Qualifying for doctoral candidacy is a multi-faceted process. Required core area courses are an integral part of the qualifying process, as is the other coursework you have completed, your annual student review, and any requirements your area of specialization may have.
 

Required Coursework

All doctoral students must register for two semesters of EDP 395R Qualifying Process Research before the end of the semester in which they go through the qualifying process. Summer registration is contingent on approval of the qualifying process adviser and the adviser’s ability to supervise the student’s work during the summer.

Students must have successfully completed at least 5 of the 6 required foundation courses during the semester prior to the semester in which they go through the qualifying process. With supervisor permission, the 6th foundation course may be completed during the same semester the student is going through the qualifying process. Careful planning is required to get these courses completed on time, and it is recommended these courses be taken as soon as possible (summer offerings are not guaranteed). 

Once the date for turning in the qualifying document has been officially determined, it cannot be moved to a subsequent semester. If the deadline is not met, this usually constitutes a failure in the process. For this reason, students sometimes officially choose to turn in the qualifying document one semester later than the one in which they actually hope to turn it in - just in case a courseload causes a problem in completion of the core area courses, etc. If no problem arises (and if all other requirements will be met on time) the student can, with approval of the qualifying process adviser, turn in the document a semester early. To do so, the adviser must email approval to the Graduate Coordinator with enough advance notice for the student to be sent the new deadline information and to be able to meet the deadlines.

Qualifying Process

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In accordance with the Department’s timeline, faculty will meet to determine the two remaining committee members. Usually, one member will be from the student’s area and the other member will be from another area. Such decisions will be made based on the student's qualifying document topic summary, and members will be assigned based on their expertise with respect to the student’s topic and faculty workload considerations. You should send your up-to-date Program of Work to your committee members so they know which courses you have completed and with what level of competency.

Purpose of the Qualifying Process

The purpose of the qualifying process and the examination is to allow students to demonstrate readiness to advance to candidacy. The examination is one part of a comprehensive evaluation. Readiness to advance to candidacy involves that the student demonstrates the following:  

1. base of knowledge relating to a specific field,
2. ability to integrate prior literature and synthesize it to generate new ideas,
3. can design a study based on their research question, using methods appropriate to the research question,
4. understands how to conduct analyses, aligned with their research question and their method,
5. situates their study back into the broader literature, showing sufficient understanding of the implications as well as the limitations,
6. can draw upon prior knowledge to reason through questions, even where there is no clear answer.

Note: For the qualifying document, there are no automatically unacceptable methodologies. It is the QP advisor’s responsibility to ensure that the research design and analytic method is appropriate to their field, but it is the student’s responsibility to convey the appropriateness in the document. Students are not required to know analytical methods from courses they have not yet taken, but are expected to adequately describe or explain any methods that they include in their document. 

Timing of the Qualifying Process

In line with the department requirements for the qualifying process, students will produce a qualifying document (and have an oral exam and a written exam, if they opted for the Legacy QP) and be evaluated no later than their 7th semester. 

(On very rare occasions and due to extreme circumstances, a petition for an extension of any part of the QP process may be granted if it is approved by the GSC Executive Committee with the support of the area of specialization and the Graduate Adviser.) 

Students must have completed the qualifying process in time to be evaluated at the regularly scheduled fall or spring GSC meetings.

Once the date for turning in the qualifying document has been officially determined, it cannot be moved to a subsequent semester. For this reason, students sometimes officially choose to turn in the qualifying document one semester later than the one in which they actually hope to turn it in - just in case a courseload causes a problem in completion of the core area courses, etc. If no problem arises (and if all other requirements will be met on time) the student can, with approval of the qualifying process adviser, turn in the document a semester early. To do so, the adviser must email approval to the Graduate Coordinator with enough advance notice for the student to be sent the new deadline information and to be able to meet the deadlines.

The schedule for submission of the qualifying document through oral examination:

Title & Summaries Due Date: First non-holiday Tuesday of January for class day in January of the spring semester and Tuesday of the week prior to the beginning of classes first class day in August for the fall semester. The summary is a 115-word (including data analytic method) statement about what your document will be about, just enough to give committee members a good idea of what you’re doing.

Qualifying Document Due Date: Monday of the second fourth full week of the semester in which the qualifying document is due. 

Qualifying Written Examination (for those areas and programs requiring a written examLegacy QP only): To be held on Friday of the third fifth full week of classes.

Qualifying Oral Examination (QM or Legacy QP only): To be held by Wednesday of the sixth eighth full week of the semester.

Evaluation Committee Report and Recommendation: To be delivered by the qualifying process adviser to the Graduate Adviser's office immediately following the oral examination (if Legacy version) or after the committee has reviewed the document. The student will be informed of the recommendation after the oral exam, but it is not final until the GSC vote.

GSC Vote: The Report and Recommendation of the evaluation committee is presented and acted on by the GSC on Friday of the sixth eighth full week of the semester.

QP Advisor

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Advisement Guidelines

During the two semesters of 395R: Qualifying Process Research registration, the qualifying process adviser should assist the student with the basic tasks involved in preparing the document. The adviser will guide the student by providing general information and criticism, including selecting a suitable topic, sampling the pertinent literature, and preparing a proper review. When the initial work is complete, the qualifying process adviser’s role will change to helping the student to analyze issues and problems and to develop an appropriate research study derived from this knowledge base.

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