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  Graduate School-New Brunswick 2017 Degree Requirements Doctor of Philosophy Admission to Candidacy: The Qualifying Examination  

Admission to Candidacy: The Qualifying Examination


The qualifying examination is given to determine whether a student has acquired sufficient mastery of the field of concentration to warrant admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. The exam should be taken as soon as a student has completed the major portion of the course requirements. It should be taken not later than four years after the student first registered in the Graduate School-New Brunswick and not later than two semesters before taking the final dissertation examination.

The qualifying examination, conducted by a committee of at least four faculty members,  may be written or oral or both. Three faculty members must be members of the student's graduate program (and the chair must be a member). The fourth faculty member may be either a member of the student's graduate program or an outside member. Once a student has fulfilled the language requirements, if any, and other relevant program requirements, and has passed the qualifying examination, he or she is admitted to candidacy for the doctoral degree. The student's program will certify the results of his or her language examination on the application for admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree. The student must obtain this application from the Office of the Graduate School or at http://gsnb.rutgers.edu/resources/graduate-student-forms and submit it to the chair of the committee at the time of the examination. It should be properly signed by the four members of the candidate's committee and the graduate director and then returned to the Office of the Graduate School.

Once a student has passed the examination, he or she must remain registered (for courses or research) as a full-time student or lose his or her status as a candidate. The official university definition of full-time enrollment for graduate students is 9 credits per semester. There are, of course, many occasions, for both curricular and individual reasons, when students will enroll for fewer than 9 credits yet be de facto full-time, in the sense that their principal activity is working toward completion of their degrees. Different offices have different policies regarding waiver of the 9 credit requirement. Housing will generally accept the word of the program director to the effect that a student is de facto full-time. The Offices of Financial Aid and the Registrar have less flexibility. The Center for Global Services has information for international graduate students. Please consult their website for more information: http://globalservices.rutgers.edu.

 
For additional information, contact RU-info at 732-932-info (4636) or colonelhenry.rutgers.edu.
Comments and corrections to: Campus Information Services.

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