Following is a summary of Graduate School requirements that PhD students must meet before the Office of Graduate Programs may approve their graduation. Please use this as a guide for advising your students and provide a copy of it to students when they pass their Comprehensive Examination. The Graduate School sends copies to the students with the congratulatory candidacy letter. For more detailed information on these and other requirements, please refer to the Graduate Degree Programs Bulletin.
--Residency requirement. After passing the doctoral candidacy examination, students must be registered full time for two semesters in a twelve-month period. This may include the semester of candidacy examination if it is taken during spring or fall.
--A candidate for the PhD must have satisfied the departmental communication and foreign language requirement (if applicable) before taking the comprehensive examination.
--Three or more months must have elapsed between the passing of the comprehensive examination and scheduling of the final oral examination.
--The final oral examination must be held within six years of the date the comprehensive examination was passed. If more than six years have passed, a second comprehensive examination must be given before scheduling the final oral examination.
--Continuous registration requirement. Students must be registered continuously each semester (excluding summers, but see below*) beginning with the semester following the passing of the comprehensive examination and continuing each semester until the final oral examination is passed.
--Time limitations. All requirements including submission of the thesis must be completed within eight years of the candidacy date.
--*Students MUST be registered the semester of candidacy examination, comprehensive examination and the final oral examination -- even if taken during summer session.
--No missing or deferred grades can appear on a student's transcript when the oral comprehensive examination or the final oral examination is scheduled.
--Students must have at least a 3.0 grade point average to schedule an oral comprehensive examination or final oral examination and to graduate.
--No more than 12 credits of thesis research (600/610) may be assigned a quality letter grade. Any credits over this maximum must be changed to 'R' before a student will be permitted to graduate.
THESE ARE GRADUATE SCHOOL REQUIREMENTS ONLY AND DO NOT INCLUDE SPECIFIC PROGRAM/DEPARTMENT REQUIREMENTS
