Change in thesis status after acceptance?

[lunasita]

About a year ago, I started recruitment for undergrad thesis. Unfortunately, I'm drawing from a very small subpopulation and having trouble reaching my minimum required N (FWIW, grad students working with this similar divisions of the same subpopulation often have the same issue--I know one who spent 2+ years recruiting his participants). I've considered widening my population a bit, but my chair is very unsupportive in this regard (which may be a good thing in a way, I suppose). I've since completed another project as my "official" junior thesis and am in the post-analysis writing stages of my "official" senior thesis. All three projects were listed on my CV and/or SOP as well as their current levels of progress/expected times of completion.

I'm really hoping to complete this project before I graduate, but that may not be possible, as I can't just "wait it out" like a grad student might, so I'm considering just changing the project to an "independent paper" and not a thesis (my lit review was very extensive in and of itself and my committeee really liked it. Additionally, they approved my recruitment goals/methods, so I wasn't going into this without backing). I'll really push to get it done, of course, but given time constraints and the inflexibility of my chair, I'm not sure if that will be possible.

I've received offers from a few PhD programs and am unsure how it will affect my standing with them if I turn this project into an independent paper as opposed to a thesis (I'll tell them, of course, if I make that decision). I'm worried they might revoke my offers/funding offers, even though this is sort of out of my control.

(I have publications and presentations in additional to my two "official" thesis projects, so this isn't the only thing on my CV.)

Advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

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[ADDICTED2STATS]

I highly doubt that a program would would reject your offer in this instance. As for changing to a lit review, if it's a graduation issue then I don't think it's a big deal. However, your chair may be forcing you to stay the course b/c it's an interesting question (one that can't be answered by a lit review). It might be worth submitting a lit review as your final project, but continue working on the project and find someone else to pick up where you will leave off. Ideally you could still get a publication out of the deal, and the investment you have in the project thus far wouldn't be lost.

 

[JockNerd]

How many participants do you have? An undergrad senior thesis doesn't always have to "work" to be worth finishing; most of my graduating class would have failed if their projects had to get the anticipated results. Maybe you can just run the planned analysis with what you have, find the null results, and report the low achieved power.

 

[UnLurked]

How many participants do you have? An undergrad senior thesis doesn't always have to "work" to be worth finishing; most of my graduating class would have failed if their projects had to get the anticipated results. Maybe you can just run the planned analysis with what you have, find the null results, and report the low achieved power.

I gotta agree on this one, null results is just as fair an outcome for an undergrad thesis. Even if you change it to a lit review I wouldn't worry about informing your schools that you didn't finish it. What an undergrad thesis establishes is that you have an idea of how to do research and I would guess that even though you can't finish you have learned a fair amount.

 

[lunasita]

How many participants do you have? An undergrad senior thesis doesn't always have to "work" to be worth finishing; most of my graduating class would have failed if their projects had to get the anticipated results. Maybe you can just run the planned analysis with what you have, find the null results, and report the low achieved power.

It's a qualitative project, and I need a certain minimum N to be able to run my focus groups, so it's not a statistical issue. I need 5-7 participants and so far, I've only been able to get 2-3.

I highly doubt that a program would would reject your offer in this instance. As for changing to a lit review, if it's a graduation issue then I don't think it's a big deal. However, your chair may be forcing you to stay the course b/c it's an interesting question (one that can't be answered by a lit review). It might be worth submitting a lit review as your final project, but continue working on the project and find someone else to pick up where you will leave off. Ideally you could still get a publication out of the deal, and the investment you have in the project thus far wouldn't be lost.

My chair has actually been very hesitant about me seeing the project to completion due to recruitment issues and a lack of undergrad RAs in the lab (I've recruited my own). I've been trying to figure out ways to increase recruitment and my last idea, widening the eligibility requirements a bit, doesn't seem to be flying (maybe for good reasons--I don't know).

Thanks to all you for answering!