Information about Degree Requirements

Below is more information on the various requirements for receiving your Ph.D. Official information can be found by consulting the Ph.D. section of the Graduate Course Catalog which can be found here. Detailed information begins in General Information-->Degree Information-->Doctor of Philosophy.

Degree Plan

The Degree Plan should be submitted around the beginning of your 5th semester. To submit it, you will need to have formed your committee. You will also need a list of the courses you have taken, the grades you received in those courses, and the courses you plan to take through your 10th semester.

Tips
• To become a Ph.D. candidate and, hence, to graduate, you cannot have any formal courses remaining on your degree plan. For example, if you're in your 8th semester, and you have formal coursework included on your degree plan for your 10th semester, you cannot become a Ph.D. candidate.
• Because of this, you CANNOT have a formal course on your degree plan in your final semester.
• ECON 685 (the student seminar) is considered a formal course. What some students do is replace 685 on their degree plan with 3 additional hours of ECON 691 for their final semester.

Oral Prelim

The oral preliminary exam must be held within a specific time frame. The soonest you can hold it is the first semester in which only six hours of formal coursework remain on your degree plan (for most Econ students, this will be in their 5th semester). The final date must be 14 weeks prior to your dissertation defense. The Department encourages students to take it as early as possible.

Your entire committee will attend your oral preliminary exam and will evaluate whether your progress is acceptable. Generally the format is a presentation of your research.

Tips
• The Oral Exam requires paperwork: The Checklist and the Results.
• The checklist must be completed before the exam and the Report should be available for your committee for after the exam.
• These must be received by OGS within 10 working days of exam date. (The Graduate Office Associate will copy and send them.)
• If you have more than 6 hours of formal coursework remaining on your degree plan (which includes ECON 685), you will need to obtain the Department Head's signature to waive the requirement (Item 7 of checklist).
• The Department does not require a written portion of the preliminary exam (Item 6 of checklist).

Dissertation Proposal

Dissertation Defense