What’s harder: writing a senior thesis or growing a nice beard?
Since early February, seniors Will Harrel (whom you might know as the guy who put President Shirley Tilghman in a snuggie) and Daniel Song have been on a mission to chronicle the day-to-day progress of their senior independent work and their facial hair with ThesisBeard.com. As we speak, they are on Day 19.
No sleep, no shave, until it’s done.
I’ll be following these two around and checking in with them periodically for a Princeton Alumni Weekly video project on Seniors and their Theses Rituals (btw, hit me up if you have a tip of your own!), but here’s a quick preview profile of the men of the Bearded Thesis:
Name: Daniel Song ’13
Major: Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
Thesis: How tribalism in Kenya shapes the way people view HIV/AIDS.
Facial Hair Problem Areas: Mustache won’t ever connect to chin beard. Also, his girlfriend, who says she is “neutral” on the beard, can’t help but cringe near it.
Thesis Problem Areas: Almost losing all his audio transcripts (thank god for backups!)
Longest Previous Record For Not Shaving: Several weeks during his time in Kenya.
Name: Will Harrel ’13
Major: Operations Research and Financial Engineering
Thesis: Game theory analysis of unanimous verdicts in 12-person jury trials.
Facial Hair Problem Areas: Mustache also won’t connect to beard. Gazing longingly at the razor.
Thesis Problem areas: Overnight coding turned up no solution! Oh no!
Longest Record for Not Shaving: Two weeks, so he’s now headed into unseen territory.
Good luck, guys!
If you or your senior friends are doing interesting theses (or interesting things in lieu of your thesis) and would like to be featured in a Princeton Alumni Weekly video, please email Vivienne Chen at vc[at]princeton.edu
Savannah Hankinson ’13 as Salvador Dali
Marjorie Crowell ’12 and Ashley Wenke, Rutgers