After passing the technical portion of the Qualifying Exam and demonstrating English proficiency, you should apply to the Graduate School for Admission to PhD Candidacy and request that a supervising committee be appointed by the Graduate Dean. You MUST be admitted to candidacy before you can register for Dissertation. The Application for Doctoral Candidacy is now completed on the Graduate School's website. The application for candidacy should be submitted as early as possible after passing the Qualifying Exam (before completion of the course work).
When most of your course work is completed and you have been admitted to PhD candidacy, you should arrange to take the Mastery of the Major (Comprehensive) Exam which is administered by your supervising committee. This exam is usually taken early in the second year of residence in the PhD program.
Doctoral Committee
Below is the process for advancing to candidacy to be discussed with your supervisor.
The Advancing to Candidacy application can be found at https://gradschool.utexas.edu/academics/theses-and-dissertations/doctoral-candidacy
You will need to select a committee of 4:
Students must consult with his/her supervisor for additional area specific requirements but the department has the following general expectations of a PhD Committee:
· Your GSC supervisor and at least two CE Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) members,
· At least one member from outside of CE GSC (can be from another UT department or another university). This member can be either from within UT or outside of UT.
Anyone outside of UT must submit a CV.
All members must have a PhD.
Once you are in candidacy you will need to take Dissertation until you defend and graduate.
If you have an external (non-UT) committee member you will need to get their CV. Keep this handy since a Graduate School Degree Evaluator will email us asking for this document to approve your application.
Changes to PhD Committee
Changes to committee membership require special approval, so students should be certain the membership is complete and correct before initiating the application.