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COSC 94 and COSC 99

Students require Instructor Permission to enroll for COSC 94, an independent study course, and COSC 99, a two-term thesis research course. Learn more about the courses and the process of getting the requisite permission to enroll below.

COSC 94: Reading Course

COSC 94 is an independent study of a certain subject and can be taken any term.  It is a custom-designed, faculty-guided, independently operated, course in computer science - and its topic and nature can be drawn from the wide range of course topics and types you see in the curriculum. Examples include reading textbooks, research literature, and tutorial material; watching online lectures from other universities or programs; developing code; designing algorithms; analyzing data; and more.

Instructor Permission to enroll for this course is given by the Undergraduate Program Director. Follow these steps to get the required permission:

  1. First, you need to identify an advisor who will guide and evaluate your independent study. This person must be a CS faculty member. This includes regular faculty members (tenure track / instructors) and adjunct faculty members. Approach the professor early; at least one term in advance is recommended.
     
  2. Together with the faculty member you need to create a proposal. The proposal must describe the material being learned, and the planned approach to learning.  The workload should be equivalent to a regular course. A typical proposal is 1.5-2 pages long comprising of:
     
    • Course goals and objectives + a personal rationale to pursue this independent study. 
    • Materials such as textbooks, lecture notes, websites, videos, etc.
    • A detailed weekly schedule. For each of the 9-10 weeks, you should point to the material you will be studying. At the very least, the topic.
    • Description of evaluation procedure : assignments/labs/projects, etc + when they will be due. 
       
  3. You need to submit the proposal to the Undergraduate Program Director, cc-ing your advisor. The advisor must confirm by email that they have approved the proposal and that they will indeed be supervising, and at the termination of the course, grading the student.

COSC 99: Thesis Course

COSC 99.01 and COSC 99.02 is a two term course of individual research on a topic carried out with a thesis advisor. You need Instructor Permission to enroll for these courses. This is given by the Undergraduate Program Director.

How to Enroll

Follow these steps to get the required permission to enroll in COSC 99.01 (the first thesis term):

  1. First, you need to identify a thesis advisor and ask them to commit to being your advisor. This person must be a CS faculty member. This includes regular faculty members (tenure track / instructors) and adjunct faculty members. Approach the professor early; at least one or two terms in advance is recommended. Some faculty members may even suggest doing a COSC 94 with them first.
     
  2. Along with your advisor you must draft a thesis proposal which should be 1-2 pages long. It should contain a tentative title, the proposed problem of research, and an outline of some approaches to tackle these problems.

You need to submit the proposal to the Undergraduate Program Director, cc-ing your advisor. The advisor must confirm that they have approved the proposal and that they will indeed be supervising, and at the termination of the course, grading the student. The deadline for this is at least 48 hours before the deadline for enrolling in courses which is posted on the Dartmouth Calendars.

No proposal is needed to enroll for COSC 99.02, but you must request the Undergraduate Program Director for Instructor Permission at least 48 hours before the deadline for enrolling in courses.

Thesis Submission Guidelines

If you are a student graduating in Spring, then your thesis (pdf) has to be emailed to the Undergraduate Director before 11:59 pm on the last day of classes of the Spring term. The faculty meets in the pre-examination break to vote on honors.

If you plan to go for high honors, you should have given a talk about your work to a committee which includes their advisor and two other CS faculty members. There is no deadline for this, except it has to occur before the thesis submission date. Deciding on the committee and scheduling the talk is the responsibility of the student and their advisor.