Students in the Synthetic Division are required to write a report on their research at the end of the first semester of their first academic year. The report must be no more than ten pages in length (excluding figures, tables, references etc), and is evaluated based on the student’s ability to carry out research as well as to put together a paper. First year reports are read by two faculty members, neither of whom can be your research advisor. Your Vice Chair will give you detailed information about writing the first year report during the spring semester of your first year. Evaluation of the reports can have the following three outcomes:

1. Accepted without revision.
2. Re-write requested with a deadline for suggested revisions (usually 2 weeks).
3. Additional experiments and a supplementary report requested (usually due by September 1).