Late Policy

Social Studies does not like to impose penalties, and we hope that the policy spelled out here will not have to be applied to any senior. Nevertheless, for the record, this page describes the Social Studies policy on late senior theses. This policy is in line with the penalty policies of other social science concentrations.

The deadline for uploading your thesis to the Social Studies 99 Canvas site is 2:00 p.m. on Thesis Day.

Additionally, you will need to come to the Social Studies office at 4:00 p.m. on Thesis Day to turn in a printed copy of your cover page and sign the honor code.

Essays submitted after that time will be penalized severely. A penalty of .33 grade points will be imposed for the first three hours that a thesis is late. At 2:00 p.m. the following day, an additional penalty of .33 will be taken. For every 24 hours after that, an additional .33 will be deducted at 2:00 p.m. Deductions will not be prorated. Theses are graded on a Latin scale, which corresponds to the numerical GPA scale below. For example, if your average thesis grade is a 3.5 and you have a one-day penalty, your average grade will drop to 3.17 after subtracting .33 of a grade point.

Summa  4.3
Summa minus  4
Magna plus  3.7
Magna  3.5
Magna minus  3.3
Cum plus  3
Cum  2.85
Cum minus  2.7
C+  2.3
C  2
C-  1.7
D+  1.3
D  1
D-  0.7
E  0

Penalties will be waived exclusively in cases of documented medical illness or grave family emergency; students should consult with the Director of Studies in that event. Missed alarm clocks and crashed computers are not considered valid causes for extensions. You should plan to have the first draft of your thesis finished three weeks before the due date to allow enough time for revisions, proofreading, and printing.