Thesis vs. Non-Thesis Option

The Department of Human Development & Family Studies at Colorado State University has two options for the research component of the Master’s degree program—a Plan A Thesis OR a Plan B Research project. Students who plan to obtain a Ph.D. degree after the Master’s program, who seek a career in applied research or program evaluation, and/or who plan to conduct research relatively independently as a part of their career should pursue a Plan A Thesis project. Those who plan an applied career as a Marriage & Family Therapist, Child Life Specialist, or interventionist AND who do not plan to conduct independent research as part of their professional life AND who do not plan to pursue a Ph.D. after their Master’s may elect to conduct a smaller scale research project as part of the Plan B option.

Students must make a decision to pursue the Plan A or Plan B option no later than the end of their first year of the Master’s program, as a part of their declaration of their program of study, and they should make this decision in collaboration with their advisors. Under special and exceptional circumstances, a student, in collaboration with his/her advisor, may choose to change from Plan A to Plan B or vice versa after the first year of graduate school. In such a case, up to three credits of HDFS 698 may be accepted in lieu of up to three credits of HDFS 699, or vice versa, if those credits already have been completed. Otherwise, all requirements of the option that the student actually will complete must be satisfied.

Characteristics of Plan A Thesis:

  1. The student will enroll in a minimum of 6 credits in HDFS 699.
  2. The student will have a committee, composed of at least 3 members: a Chair, another HDFS graduate faculty member, and an outside member who is a member of the university graduate faculty. This committee will meet for the proposal and for the defense and will help guide the thesis research, with the Chair providing the greatest share of this guidance. The thesis project will involve a topic in the Chair’s research area, and may or may not involve secondary data.
  3. The student should expect a minimum of 288 clock hours (48 hour / credit) toward completion of the thesis project.
  4. The project must conform to the scientific method, and the written thesis should include an introduction and/or a literature review, methods, results, and a discussion. It may be written as a manuscript-length thesis, with an abbreviated literature review and methods section, but with an appended extended literature review, or it may be written as a traditional thesis. Either must conform to the requirements set in the Thesis Manual.
  5. There will be an oral defense at the completion of the project, and the final thesis will need to be approved by the committee and Assistant Department Head.
  6. Quantitative or qualitative analyses should be executed by the student as a part of this project, and should be methodologically sound, with proper attention given to issues such as reliability and validity and/or trustworthiness of the data.
  7. The Plan A is required for all students planning to pursue a PhD in our program
  8. Plan A projects should be of sufficient quality to make them potentially publishable, and should, when possible, be submitted for publication in a professional refereed journal.

Characteristics of the Plan B Research Project:

  1. The student will enroll in a minimum of 3 credits in HD 698
  2. The student will have a faculty advisor with whom s/he will contract for a specific plan of involvement in the faculty member’s research project or grant-writing efforts.
  3. The student will have a committee, composed of at least 3 members: the advisor (Chair), another HDFS graduate faculty member, and an outside member who is a member of the university graduate faculty. This committee will meet for a planning meeting prior to the onset of the project, and for the defense of the Plan B project.
  4. The student should expect a minimum of 144 clock hours (48 hour / credit) toward completion of the research project.
  5. The project will generally involve running a pilot study; creation and initial testing of materials, interventions, or other parts of a study; conducting an extensive literature review; and/or grant writing in connection with the faculty member’s research program.
  6. A written product may result from the project. This may be a literature review, a grant proposal, a description of the pilot study, or other written product that is appropriate to the project.
  7. There will be an oral presentation and defense of the work that has been completed before the committee, and the presentation will need to be approved by the committee.