A capstone is only required for students who matriculated in Autumn 2022 or later.

Students must complete ONE of the following three options in order to fulfill the Capstone requirement for the Physics major.

1. Complete a Senior thesis. The requirements for a Senior thesis are listed in the Honors section (below). However note that to fulfill the Capstone requirement using this option it is not necessary to fulfill the other requirements for Honors (e.g., GPA requirements) and thus a student can complete the Capstone requirement with this option even if they are not graduating with Honors.

2. Complete a research project plus a Capstone paper. Students carry out a physics-related research project, which can be pursued at Stanford or at another institution, during the summer quarter or the academic year. During their Junior or Senior year, the student submits a proposal describing the topic of their Capstone paper based on their research project and identifying their research advisor; the proposal must be approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies. After this approval, the student writes a Capstone paper. This paper can be written for either course (WIM) or course. If the student chooses to write the paper in Physics 191, then it will be written for one of the assignments in the style of a journal article (e.g., Physics Review Letters). If the student chooses instead to write the paper in Physics 192, then the student enrolls in that course with the official research advisor as the instructor. If the project is carried out with an advisor at another institution, the student must identify an official advisor who is a faculty member in the Physics Department at Stanford for the purpose of writing their Capstone paper. If the project is carried out with a faculty member at Stanford who is not in the Physics department, then that advisor can serve as the instructor for Physics 192.

3. Complete at least one of the following three courses: course, course, or course. Note that Physics 100 and Physics 108 may have limited enrollment and so students planning to use one of these to fulfill their Capstone requirement should have a backup plan in case they cannot enroll in one of these courses.

Name	Degree Designation	Description
Physics (BS)	BS - Bachelor of Science
Physics (Minor)
Physics (MS)	MS - Master of Science	No Description Set
Physics (PhD)	PHD - Doctor of Philosophy	No Description Set
Physics (PhD Minor)		No Description Set

Department: Physics