The Reckless Hair Growth Experiment

In my opening post back in September, I announced my exit from corporate life so that I could pursue answers to a myriad of questions. One of these questions was:

“How long can I really go without shaving or cutting my hair?”

To the chagrin of my friend (Codename: BYU) who insists that my hair gets worked into every conversation, I feel the need to provide an update regarding the answer to that question. Unfortunately, I harbored some of my corporate sense of decorum and felt the need to trim my hair and my beard prior to my campus interviews.

The hair fell victim first, with as minimal a reduction in length as could be negotiated with the hairdresser. Her instructions were to keep me from looking like an executive while maintaining some aura of responsibility. Judging by the fact that I felt it was too short and my father felt it was too long, I’d say she hit her mark.

The beard was up next. I began with a close trim, but was unhappy with the look. So, I decided to drop back to a goatee. Despite having sported one years ago, I hated it this time. Thus, I shaved it off completely and went sans facial hair throughout the interview process because I felt that showing up with half a beard might signal a lack of interest in the proceedings.

Since then, I have restarted the Reckless Hair Growth Experiment. The beard is back, but has been kept relatively trim. The hair? That’s another story. Well, two stories, actually.

STORY NUMBER ONE

As I prepared to turn my house over to a renter the first of May – three months since aforementioned haircut – I found myself in and out of Home Depot more than my financial adviser would like to know (IRA contribution looking a little thin this year, bro). On one of the final trips, there was a wait at the paint counter and before long I had drifted into one of my patented Waking Comas of Thought. Suddenly, I was jarred back to reality by a woman behind me saying, “Excuse me”.

My mind raced to decipher what I had done while spaced out that could have impeded her quest for paint and I rotated to catch her eye, simultaneously brushing my hair back behind my ears. “Yes, ma’am?” I replied.

“I just had to tell you that you have AMAZING hair.”

I thanked her and attempted a sheepish grin to camouflage my swelling pride when she followed with:

“Seriously. I mean, every woman I know would KILL for your hair.”

Uh, wow. I mean, I think I have a pretty nice mane, but would have never considered it worth a capital offense. Despite the fact that she didn’t seem to indicate that men would want my hair, slightly (but just barely) infringing on my masculinity, this fueled the desire to keep the Reckless Hair Growth Experiment going, which leads us to:

STORY NUMBER TWO

Several weeks later, I was out with some friends when the malted hops induced a call from nature. While attending to business, I heard a voice from behind me:

“Dude, your hair is awesome!”

A couple of things:

1. Having your hair raved about by a guy is a little strange
2. Having your hair raved about by a guy in the men’s room is really strange
3. Having your hair raved about the duration of your time in the men’s room is uncomfortably strange

Seriously. The guy would not stop talking. I heard his entire hair story: how he tried to grow it out, then got a bad trim, then gave up, but was now re-inspired to try again after seeing my awesome hair. I assure you that none of this is hyperbole. In fact, I just saved you several minutes of your life by condensing his monologue. The encounter was not one that I really enjoyed, but upon learning that my hair was now changing lives I decided I had to keep the Reckless Hair Growth Experiment going.

***

As of this posting, I still haven’t cut my hair. Well, not since the pre-interview trim. It’s so long now that a gal in the church I visited on Sunday told me I looked like Desmond from the TV series LOST.

It’s also not long enough to be a bother while running in the oppressive Florida heat and humidity. I’ve been rocking a bondi band for two months (thanks, Sis!), but have recently had to go one step further. Maybe one step too far.

It’s so blasted hot that I’ve been forced to acquire a rubber band from my niece to pull my hair up off the back of my neck. I know, I know. To make matters worse, I was struggling to admit the need for two hair accessories while running and had to “borrow” it on the sly to avoid asking for it. The only one I could find was hot pink. Yes, God has a sense of humor.

I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to keep this up, but for now the entertainment value is outweighing the desire to cut the Reckless Hair Growth Experiment short. Pun intended.

III

Missing In Action

It’s been over a month since I posted about accepting the offer at Florida State. The long lay-off was not intended and I actually have several things to write about. Unfortunately, I just haven’t been making the time. So, I’m going to answer a very popular question in this post and then get back to more developed thoughts on a regular writing schedule.

Some people thought that I was living some sort of super relaxed dream life before. These people seem to think I must be about to slip a lack of activity coma now, because this question keeps coming up:

“So, what is it that you do now that you REALLY have nothing to do?”

The truth is that I did take about a week “off” to celebrate. Those that know me well understand that celebrating involves good food, draft beer, or single malt scotch (preferably some sort of combination of the three). Many of people wanted to toast the completion of this phase of the journey and I was eager to oblige.

After that, I had to start taking practical steps to extract myself from life in Atlanta and make a smooth transition to Tallahassee. I started packing up non-essential items to store at my folks house, completed some yard and house projects, and invited a couple realtors over for a tour and a market evaluation talk. Turns out, that there isn’t much market to evaluate. Well, not in a positive light, anyway.

It turns out that many of my neighbors could not actually afford the homes that they bought. I know…you are shocked. You’ve never heard of this. It is almost certainly a phenomenon occurring entirely within my neighborhood. Well, maybe just my zip code. As (bad) luck would have it, nine of the last ten home sales in my zip code (for my house size) have been foreclosure or short sales. The lone bright spot was over nine months ago. If that doesn’t scream “panic attack” then this will. Six of the seven current competitive listings in my zip code are foreclosures.

If you would like to know what this feels like, please follow these simple steps:

1) Calculate the equity that you have in your current home
2) Withdraw that amount of money in cash
3) Set the cash on fire
4) Just as your hand starts to burn, drop the flaming cash in a toilet
5) Flush

What you’re feeling is a collision of the “this seems fake” chuckle and the “holy crap, what just happened” stomach churn. Alcohol seems to help the sensation, but only momentarily.

I know some of you think I’m exaggerating or that I’ve adopted my old college roommate’s philosophy (“All of my stories are BASED on true events”), but I am serious. It was so bad that one realtor, knowing she was competing for my listing, actually said, “I think you should just rent this…for a long, long time”. She was complimentary of the condition of my home and conceded that it was “worth” far more than the others currently listed (which were in varying states of disrepair). Unfortunately, in the age of the internet no one will ever look at your house if it’s significantly more than other similarly sized homes and, thus, will never know it’s true value.

I really, really didn’t want to be a long distance landlord while trying to complete a PhD, but here I was confronted with the reality that by the time I sold my house, paid the realtor, fixed the nit picky things buyers demand, and cashed my check, my proceeds would probably only cover the down payment on a climate-controlled storage facility in Tallahassee. I ran this by my sister, a veteran of several Florida real estate transactions, who informed me that I would not be able to afford climate controlled storage:

“This is Florida. No one has a basement so everyone has a storage unit. They’re way more expensive down here.”

Sometimes, a lack of choices makes the best decision. Armed with the knowledge that I had no viable option, I dug out a contact for a woman who started her own property management firm. We met a year previously at a Chamber of Commerce event and I had filed her away as a “maybe one day” contact. I issued her firm the challenge of leasing my home quickly and told her if she could get X dollars per month, I would pay them to manage it, too. Within hours of the sign hitting the yard calls started coming in. A deal was closed in less than one business day after it was entered into the FMLS system. These gals are good. Even better, the tenant is slated to sign a two-year lease the day she moves in, postponing the majority of my real estate fears until right about the time I’ll be studying for comps (God chuckles at my prayers for “better timing” – I seem to struggle to accept that He’s in charge sometimes).

So, what have I been doing for the past month? I’ve been reluctantly launching a real estate empire.

Next stop: House hunting in Tallahassee

III

Cowboys and Indians (aka, The Decision)

Before the madness that is selecting a PhD program become a reality, I had grand visions of doing something really fun and creative to share my choice with everyone. My initial idea was to do a spin-off of Lebron James and “The Decision”. Unfortunately, Jeremy Schapp wouldn’t return my phone calls requesting that he host the event. Also, I was having trouble lining up sponsors for a one-hour special and couldn’t get a network interested in the idea of devoting prime air time to discuss where I would be taking my talents this Fall.

Then, the choice became really hard and I started devoting constant brain power to actually making the decision, with no thought whatsoever being spent on how to convey the news. So, you are stuck with a plain ole blog post and maybe a few witty comments.

***

If you’re good at picking up subtle messages, you may have noticed from the title (featuring the mascots of two of the four institutions) that the choice came down to Oklahoma State and Florida State. The brief flirtation from Texas A&M ended this morning with an email at 9:45 AM, officially rejecting me. While I’m disappointed that I didn’t get to visit with them and officially interview, making it to the handful of candidates under consideration was a great honor. Most of the sports world scoffs at the idea of “moral victories”, but I’ve learned that there is such a thing. In fact, in the spirit of March Madness I offer an NCAA tournament analogy: staying alive in the applicant pool to the end at places like Chapel Hill and A&M is (for me) the equivalent of a 6 seed making the Final Four. Those are good teams that just didn’t have all the pieces, but still made a nice run at the title. Similarly, my GMAT score was below my expectations, but I put what I had together and made a strong run. While I’m disappointed, I’m not disheartened. I quieted my self-doubt and showed myself that I belong.

Georgia State and Auburn truthfully fell to the wayside shortly after visits concluded. Both had some impressive things to offer and unique program elements, but the placements were more impressive at OSU and FSU. Georgia State’s small size was also a factor and I got along better with key faculty at OSU and FSU than I did at Auburn.

When I relayed this all to my best friend, he immediately shot back an email that said:

Well, have you thought whether you wanted to be a cowboy or indian?

An interesting dichotomy, to say the least. I thought about the psychological indicators of preferring the characteristics of one mascot over its rival (historical, not collegiate). Then, I remembered that I actually had to make a REAL decision, not a theoretical one and decided to move on to my analysis of actual characteristics.

I won’t rehash the entire back and forth between me and the inner circle and my mentors, but will attempt to hit the highlights of my thought process and then show you where I landed.

Placements

Where you get your doctorate matters a great deal. Despite the fact that the best candidates don’t always end up at the same handful of institutions, the job placement process has perpetuated this perception. That said, better placements lead to better students, and better students lead to even better placements. So, there is somewhat of a truth to the self-fulfilling prophesy. Oklahoma State has had its most recent placements at Clemson and University of Georgia. Florida State has had its most recent placements at West Virginia and University of Arkansas. Despite what you may think about the geographic and athletic make-ups of those schools, they all have very good Management departments and are considered strong placements for Assistant Professors. For the record, Arkansas is the top Organizational Behavior group of those schools and one of the fastest growing (in terms of reputation and productivity) departments in the country. Yeah, I was shocked, too.

Bottom line, either program should give me a strong opportunity for a good first job out of doctoral work.

Faculty

Who you work with is almost as important, if not equally as important, as where you attend. Faculty with stronger publication records, national prominence, and experience at other institutions can open a lot of doors for you. Unfortunately, you can’t determine who will be your advisor before you get there (usually) or who you will really click with during research projects. Campus visits and interviews give you an idea, but the data you have is so limited it would be like trying to select a spouse after a speed dating event.

Oklahoma State has a young, energetic, and largely un-tenured faculty in Organizational Behavior. I got along with all of them really well and did not meet anyone I thought would be a struggle to work with. The pros to this are that they are hungry and will be aggressively publishing in top journals to try to secure tenure. More projects gives doctoral students more opportunities. The cons are that younger faculty are less proven and lack the national acclaim to carry significant weight when you hit the job market. Also, if you want to stray outside of a traditional research area, faculty without tenure are less likely to take the risk with you.

Florida State has more senior Organizational Behavior faculty and have one of the most prolific publishers of the last generation. I have dubbed him Yoda (the Force is strong in that one). I got along with several FSU faculty very well, but a couple had quirks that may not make us the most compatible (the inverse is also true, I realize). The pros of senior faculty are that you know what you’re getting (you can see their record pretty easily) and you might be able to talk them into exploring new areas with you (tenure gives greater latitude for risk-taking). The cons are that you don’t know how long you’re going to have them. They could retire before you graduate and leave you with an unfinished dissertation without the sponsor you really want/need. We call that being up Poop Creek, sans paddle. Not a comfy place for a doctoral student.

Bottom line, it came down to potential versus experience. More on this later

Students

As mentioned discussing good placements, top students can be an indicator of increasingly prominent placements. Not a guaranteed predictor, but one that should not be ignored. Oklahoma State had good students. Florida State had better students.

Bottom line, it isn’t a determining factor, but I identified more (on intellectual and personality levels) with the FSU crowd.

Location

Neither city has the offerings of Atlanta, but Tallahassee provides significantly more to do than Stillwater. Pros are obvious; I wouldn’t be bored. Cons are also obvious; I might be more distracted. In truth, I was torn on this criterion as much as I was on the faculty. While it would be great to have more to do, I was really worried about being distracted and looking for a sabbatical of sorts over the next four years. Adding to the dynamic is the presence of family in the Sunshine State. To some, this would make the decision obvious, but not for me, the self-proclaimed Black Sheep in a number of areas. It may not surprise some of you to learn that I was ready be pack up the truck and head a 1,000 miles away, if only in the spirit of being different. Don’t judge me; it’s the part of me I wrestle with most.

Bottom line, my inner circle felt the need to remind me that the over 30 crowd in Stillwater might leave me bored to tears, forcing me deeper into my research and potentially causing burnout. This was the biggest source of external (to me) debate.

Facing My Fears

Not surprisingly, all this thought and analysis ended up with me creating scenarios and visions in my head based on my own perceptions, rather than reality. As I neared the end of the decision-making process, I realized I was about to base my decision on something that no one should ever place much weight on: assumptions.

I assumed that Yoda would retire soon. Complicating matters, he is married to another Organizational Behavior faculty member. If I lost him, I’d most likely lose her, too. That scared the crap out of me. I also assumed that I wouldn’t be able to follow my own research passions at FSU (part of this assumption was based on innuendo from other programs). As a “closet control freak” who likes to do things his way, that also scared the crap out of me. When I realized that these were going to be my determining factors, I decided I needed to clear the air surrounding the two fears. I set up a call with Yoda to ask him, point blank, when he planned to retire. I also set up a call with the program director and a fourth year student to ask about the ability to chase research rabbits in an area outside current faculty expertise (I wanted both sides of the story).

The results: Yoda and his wife plan to be there for at least 10 more years. He was not offended by my inquiry, was glad to hear how thoroughly I was thinking through the decision, and added:

“If you do decide to come here and are still in the program when I retire, you and I are going to need to have a SERIOUS discussion.”

~Yoda (not the real one)

The fourth year student assured me that, provided I could sufficiently ground my idea, I would be able to chase my mental rabbits. The program director echoed that sentiment and follow-up our call with an email of 8 recent dissertations outside the primary research areas of existing faculty.

The Choice

I took all of the above information and some other factors I haven’t discussed here and went through everything one more time. I made a tentative decision and decided to sleep on it. The next day, I woke up calm and was ready to declare the choice made.

FEAR THE SPEAR, BABY!

I would become an Indian.

In the end, the presence of Yoda, quality of life, challenge, and professional development swayed the decision. As much fun as it would have been to pack up and move across the country, I could not ignore the opportunity to learn from Yoda. On top of that, I realized what quality of life meant to me when I walked out of Fresh Market at the end of the decision process. I am sort of a food snob. I went home and Googled “Stillwater groceries”. Here are the top results:

1. Wal-Mart Supercenter

2. IGA

3. Git ‘n Galup

Yes, the third name in the list is the convenience store attached to a Texaco station. Probably not going to find quality sushi and fresh cuts of beef there.

Further pushing the needle to FSU was the caliber of the current students. I just felt I would be pushed harder there. The culture is the opposite of competitive, but even working with stronger people I know I will get better. The final straw was a reminder (from the fourth year student) of FSU’s professional development commitment. Research productivity is king, but the faculty there know that there are some little things that go a long way to creating success in a first job. So, they spend a lot of time making sure their graduates have more than the makings of a research program when they get hooded. As the fourth year put it,

“Socialization to academia can be difficult. FSU goes above and beyond making sure that we are ready to make the transition”.

Epilogue

I really can’t believe that this part of the process is over. At times over the past four months, it’s felt almost like chasing the sun as it sets on the horizon. I couldn’t imagine what I would feel like. It’s early yet, and I’ll revisit this again when things are settled, but for now I feel a great source of confidence. Some predicted relief, but it’s not really like that. Through the stress, I was able to see that God had given me the freedom to choose and that He would bless me wherever I wound up. Once I made that realization, I had the sense of relief I needed. Now, I just feel confident in my decision and am ready for the next part of the journey.

To that end, there is much more to be told in this story. Thanks to all of you for being a part of it up to now; I hope you’ll continue to keep following, because I don’t plan to stop writing any time soon.

III

So close, but…

I made a decision. Then, I talked myself out of my decision and did a 180. After a week of discussions, email exchanges, phone calls, prayer, and hand wringing, I made a different decision. Another 180. Right back to where I started. I sent an email to one of my mentors, summarizing my thoughts on each program and my pending decision. Then, everything really changed and now I’m sort of on hold.That’s the short version. If you’re into details, read on.

***

At the conclusion of all of my visits, I had a virtual tie between two programs. I was really leaning one way, but then started rationalizing and second-guessing and I changed my mind. At that point, I had enough explanation behind the decision to take it to my inner circle of advisors for outside comment. Their task was simple: listen to what I say and don’t say about where I am going and poke holes in it; challenge me based on what you know about me and what I’m setting out to do. So, they did.

This crew of five come from a variety of perspectives, including how they know me and what phases of my life they’ve been witness to. I can’t thank them enough for their place in this process. What I love most about this group is that they don’t hold back. They called me on every point they should have and were patient with me as a slogged through reasoning and gut feeling, followed up with more due diligence, and came out on the other side with yet another answer.

So, on Thursday evening I had my decision finalized. I sent one of my mentors a summary email with my program rankings and went to bed. The plan was to sit on the decision over the weekend, and pull the trigger on Monday or Tuesday, depending on how I felt.

At 3:30 AM, I woke up. It happens a lot, especially when something is on my mind. I’ll typically think for a bit, surf the internet on the iPhone, and work my way back to sleep. Unfortunately, when I picked up the phone this time I saw an email from aforementioned mentor. Turns out she was in the Crown Room of the Tokyo airport, en route to Singapore, with cell phone data service. Just my luck. Why? Because while I ranked the schools 1, 2, 3, and 4 she came back with “No, no, no. It’s 2, 3, 1, and 4.” That was not what I was counting on.

In addition to her reasoning, she suggested I speak to another faculty member at one institution before I finalized a decision and that I check in with another program before I committed to anything. That program was Texas A&M. They’ve been pretty high on my list from the beginning and it would be an honor to be considered for a spot there. Mentor (and several others) have insisted from the beginning that it was a great fit for me, even when I was higher on Michigan, Northwestern, and Chapel Hill. I’d been in contact with the director at A&M and received the following information:

Nice to hear from you.

We did make some initial offers already, but the process is far from over.

You are definitely one of those folks that caught the eye of our doctoral program committee.

I’ll let you know as soon as possible if we move in the direction of an interview/offer for you.

Take care,

While I had not been officially “wait-listed”, I got the feeling I had been virtually wait-listed. So, I conceded that my globe-trotting mentor was at least right about A&M and decided to reach out again before making the decision final. Crafting the email was a little stressful. I didn’t want to be “that guy” that pestered his way out of contention, but I needed to know where I stood. The clock was ticking on other offers. My email to the A&M director went out just after lunch on Friday. Then, I contacted the director of another program, letting him know my time line. I contacted the director of my (current) top choice to address some of the concerns that my mentor raised and to confirm some of my perceptions. I reached out to another faculty member at another school to ask him to objectively weigh in. I emailed a 4th year doctoral student. So much for my relaxing Friday.

I’ll spare you all the details of the various dialogues and cut to the chase. My last-minute surge of data gathering confirmed my choice of the current offers, but it also potentially placed Texas A&M squarely in the mix. A&M has two spots open in my dissertation area for this year. Two offers have been made. One has been accepted. The open offer is supposed to make a decision early this week. A&M has not said how many people would be competing for the spot, should it be declined; however, they have indicated that I am in the running for it. Given that time was running out on my other offers, this was a potential source of stress, except…

Apparently, there is a Council of Graduate schools that covers 95% of all doctoral granting institutions in the United States. All of my offering schools are members. Technically, this means that they have all agreed to a resolution that states they will not require a student to accept or decline an offer prior to April 15th. The intent is to allow candidates to entertain multiple offers without the added pressure of one institution attempting to secure an early decision with a little extra cash.

I like this resolution, but I also understand how it can hurt the second tier programs. Big 10, Ivy League schools, A&M, and Chapel Hill are going to get the top candidates, no matter what. The latent demand for spots there is incredible. After that tier, you have a whole lot of really good state schools that are now competing for top talent (that doesn’t get one for the handful of spots in the big leagues). So, it’s their rational goal to lock up their favorite candidates as soon as possible. Otherwise, should a top candidate string them along (even if they’re honest about it) and decline at the last minute, the remaining talent pool is likely to be far weaker, as a lot of the “left-over” top students could have accepted offers elsewhere during the process. Given that incoming cohorts range in size from two to four students, the change in the make-up of a class could vary wildly for these schools.

Given this knowledge, I plan to inform my top school that I am ready to decline all offers except theirs, but I am not ready to accept their offer until I see how things progress with A&M. If pushed, I have the resolution card to play, but that’s not my preferred method of starting the relationship with that school, should I not end up at A&M. If the conversation goes well, I will inform the remaining schools that I am declining their offer so that they can move on. If it doesn’t go well, I suppose my stress level will begin to rise. Again.

III

Auburn Vist Re-Cap

This post should have come before the Offers piece, but such has been my world of late. The day after my Georgia State interviews, I woke up early and headed down to the Plains to see my alma mater, see one of my favorite professors of all time, and see if Auburn would be a good fit for doctoral work.

LOCATION

As is the case with Atlanta and Georgia State, I am equally familiar with Auburn. Campus and the surrounding town have changed a lot in the past 9 years, but I can still find my way around and the familiarity of being there provides a nice sense of peace. Most of my favorite restaurants are there (and I managed to eat a pre-interview breakfast at one), and the people just could not be any more friendly. Spending another 4 years at Auburn would be akin to slipping on a favorite old pair of jeans. It just feels comfortable.

FACULTY

One of my favorite professors of all time, and the one who started my down the academic journey in the direction of management, is the department head at Auburn. I began the day with her and am thankful to them for allowing me to set the tone for the day by warming up with her. She gave me a little run-down on the folks I’d be meeting and we discussed some particulars of the program.

The rest of the faculty meetings really bounced back and forth between average and very good. The pair of professors that took me to lunch made me feel completely at home. We ate at 11:00 AM, by the way. These two are in their late 60s and are a riot. One of them wears a long sleeve t-shirt, shorts, and hiking shoes every day. Tenure is a wonderful thing.

As great as they were, some of the others were the opposite. One was in a hurry to get to a meeting and just grilled me with rapid fire questions with a very aggressive and somewhat condescending tone. Another tried to seem interested, but might suffer from an enthusiasm deficiency. But, as soon as I would get discouraged by meetings like these, the pendulum would swing to the other side and I would have a great discussion with another pair about research topics and get great advice on beginning the academic journey.

Overall, there are several faculty there who could make good research partners and mentors and there is a healthy mix of tenured and and younger folks in the mix. Also, the tenured folks seem to still be aggressively pursuing research projects. The faculty, as a whole, seem very productive.

 

STUDENTS

My student meetings were almost as mixed as their faculty counterparts. My first set included four candidates in their first and second years and this group made me feel extremely welcomed and energized about getting into a program and forming some bonds with aspiring academics. But, as good as that group was, the second set was quite the opposite. Three of the four in this second group were reserved and not forth-coming. I had to work to get them to open up and only one of them seemed genuinely interested in whether I would end up at Auburn and committed to providing me insightful information to aid in my decision-making process.

 

PROGRAM

Auburn’s program is very entrepreneurial in nature. Students are not assigned to a faculty member for research purposes. Instead, they are expected to seek out faculty members working on topics that interest them. Also, students are expected to generate research ideas, bring them to faculty, and get help developing appropriate methodology and finding related literature. This approach allows students to pursue the topics they are most passionate about and creates an environment where the bold are more likely to succeed. On the downside, the lack of assigned partnerships could create a scenario where a student is not exposed to a variety of topics and methodologies in an applied setting.

Another unique feature of Auburn’s program is the elimination of traditional comprehensive exams. For those of you unfamiliar with doctoral education, these exams typically come during the summer after the second year when students are finished with course work. They cover everything, and I mean everything, about the field, usually last for two full 8-hour days, are essay based, and allow no reference material. It’s been described to me as the worst thing I will ever go through and already has my stomach in knots. It is not uncommon for preparation for these exams to begin months in advance of the test dates.

Several years ago, Auburn faculty realized that their candidates were virtually worthless for six weeks after exams while trying to clear their heads from the comp experience. Combine that with six to eight weeks of preparation time and you get a total of two to three months of lost research time. This dead period was impacting the number of projects students were getting into publication and ultimately hurting graduates as they entered the job market. So, the Auburn faculty replaced the two test days with two empirical research papers. Each candidate would select two faculty members, develop a research topic, collect data, and generate an article suitable for publication. The faculty would act as guides and as primary reviewers, before the articles were sent to journals. There were three goals is mind. 1) Eliminate the dead period caused by comps with activities equivalent in rigor but more applicable to the life of a researcher. 2) Give the student the opportunity to work on a few papers that could lead into the dissertation, creating  a “head start” of sorts. 3) Provide the opportunity for the students to have increased opportunities for publication prior to graduation, ultimately making them more competitive when they enter the job market.

I’ve researched almost 30 programs during this process and have yet to find any other institution that has adopted this policy. I know that there is some benefit to traditional comps – the knowledge base developed by the intense study of the foundational literature in the field – but I really like the idea of being dedicated to constant productivity over  tradition and ritual. In some ways, it seems that comps have become more like hazing and similar rites of passage for fraternities and other groups.

SUMMARY

The comfort of the town and the institution are very attractive, as is the ability to chase my own ideas. The papers for comps approach is clearly a distinguishing factor. But, the mix of faculty and student vibes I received make it far form a slam dunk. Plus, knowing that I would like to have the option of becoming Auburn faculty one day means that I’m better suited to go elsewhere for doctoral studies. Thus, Auburn will need to be a clear favorite during the review process for me to forgo the opportunity to return to the Plains immediately after graduation.

III