How Long Does a Capstone Project Take to Complete?
The short answer is that capstone projects vary in duration. Younger students may devote several weeks up to a semester to their capstone projects. College students can spend half a year or more on their senior project. Some schools require students to complete year-long capstones.
How Can a Student Prepare for Their Capstone Project?
Like most college coursework, capstone projects require prerequisites and intense preparation. Part of a capstone involves planning, which may start as early as the first year to ensure a solid foundation by the time senior year rolls around.
Meeting Prerequisites
As mentioned previously, prerequisites vary between programs. It’s important to know if your major or degree requires a capstone experience for graduation. If so, it’s a good idea to create a checklist with the requirements to ensure you meet them. You don’t want to find out as a college senior that you lack the required courses to take your capstone!
Obviously, a capstone requires significant coursework in the field. A psychology major probably wouldn’t complete a capstone in civil engineering just because they took one class in that area. However, that doesn’t mean that they only need psychology courses. Students may need to take research or statistics classes to prepare for a research-based capstone.
Planning the Project
Capstone projects involve long-term commitments, and it’s not something to do over a weekend. Even for the procrastinators out there, a capstone project requires setting deadlines and meeting them.
It’s a good idea to start planning the summer before your capstone course, even if it’s a rough outline or schedule for what you need to accomplish each month. Planning ahead keeps your project on track and ensures that you can graduate on time!
