Hamilton College has offered students an opportunity to do research for several decades. Prior to 1991, students arranged with a professor to undertake a supervised project as Independent Study . Beginning with the class of 1991, the faculty created a Senior Program, which varies with the discipline. In Biology, Senior Thesis is an intensive laboratory or field research project carried out in association with a faculty member and supplemented with appropriate library research.
Students submit a written proposal to the department in the spring of the junior year.
During the senior year students present their plan of work orally to peers and faculty, conduct the work, research and write a review of the literature and a subsequent report of the research, and finally present their results orally to peers and faculty in a special evening of concurrent sessions. These experiences are unique and different from traditional coursework. All of these experiences are expected to build on a foundation of appropriate coursework. In recent years Hamilton College has assisted in funding the travel of some students whose work is accepted for presentation at national professional meetings. Presentations, publications and competitive funding awarded to students are included in the list that follows.