How do I choose a topic?

Hey Guys,

Once again, I have been on a long hiatus from this blog. Within that hiatus, though, I've gotten a lot done. I have written and finished my proposal, come up with a tentative outline for my thesis, and set benchmarks for submitting different parts of my thesis to my advisor. Besides that I'm still researching, still checking tons of books out of the library, and still keeping on top of current events.

One challenge I have faced until now is balancing when to work on my thesis with when to work on my other stuff. My advisor is great, but he's the type of person who says he wants to see something "soon" without giving me a specific deadline. I'm ok with this, but at the same time I feel like if I don't set my own deadlines, I will procrastinate until the last minute. If I have a concrete deadline, I'm more likely to work on my assignment for a week until it's due, but if I don't have any concrete deadlines, I'll tend to put something off. Furthermore, I also have a busy semester with lots of upper-level classes, not to mention the LSATs, which are coming up soon. The most important thing to remember as a senior is how to balance doing your thesis with other stuff such as exams, applications, etc.

One thing I noticed is that I never put up the story of how I came to choose my advisor/topic. I got a text message from a friend who was trying to pick a thesis topic, so I started searching my blog for a relevant post only to realize that there were none. So, for all of you people out there who don't know how to settle on a topic, this one's for you:

The first thing I did when deciding on a topic was thinking back to every single class that I took for my major. I tried to remember what I learned in each class, how much I liked the teacher, and how interested I was in the material from that class. In my case, I really enjoyed the classes I took with Professor Lehne, not only because of his chill enthusiasm for what he teaches, but also because the stuff he taught was highly appealing to me. The two classes I took with him were Government and Business, and the Senior Seminar in Public Policy. I was fascinated by the relationship between government and businesses, but more from the political perspective than from the economic perspective. That's how I decided upon Corporate Governance as my topic. Below, I have compiled a list of questions to think about when picking your topic:

1. Who is your favorite professor? Why?
2. What was your favorite class? Why?
3. Which topics do you love to talk about?
4. Are there any big questions in your field that you would like to know more about?
5. Do you see any problems in your field that you think you can fix? If not, are there any steps you can think of that should be taken for a possible solution?
6. Why did you decide to choose the major that you did? What exactly piqued your interest in the major?
7. Have you ever gotten into a passionate debate/discussion with a professor/classmate on a particular issue that lasted for a while (or that you feel was too complex to discuss in the amount of time you talked with the person)?

I hope these help.

-Aakruti

P.S. If you have any more questions about getting started on a thesis, picking a topic, choosing an advisor, etc. Leave a comment. I'd be more than happy to answer your questions ^_^