Guidelines Toward the Completion of Your Doctoral Degree

To remain a student in good standing in the PhD program, you are expected to fulfill, in each year, the following requirements. Failure to fulfill any of these requirements may result in your termination from the program.

Academic year one:

• 18 hours of course work, including 5325, Research Design and Research
  Methods
• Research assistantships with particular faculty members

Academic year two:

• 18 hours of course work, including a section of PSC 5396,
  Teaching Political Science
• Teaching apprenticeships during both semesters
• MA comprehensive exam in April of second year, or MA thesis defense in the
  spring of second year
• During summer session one and two, complete six hours of course work,
  including completion of language requirements if appropriate

Academic year three:

• 18 hours of course work
• Teaching apprenticeships during both semesters
• Completion of professional paper.
• Successful completion of comprehensive exams in major and minor fields in July, at the end of the third year.

Academic year four:

• Presentation of dissertation proposal by December. In conformity with the Department’s PhD Requirements, failure to defend a prospectus by the end of the fourth year (or by the end of the third year, in the case of students who have earned an MA degree before matriculating in the program) can result in a suspension of funding for the following fall, until such time as the prospectus is complete and defended, or termination of continuation in the PhD program.
• Teaching an independent course or courses
• 6 hours of Dissertation Research

Academic year five:

• 6 hours of Dissertation Research
• Completion and defense of dissertation