Rogers says it is common for thesis writers to struggle with “the oft-stated perception that ‘I’m way behind all my friends who are writing their theses.’”

But sometimes, the fear is founded in truth.

While his friends lament, fellow Pudding actor Thomas P. Lowe ’05 says he does not share in their pain.

Anticipating the difficulty of writing while in the Pudding show, Lowe finished his thesis over Thanksgiving break.

“It’s been really nice,” Lowe says of the thesis process. “I’ve never been stressed at all about it.”

NEEDY THESES

Taking a toll on its writer, the senior thesis often comes at the expense of the personal relationships.

After a late start, Eli S. Rosenbaum ’05—a Government concentrator writing his thesis about congressional redistricting—all but moved into the Littauer Building, where the Government Department is housed.

“I hadn’t left the building during the whole snowstorm,” Rosenbaum says. “I was shocked to find snow on the ground.”

Rosenbaum says he worried his girlfriend would be jealous of his all-consuming relationship with his 193-page thesis.

“My girlfriend is going to break up with me,” Rosenbaum said, as he continued to write.

But Meghan E. Haggerty ’06, Rosenbaum’s girlfriend, insists that will not be the case.

“His thesis has made our relationship a lot better,” Haggerty says. “We’re not together all the time so there’s less room to get into little squabbles.”

Theses can also help foster new relationships.

Pertz—who wrote his thesis on the emergence of bluegrass music among Jews in New York City’s Washington Square Park from 1946 to 1961—says his thesis became such a central part of his life that he created a thefacebook.com account for his thesis, appropriately naming it “Josiah’s Thesis.”