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.
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Required Coursework
All doctoral students must register for Beginning Fall 2023, registration in two semesters of EDP 395R Qualifying Process Research before the end of the semester in which they students 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.will now vary depending on which program you are in. Doctoral students should check with their advisor to see what their particular program requires. Some programs may still require 6 hours of EDP 395R, while others may require only 3 hours, or none. Summer registration in EDP 395R 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).
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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.
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Purpose of the Qualifying Process
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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:
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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.
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The schedule for submission of the qualifying document through oral examination:
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Qualifying Written Examination (Legacy QP only): To be held on Friday of the fifth full week of classes.Qualifying Oral Examination (
Qualifying Oral Examination (QM or Legacy QP only): To be held by Wednesday of the eighth full week of the semester.
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Students who are beginning the qualifying process are required to work with their qualifying adviser to complete the Qualifying Process Student/Faculty Adviser Agreement. After completion, the student is to upload a copy of the signed Agreement to his/her UTBox Program of Work folder.
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Students needing assistance with research design and quantitative methods should read appropriate texts and seek free consultation from the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences. One hour of consulting per week is provided free of charge to UT students who need (SDS). UT Austin graduate students are eligible to sign up for a free 30-minute consultation with a SDS faculty member for assistance with experimental design, survey design, model design, or data analysis. An additional follow-up appointment may be arranged depending on appointment availability.
Qualifying process advisers agree to be available, in the final two weeks before the document is due, to read and give final feedback if the student requests it. Students who have made little or no effort to seek adviser consultation in the two semesters of 395R may not expect more time than one hour per week during the two weeks before the document is due.
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- Legacy Qualifying Process: The Legacy QP examination is composed of three parts: qualifying document, written examination, oral examination.
- New Qualifying Process: For CP, HDCLS, and SP students, the New QP examination is composed of the qualifying document and a non-evaluative oral presentation. For QM students, the New QP examination will also include an oral examination (see program-specific QM requirements).
Students who matriculated into the PhD program in Fall 2021 or after must take the new qualifying process.
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Developing the qualifying document encompasses a process and a product. That is, it involves the acquisition of knowledge and skills as well as the reporting of them. Acceptability, therefore, is a matter of whether the student has gained a sufficient degree of mastery of the subject and whether the reporting of the results of these intellectual activities is adequately done. Along with a copy of the document, each member of the qualifying process evaluation committee receives an evaluation data sheet upon which he/she will independently rate the acceptability of the document.
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For QM students taking the New QP, please see the program-specific requirements for the oral exam.
Oral Presentations (New QP Only)
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The qualifying process committee members use Rubrics and the Qualifying Process Ratings Report to evaluate students’ documents and examinations.
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Evaluation committees’ recommendations are presented to the GSC for discussion and voting. The GSC members take into consideration the committee's recommendation as well as the student's academic record in making a final decision. Final decisions are made by majority vote of the GSC for each student. It is the responsibility of the student’s qualifying process adviser to convey this decision to the student at the earliest opportunity. Notification will also be sent directly to the student regarding the GSC’s decision.
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Program-Specific
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Processes
Counseling Psychology Qualifying Process
General
Qualifying process completion enables students to 1) file for doctoral candidacy, and 2) begin to make arrangements for the dissertation proposal meeting, which thereby affects eligibility for internship. Counseling Psychology students are encouraged to plan ahead and to consult with their advisers in deciding the timing to the qualifying process. For example, a student who submits and passes the qualifying process and the necessary coursework during the 6th semester (spring of the 3rd year) will advance to candidacy that summer, or the following academic session/semester. When planning, bear in mind that most faculty are on 9-month appointments. Faculty on 9-month appointments are not obligated to review materials over summer. Therefore, a tight timeline leaves little time to have a dissertation proposal meeting occur before October 1st of that year, which is a program requirement for applying to internship.
Assignment of Adviser
Students should contact their faculty adviser no later than their 4th semester to begin the process. The CP program expects that a student’s program adviser will also be the student's qualifying process adviser. If for any reason a student wants a different qualifying process adviser, they should begin by notifying their program adviser. Students will then need to petition the CP faculty to be allowed a different adviser, whether this is another CP faculty member or a faculty member outside the program. Prior to petitioning the CP faculty, the student should have contacted the potential adviser and solicited their agreement to chair the qualifying process pending CP faculty approval.
Document
The qualifying document details the completion of a research project. The study should represent a contribution to the literature and be well-designed. There are no specific requirements for analytic method, etc., but the QP document must be a contribution to whatever area of work in which it is based.
The student must submit for examination a document comparable to a scholarly work in the field. The options are:
- A document that includes an integrative review of the literature and a proposal for a study that addresses an important issue arising from the review of literature; or
- An article describing a research study on which the student is the first author and which is written under the supervision of a UT-Austin Educational Psychology faculty member.
Regardless of the option chosen, the manuscript is expected to be of sufficient quality to be able to be submitted to a respectable journal. Please note that students should not see completion of option 1 (the review) as the “easier” option. In most cases, a publishable review will be more difficult and time-consuming than an original research project.
Process for Students not Passing on Their First Try
Students who are not on probation will be given another opportunity to go through the qualifying process (either one semester or one year later). For students on probation, the default decision following a non-pass of the QP will be termination from the program. The student may submit a written summary to the CP faculty if the student wishes to have another attempt at the QP before termination. This summary is to be submitted prior to the GSC meeting following the QP decision, and will be reviewed by faculty. Termination may include an option to earn a Master's degree, or no option to earn a Master's degree, and this decision will also be made by the GSC.
HDCLS Qualifying Process
Assignment of Adviser
No later than their 4th semester, students must contact the faculty member they want as their adviser. If that person agrees, the student must then report the choice to the HDCLS Chair by completing and turning in the "Verification of Selection of Qualifying Process Adviser" form (signed by the student and the proposed adviser). The qualifying process adviser will be approved by HDCLS faculty. Choosing an outside area/program qualifying process adviser is an option with the approval of the HDCLS Chair and the intended outside area/program adviser.
Document
The student must submit for examination a high quality document that demonstrates that the student is prepared to advance to candidacy (see Purpose).
The document can take one of two forms:
- Legacy QP version, consisting of an integrative review of the literature to serve as rationale for a study and a detailed description of how one would undertake the study (note that quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, and meta-analysis are all possible methodologies for the proposed study).
- New QP version, a completed study that adds to the integrative review of the literature and description of study methods an actual report of findings and final discussion.
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Assignment of Adviser
Students should discuss qualifying process adviser selection with the QM Chair as early as their 2nd semester and no later than the end of their 4th semester. The qualifying process adviser is to be assigned by QM faculty. QM qualifying process students will submit to the QM Chair a ranked list of their top three QM faculty member choices for qualifying process adviser by the last class day of the semester before they begin the qualifying process. QM faculty will meet every semester to assign qualifying process advisers. Decisions will be based on student’s ranked list of preferred advisers, match of faculty’s expertise with the student’s interests, and faculty advising workload. Adviser assignments will be given to students before the start of the semester in which they are beginning the qualifying process.
Document
The student must submit for examination a document comparable to a scholarly work in the field. The research proposed in a QM student’s qualifying document should contribute to an existing line of inquiry in the field of quantitative methods. Assessment of the document will include consideration of the feasibility of the proposed study.
Students will design and carry out a simulation study and develop the QP document to align approximately with standards for publication in an academic journal. Depending upon the complexity and computational demands of the simulation study, partial completion of the study is acceptable (i.e., most of the simulations should be completed at the time the document is submitted such that the main research questions can be discussed). The document should not be longer than 40 pages (double-spaced, 12pt font) in length (inclusive of Tables, Figures, References, Titles, and Abstract of 200-250 words).
Oral Exam
The purpose of the oral exam is to assess student’s ability to clearly articulate and describe their research study. The student must be able to defend their rationale for specific approaches.
Oral exam time and location will be scheduled by the QP advisor. The oral exam should take no longer than 1 ½ hours total, including committee discussion. For the oral exam, students will have to prepare a 12-minute presentation highlighting their QP simulation study, including introduction/literature review, method, results, and discussion sections.
At the beginning of the oral exam, students will be asked to step out while committee members discuss performance on the QD. Once the student returns to the meeting, they will present their 12-minute QP presentation. Committee members may ask questions during the presentation or after it is completed. Questions during the oral exam will be directly related to the QD, but they can also be related to relevant topics covered in the student’s coursework.
Once the oral exam is over, the student will be asked to step out again while committee members discuss performance during the oral exam and decide whether or not the student passed or failed the QP.
The QP advisor will then meet with the student to inform them of the committee’s decision. It is important to note that the committee’s decision is not confirmed until the GSC officially votes on the decision.
Rubric for Evaluating the Oral Exam:
- presentation is organized
- clearly presents elements from the QD
- student responses are related to the questions asked
- student responses are informative to the questions asked
- student responses exhibit satisfactory knowledge in the subject area
- clearly communicates rationale for specific approaches
School Psychology Qualifying Process
SP Students who matriculated (entered) into the PhD program before Fall 2021 can choose between two options:
Legacy Qualifying Process: The Legacy QP examination is composed of three parts: qualifying document, written examination, oral examination–see above for description.
New Qualifying Process: the New QP examination is composed of the qualifying document and a non-evaluative oral presentation.
SP Students who matriculated into the PhD program in Fall 2021 or after must take the new qualifying process.
Qualifying process completion enables SP students to 1) file for doctoral candidacy, and 2) begin to make arrangements for the dissertation proposal meeting, which thereby affects eligibility for pre-doctoral internship. School Psychology students are encouraged to plan ahead and to consult with their advisers in deciding the timing to the qualifying process. For example, a student who submits and passes the qualifying process and the necessary coursework during the 6th semester (spring of the 3rd year) will advance to candidacy that summer, or the following academic session/semester. When planning, bear in mind that most faculty are on 9-month appointments. Faculty on 9-month appointments are not obligated to review materials over summer. Therefore, a tight timeline leaves little time to have a dissertation proposal meeting occur before October 15th of that year, which is a program requirement for applying to internship.
Assignment of Adviser
In most cases, the QP advisor will be the SP student’s primary research mentor and program advisor. The qualifying process adviser will be formally designated by the School Psychology faculty by the end of the student’s third semester. An outside area/program committee qualifying process adviser is an option with the approval of the School Psychology faculty and the intended outside area/program adviser.
Document
The student must submit for examination a high quality document that demonstrates that the student is prepared to advance to candidacy (see Purpose).
The document can take one of two forms:
- Legacy QP version, consisting of an integrative review of the literature to serve as rationale for a study and a detailed description of how one would undertake the study (note that quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, and meta-analysis are all possible methodologies for the proposed study)--this is an option only for students who matriculated before Fall 2021.
- New QP version (required of all students who matriculated Fall of 2021 or after), a completed study written as a research article that follows the most up-to-date version of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The Qualifying Document (excluding references, tables, and figures) has a maximum of 50 pages. The document should be prepared as though it will be submitted to a respectable journal within the scholarly area on which it focuses, but may not be an already published manuscript.
The study should represent a contribution to the literature and be well-designed. There are no specific requirements for analytic method, etc., but the QP document must be a contribution to whatever area of work in which it is based.