The comprehensive exam for this degree is given in your last term of enrollment. "Comps" consists of three broad essay questions to be answered in a four hour time frame on a Friday afternoon at a date to be determined each term. The questions are designed for you to "show off" your familiarity with community colleges. One question will be about community colleges in general. Another will focus on community college teaching. A third essay question will be on a facet of community college administration (if you are in that track) or a question from your particular academic discipline (if you are in one of the teaching tracks).

I also encourage you to bring a "wild card" question you would like to answer in case I give you an opportunity to bypass one of my questions. I can't guarantee that will always be the case, but it has happened in the past.

If you are in one of the teaching tracks, please contact one of your professors in your home discipline and see if he or she will give me a couple of questions ahead of time. I always like to, if possible, present you with some choices like "answer one of the following two questions." Also ask the person if he or she is willing to evaluate your response. Then give me the name of the person and I will take it from there.

The value of "comps" is your preparation in looking back over the journey. Revisit your textbooks and notes and come prepared to demonstrate your knowledge. The computer lab in the Smith Center is used to type your responses. Please bring printer paper and a disk so that you can leave me a hard copy and a disk copy of your answers.