{"id":22002,"date":"2026-03-16T17:55:42","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/honors.syr.edu\/thesis\/?p=22002"},"modified":"2026-03-16T17:56:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:56:02","slug":"building-thesis-out-of-a-program-required-project-capstone-directed-research-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/honors.syr.edu\/thesis\/2026\/03\/16\/building-thesis-out-of-a-program-required-project-capstone-directed-research-etc\/","title":{"rendered":"Building\u00a0thesis\u00a0out of\u00a0a program required\u00a0project\u00a0(capstone, directed research, etc.)\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong>Building&nbsp;thesis&nbsp;out of&nbsp;a program required&nbsp;project&nbsp;(capstone, directed research, etc.)<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Capstone Plus&nbsp;(Capstone+)<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Many majors&nbsp;require&nbsp;a senior capstone project as part of your degree.&nbsp;<strong>As an&nbsp;Honors&nbsp;student, you&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;have to complete both a capstone and a separate Honors thesis<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>&#8211;&nbsp;you can build your thesis out of your capstone work!<\/strong>&nbsp;Program capstones&nbsp;are overseen by a faculty member and&nbsp;are often&nbsp;connected to a course.&nbsp;If you choose to build your&nbsp;Honors&nbsp;Thesis out of your capstone work,&nbsp;please&nbsp;approach the capstone faculty&nbsp;about it. You&nbsp;will need their consent to use the capstone&nbsp;work&nbsp;for your thesis.&nbsp;Capstone&nbsp;faculty can serve as Faculty Thesis Advisors for your Honors thesis, but you will have to inquire about their availability to serve in this role.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because a capstone is already part of your degree requirements, it cannot serve as a 1:1 equivalent for an&nbsp;Honors&nbsp;thesis. Capstone projects are also often completed&nbsp;as&nbsp;group&nbsp;work, while your&nbsp;Honors&nbsp;thesis must reflect your individual contribution. The Capstone Plus pathway asks you to extend that work in a meaningful way that is distinctly your own.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Some examples include:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Refining or testing an aspect of your capstone solution individually&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Applying the group design to a different context or case&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Exploring the broader implications or societal impact of your team&#8217;s work&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Adding an&nbsp;additional&nbsp;application, analysis, or layer of background research&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Your Faculty Thesis Advisor can help you think through what&nbsp;additional&nbsp;work would be most meaningful given your project and discipline.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Architecture Directed Research &#8211; B.Arch&nbsp;ONLY (Directed Research+<\/strong>)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;In their final spring semester,&nbsp;B.Arch&nbsp;students complete a Directed Research (DR) course&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/soa.syr.edu\/programs\/thesis-and-directed-research\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a faculty-led capstone experience.<\/a>&nbsp;<strong>As an&nbsp;Honors&nbsp;student, you&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;have to complete both&nbsp;Directed Research&nbsp;and a separate Honors thesis<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>&#8211;&nbsp;you can build your thesis out of your&nbsp;DR&nbsp;work!<\/strong>&nbsp;It&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Your&nbsp;Honors&nbsp;thesis&nbsp;can be&nbsp;built out of your Directed Research work rather than completed separately. Because DR is already a degree requirement, it cannot serve as a 1:1 equivalent for your&nbsp;Honors&nbsp;thesis&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;your project&nbsp;will&nbsp;go beyond the DR requirements and reflect independent scholarly contribution.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>If you are pursuing this path, we strongly encourage you to connect with your Directed Research faculty and your&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/honors.syr.edu\/blog\/2023\/07\/01\/molly-hunker\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Honors core faculty in Architecture<\/a>&nbsp;early to ensure your project is scoped appropriately and that you are set up for success.&nbsp;Your Directed Research Faculty can serve as your Honors Faculty Thesis Advisor&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The work in addition to your Directed Research can come in many forms. Please make sure to connect&nbsp;with your Faculty Thesis Advisor to&nbsp;determine&nbsp;the scope of the extension work.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Internship-Based Thesis<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Many&nbsp;students&nbsp;choose to&nbsp;participate&nbsp;in an&nbsp;internship&nbsp;as an experiential learning opportunity, some as a required part of their program of study, others&nbsp;as a way to&nbsp;broaden their professional and educational experience.&nbsp;The result is a thesis that bridges practical, real-world learning with academic inquiry, and that can serve as a compelling addition to your professional portfolio.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&nbsp;If you choose&nbsp;to build your&nbsp;Honors&nbsp;Thesis out of this experiential learning&nbsp;opportunity&nbsp;you will need to&nbsp;plan ahead. First, as with every other thesis path, you will need to secure the support of a Faculty Thesis&nbsp;Advisor. Second, this&nbsp;pathway&nbsp;needs to be planned&nbsp;with a research question already in mind and use the&nbsp;internship&nbsp;experience as an opportunity to explore&nbsp;this question.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A few important considerations if you are thinking about this path:&nbsp;if the&nbsp;internship is already part of your degree requirements, it cannot serve as a 1:1 equivalent for your&nbsp;Honors&nbsp;thesis and will require an&nbsp;additional&nbsp;scholarly layer. You will also need to think carefully about whether the organization would&nbsp;permit&nbsp;you to collect and use their data or work product as part of your thesis research &#8211; this is a conversation to have early.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Please set up an appointment with your Honors advisor&nbsp;ideally&nbsp;ahead&nbsp;of your&nbsp;Junior&nbsp;year&nbsp;to&nbsp;discuss whether this is the right path for you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Building&nbsp;thesis&nbsp;out of&nbsp;a program required&nbsp;project&nbsp;(capstone, directed research, etc.)&nbsp; Capstone Plus&nbsp;(Capstone+) Many majors&nbsp;require&nbsp;a senior capstone project as part of your degree.&nbsp;As an&nbsp;Honors&nbsp;student, you&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;have to complete both a capstone and a separate Honors thesis&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;you can build your thesis out of your capstone work!&nbsp;Program capstones&nbsp;are overseen by a faculty member and&nbsp;are often&nbsp;connected to a course.&nbsp;If you choose to build&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thesis-pathways"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/honors.syr.edu\/thesis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/honors.syr.edu\/thesis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/honors.syr.edu\/thesis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honors.syr.edu\/thesis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honors.syr.edu\/thesis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22002"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/honors.syr.edu\/thesis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22006,"href":"https:\/\/honors.syr.edu\/thesis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22002\/revisions\/22006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/honors.syr.edu\/thesis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honors.syr.edu\/thesis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honors.syr.edu\/thesis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}