PhD Comprehensive Exam guidelines:

Each student's Ph.D. committee will be in charge of the Comprehensive Examination for the student.

The student shall submit to her/his Ph.D. committee at least one paper published in a peer-reviewed and refereed journal or conference (or an official letter or e-mail showing the acceptance of such a paper) in an area not necessarily the same as the dissertation. The student must be the sole author or the principal author of the paper. The results will be presented for a period of 30 to 45 minutes. The Dissertation Committee will judge the results of the paper as well as the quality of the targeted journal or conference.

The comprehensive examination is a public event and it must be announced at least five days before it is held.

The result of the Comprehensive Examination will be a "pass" or a "fail" .

The student will have two chances to pass the Comprehensive Examination.

C. The Ph.D. student will conduct, or continue to conduct, her/his dissertation research and present a prospectus/proposal. Officially, this constitutes the Qualifying Examination (as required by the Graduate College).

D. The Ph.D. candidate will defend her/his dissertation. The timing constraints of the Graduate College apply.

The oral presentations in part C. and D. are open to the public, and will be announced to the faculty, all graduate students and to the general public.