Be sure that you know how to contact your mentor and that they know how to contact you both by phone and by email. Find out their preferred method of contact. Be sure to check your phone messages and email every day, particularly on the day(s) before you are scheduled to work with your mentor(s).
Be proactive in setting up meetings and raising issues with your mentors and seminar advisors. Come to meetings well prepared with a status report and list of questions. Don't come with just one question at the time, unless you have only one! Take advantage of your meetings with them.
Pay attention to advice your mentor and advisor give you. If you do not want to take their suggestions, present clear and cogent arguments as to why you propose to set them aside.
Review of drafts:
Keep careful records of your work in a laboratory notebook.
Your
notebook can also include notes on papers that you read and
seminars that you attend. Data should be thoroughly
documented at the time that it is acquired. Do not assume
that you will have time to fill in the blanks later. Be
aware that your advisor may want your laboratory notebook for
permanent records, ask if you can xerox a copy at the end of the
project. Most of you will keep data in electronic files, such as
MS Excel workbooks. It may be advisable to put one worksheet in,
on which you note the steps you have taken in working on the
workbook with a date attached. Then you will always know which
is the final version of your worksheet and you can reconstruct
later what you have done, step by step.
Provide your mentor with copies of final computer files that you generate. Be sure to include what is called metadata: time, location, comments (for example about possible sources of error). ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR FILES!!
Provide your mentor with copies of any papers that you write using the data collected in their lab. Ask your mentor before using the data for projects other than your senior thesis.
The majority of thesis mentors plan to publish their work with you if the project works out well. If you would like to be involved in the publication process, let them know.
If the work that you are doing was funded from a proposal, ask your mentor for a copy of the body of the proposal. Read the proposal and look up the references that are cited. This will give you a head start on literature research for your thesis project.
Make sure that you meet all the deadlines as given in
the schedule. We will deduct 1/3 of a grade from your final
grade per day that you are late when submitting your final
thesis proposal. You must make at least two copies, one for
your thesis mentor and a second copy for your advisor in this
seminar.