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An ECE PhD student is expected to advance to doctoral candidacy within one year after attempting and/or completing 33 or more credit hours of coursework within the Graduate Program, excluding approved leaves of absence. The accumulation of attempted or completed credit hours includes individual instruction courses like Research Problems. The first semester after you attempt or complete 33 or more credit begins the year in which you're expected to complete the steps listed below. Advancing to doctoral candidacy should be done as soon as a general research area and topic have been identified. You are not considered a PhD candidate until you have advanced to candidacy officially.
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Your candidacy and PhD dissertation will be overseen by the same committee of faculty members. This committee will consist of five or six members, including the supervisor(s) and other members from within as well as external to the ECE GSC as described HERE. The process of forming this committee and approval of the committee is comprised of several steps listed below, and can often take more than a month to complete.
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