Quarter life...uh i mean thesis topic... crisis

A few weeks ago, I went to Rutgers and pulled about sixteen books out of the library on Banking policy. As I had suspected, the topic required an understanding of economics. What I did not expect was lots and lots of math and econometrics related to what I was studying. The only economics class I had taken was microeconomics in high school, so I became afraid that this thesis would become burdensome on me, and a lot of my time would be spent trying to teach myself about two or three years' worth of economics in about two or three months. Furthermore, though I have done well in past mathematics courses, it is not exactly the most fun thing for me to do complex equations with multiple unknown variables, so I contemplated changing my topic.

As those of you who have worked or are currently working on a thesis know, at a certain point, you start thinking of your thesis at the oddest points in time. This happened to me yesterday. Last night, as I was falling asleep, I contemplated my thesis topic and started playing with ideas on how to make my thesis more political than economic (I am a political science major, after all). I thought back to why I picked the topic I did, and remembered that

1. I thoroughly enjoyed doing a term paper on GM, why it was failing, and how it could save itself

2. I chose Societe Generale because it was a systemic institution in France, and I wanted to do an interdisciplinary or interdepartmental thesis instead of just a normal departmental honors thesis.

This got me thinking: I decided that I wanted to do a thesis after I enjoyed writing a term paper about a systemic institution that was in trouble. I enjoyed studying how the insufficient regulatory structure was at least partially responsible for this near-collapse of GM. I wanted to study the POLICY behind this all. I chose a topic thinking that this would be what I was studying with a Bank, but instead I found myself to be drowning in a sea of economic terminology and econometric equations. It was not what I wanted to study at all! Therefore, when I thought back, I realized that I was focusing on the term "Systemic Institution" more than I was focusing on the terms that really interested me, "regulatory structure" and "Policy." Therefore, as I lay half-asleep in my bed, I decided that I wanted my thesis to focus on regulatory policy. More precisely, I decided that I wanted to examine the regulatory system of corporations, and how they have changed throughout the Obama administration, and I want to observe and examine the implications of these changes. I may also want to do a critique on how it's been working out, and what should be done to make it work better, based on thorough research of the topic.

I also gave up the idea of an interdepartmental/interdisciplinary thesis because the same day I went to the library, I went to visit Dean Lord in the honors office. The main reason I went to the office was to get an information packet for my brother who will be applying to the Rutgers Honors Program, but I got to talking about my thesis with Dean Lord. She told me that an "interdisciplinary thesis" was completely different from what I was doing, and she told me that what I was doing was departmental honors. I figured since my senior year will already be crazy enough, it would be wise of me not to let the overachieving part of me set myself up for something that may be too much for me to handle once the semester gets crazy. Therefore I decided to stick with a topic that I wanted to do that was related to one department rather than trying to create a topic that would fit two departments, but would not be something I'm super passionate about. That's why I decided to change my topic.

SOOOOOO.... Back to the drawing board (and back to the library to pick out books that are more pertinent to my new topic! ^_^)

Advice tidbit:

ALWAYS start seriously researching your thesis topic before your senior year begins. I thought that I was dead-set on pursuing Societe Generale as a thesis topic, and I was even extremely interested in what's been going on there, but after reading through books and building my bibliography, I realized that the topic was too heavy on the economics for it to be a pleasant and agreeable topic for me. Therefore, my advice is not only to research and know what you're in for before the semester, but also to love the topic you're researching with all of your heart, because you will be spending the better part of your year researching, thinking of, and writing about that topic.

Now, all I have to do is notify my thesis advisor and write up a new proposal for my topic ^_^

-A