeton alumni in Washington, including Chris Lu ’88, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform, and Lisa Brown ’82, general counsel of the U.S. Department of Education. The experience taught her that giving back comes in many forms — not just medicine — and she returned to the University as a SPIA major.

“Service is so broad, and there are so many other opportunities that you can engage in, especially in policy and law,” Lalin says. “I wanted to do that in an area that I was most passionate about, and I found that that was in SPIA."

As a junior, Lalin deepened her exploration of public service. She served as a research assistant with SPIA’s Bridging Divides Initiative, where she investigated political violence and election monitoring, and participated in a Policy Task Force, “Multilateralism in crisis? How international institutions can better manage global challenges,” about the challenges that international institutions face and how they might become more effective.

"That launched me more into the human- and civil-rights sphere,” Lalin says. For her junior year research seminar, Lalin explored law and policy in India, and the structural barriers women face with respect to High Court and Supreme Court appointments in the country’s public law sphere.

The summer following her junior year was, to say the least, busy. Lalin began by interning in the civil society division of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women — U.N. Women — where she worked to connect youth activists from the world to the U.N. Network. From there, she went to the Division on Civil Rights at the New Jersey Attorney General’s office, where she investigated cases of housing discrimination. That fall, she studied abroad at the University of Cambridge, in England.

For her senior thesis, she chose to research the effects of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on Sri Lanka, the homeland of her father and her maternal grandparents. Through BRI, China has been loaning large sums of money to Sri Lanka and other countries. When Sri Lanka failed to repay its loan, China took control of one of its ports, Hambantota, stirring American fears that it could be used as a military foothold in the Indian Ocean.

“That was criticized in the very early days of BRI as an example of its dark side,” says Lalin’s thesis adviser, Martin Flaherty ’81, a visiting professor of public and international affairs. “And then the scholarship moved on to other countries. But what Natalia is doing is returning to this original story, and in a very interesting way.”

Post-graduation, Lalin plans to work for two years as a legal analyst at a law firm. Law school will follow, likely with a focus on international law. "My long, long, long-term goal would be to be an ambassador,” she says.

Lalin traveled to Sri Lanka at the end of last summer to conduct interviews with key stakeholders. She spoke with some 20 corporate leaders, government officials, ambassadors, policy experts, community advocates, journalists, and academics, and also gleaned insights from ordinary Sri Lankans she encountered between the formal interviews. “When you talk to people in Sri Lanka, they say, 'It's actually not [just] the People’s Republic of China,’” Lalin said. “‘We need to hold our own [Sri Lankan] politicians accountable.’”

“My thesis puts forth that the primary onus is on the People’s Republic of China,” she said, given concerns about rule of law, economics and other aspects of sovereignty. These include facilitating foreign interference in domestic affairs, increased corruption, environmental degradation disproportionately affecting poorer communities, censorship and an erosion of labor rights.

Flaherty said that supports the conventional wisdom about BRI, which holds that the policy exploits developing countries by offering loans for infrastructure projects that they cannot pay — so-called "debt trap diplomacy."  Sri Lanka is often cited as a prime example of this narrative, because it ostensibly lost control of an entire port as collateral for unpaid loans. He praised Lalin for adding nuance to that narrative. 

"Among other things, Natalia's in-country interviews reveal a far more complex story," he said. "On one hand, conventional accounts of the Hambantota story are not entirely accurate.  At the same time, Natalia nonetheless demonstrates other ways that the influence of BRI has negative effects in Sri Lanka, including promotion of corruption, labor problems and human rights issues.

Lalin’s thesis notes that despite warnings from the International Monetary Fund, the Sri Lankan government instituted tax cuts that hurt the country’s overall GDP at a time when its economy was already in decline. It also issued an import ban on non-organic fertilizers, hoping to enhance domestic production; when that didn’t happen, crops failed and a food shortage followed. 

“These policies, which were supposed to restore the country after its war, had the opposite effect, as they plummeted Sri Lanka into financial ruin,” she writes. “As a result, Sri Lanka was ill-prepared to face the polycrisis that came with the 2020s. The country was hit from every angle, from a global pandemic and huge drop-off in tourism, which the country’s economy relied on, to an increase in oil and gas prices as a result of the Russia-Ukraine War.”

"A lot of students would’ve gone in there just trying to undermine the conventional story and then come out 180 degrees opposite," Flaherty said. "What Natalia did was undermine the conventional story, but also come up with a deeper account that gives a much better understanding."

As a Princeton graduate, Flaherty brought his own experience to bear on the critical role of senior thesis adviser. He said his own adviser, John Murrin, a professor of history who specialized in American colonial and revolutionary history and the early republic and taught at Princeton for 30 years, was "phenomenal." His thesis, "A Region Converted: A History of Early Princeton, 1683-1813," garnered three awards presented at Commencement.

As he worked with Lalin over the course of this academic year, he said that having written a thesis of his own made him "appreciate how substantial and important" the thesis experience is at Princeton.

After she graduates, Lalin plans to work for two years as a legal analyst at a law firm. Law school will follow, likely with a focus on international law.

“I want to continue working in the human rights space,” Lalin says. “My long, long, long-term goal would be to be an ambassador,” possibly to Sri Lanka, “and really bring my life full circle.”

Senior Thesis Spotlight: 2024

The senior thesis has been a rite of passage at Princeton for 100 years. Students pursue original research and scholarship in close collaboration with a faculty member. Here, some of this year’s work.

Senior Thesis Spotlight: Is there room for a philosopher at the space policy table? This senior thesis says yes.

Senior Thesis Spotlight: Can ‘forever’ chemicals become less so? This senior thesis works toward smarter cleanup of PFAS.

Senior Thesis Spotlight: AI and Italian

So What’s the Difference Between Politics and SPIA?

August 14, 2024, odette perrusquia.

As a Politics major—and even more specifically, as a Politics major who is also a  Peer Academic Adviser (PAA) —there is one question that I find myself answering quite frequently. Whether I am at the Academic Expo hosted during orientation, one of the various PAA-led academic advising fairs, or even in casual conversation with my non-Politics major friends, I am guaranteed to be asked the following question: “So what’s the difference between Politics and SPIA?”

Every year, many students generally interested in political science find themselves choosing between the  Politics Department and the  School of Public and International Affairs , otherwise referred to as SPIA. Although both departments have their own respective benefits and display a considerable amount of overlap, the distinctions that do exist between the two ultimately lead dozens of students to choose one over the other every year.

The most common response given to curious students is that Politics is a more “theoretical” major, whereas SPIA is more “practical.” To this day, I am often guilty of responding in the same way—at least initially. In my view, this is a vast oversimplification, but it begins to hint at the difference between the ways that each major approaches the political realm. Courses and research in the Politics Department tend to focus on the “why” questions behind politics, often inquiring into the reasoning behind state and non-state actors’ political actions. In a sense, the field of Politics seeks to explain why political life is the way that it is. For example, in a course that I took about authoritarian regimes, we sought to understand the constraints and enticements guiding the decisions taken by authoritarian leaders. Although SPIA students are also required to take some courses within the Politics Department, a bulk of the work associated with the major focuses on applying interdisciplinary knowledge to policy suggestions. Here, the focus is less on the why, and more primarily directed towards the question of what to do differently. Thus, dividing the two majors based on theory and practicality is a bit of a misnomer—policies are built on theories, and theories have practical applications. But the work that is carried out ultimately does emphasize distinct themes.

Other things to consider between the two majors are differences in requirements, flexibility, and department sizes. As briefly mentioned above, SPIA takes a largely interdisciplinary approach. This means students are required to take courses in a variety of fields—politics, economics, psychology or sociology, statistics, and more. This also means, however, that there are more structured  prerequisites and core classes for SPIA majors .  Politics majors are really only required to take classes within the Politics Department, and there is only one truly required research course taken junior fall. Independent work also looks differently for the two majors, with  Politics having one shorter research prospectus in the fall and one longer research paper in the spring. SPIA majors take a research seminar in one semester, and join a policy task force during the other—each has an associated research paper. Both write a senior thesis. Perhaps the last main difference between the two departments is in their sizes.  In the Class of 2026 , almost twice as many sophomores declared SPIA as their major compared to those who declared Politics.

Politics became the obvious choice for me after taking a political theory class my freshman spring, as well as after considering how much department size mattered to me. I also realized that, despite the obvious importance and value of more directly influencing and writing policy, I had no interest in actually doing so from either an academic or career standpoint. 

Both majors are great choices for students interested in political science. It just so happens that, for me, Politics was the best choice, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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SPIA Policy Task Force

February 17, 2021.

One of the main reasons I chose to concentrate in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) is the format of the junior papers (JPs) . In one semester, juniors enroll in a research seminar, in which students learn quantitative and qualitative research methods and then write a research-based JP. In the other semester, juniors have a policy task force, which involves writing a JP that makes recommendations about the best ways to address important public policy problems affecting society today. As I was deciding which department to concentrate in, the policy task force excited me because it would allow me to gain practical skills in policy research and development. I just finished my task force and greatly learned and benefited from this experience. 

My task force was called Improving Health Care for Vulnerable Populations in the U.S. During the COVID-19 Pandemic and it was taught by Heather Howard, lecturer in SPIA and former Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. One of the coolest parts of the task force is that they are often taught by people with real-world experience in the subject being studied. Professor Howard has an amazing breadth of knowledge and I learned so much from her. Our class only had nine students, so we all had the opportunity to get to know each other and contribute to class discussions.

It was fascinating to study the pandemic as it was unfolding in front of us. Each week, we talked about a different theme, ranging from racial disparities in health outcomes to vaccination strategies to maternal mortality. I was inspired by a discussion of the disproportionate impact the virus has had on people residing in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes. I wrote my JP on the importance of home and community-based services, which ensure that senior citizens and people with disabilities can receive support and assistance at home in a way that maximizes independence and prioritizes safety. I conducted research on how other states provide home and community-based services in order to make recommendations for the state of New Jersey.

In the last week of the semester, my classmates and I presented our recommendations to a group of stakeholders who work at the New Jersey Department of Health. It was incredible to be able to discuss our research findings with the people in charge of making decisions about the state’s health care system. They listened to what we had to say and will hopefully keep our research in mind going forward.

Because of my task force, I feel more comfortable researching and evaluating the best policy proposals to solve a problem. I plan to use these skills in my senior thesis and future career in policy and advocacy. This experience confirmed to me that I made the right choice in concentrating in SPIA.

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