Supervising an Honors Thesis
The College of Business Administration at California State University, Long Beach offers an Honors Program as an added challenge to motivated scholars. The major requirement of honors students is an honors thesis. The CBA Honors Program (CBAHP) is designed as a 3-semester program, beginning the Summer semester following the junior year. CBAHP students take a preliminary honors seminar the first semester, and progress to advanced honors seminars the following academic year. While most of the work on the honors project is performed in the senior year, students form relationships with their faculty supervisor and must obtain final approval for their project during the first term of the program. Typically, CBA (full-time tenured or tenure track) faculty supervise honors theses. Faculty supervisors must be prepared to commit to a long-term relationship with a student [i.e., one that spans 2-3 academic semesters.] In addition, they are expected to train and assist students with special skills not covered in their academic program (e.g., advanced statistical analyses).
Evaluative Criteria
The nature of the topics chosen for honors theses vary according to student and faculty interests. Some students design their own topic, and then seek supervision from a faculty member expert in that general area. Alternatively, faculty supervisors are encouraged to propose topics worthy of attention from honors students: i.e., they must show promise as either making a professional contribution to the academic literature and to the field of business. All theses are empirical, i.e., require data collection and analysis. Students and faculty are then "matched" based on interest and expertise. Selection is competitive and is based on the following factors:
- Potential contribution to the academic literature and to the field of business.
- Research feasibility.
- 'Match' between the project's goals and student interests.
- Application (including a clear problem statement, project goals, and timeline).
- Resource needs.
- Faculty member's record of research productivity and areas of expertise.
- Final approval by the Director of the CBAHP.
Application Submission
Faculty interested in working with an honors student on a study with a specific set of research objectives and with a well-defined research design should submit a formal project proposal. Faculty may submit multiple projects: please submit a separate application for each. Send each completed application to:
Director of the CBA Honors ProgramCollege of Business Administration
California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90840-8501
The deadline for applications for the program class starting in June of 2010 is May 15, 2010 [hand-delivered or mailed submissions only]. However, late applications will be considered.