Advancing to Candidacy

When most of your course work is completed and you have been admitted to PhD candidacy, you should arrange to take the Comprehensive Exam which is administered by your supervising committee. Please consult with your supervising professor to schedule your comprehensive exam, so that you can discuss your dissertation research proposal with your dissertation research proposal. This exam is usually taken early in the second year of 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.

All members must have a PhD.

If you have an external (non-UT) outside committee member you will need to provide their CV (include your UT EID) to the Graduate School at Grad Student Services <GradStudentSvcs@austin.utexas.edu>

Registration requirement: After you have advanced to candidacy you are required to maintain registration in CE X99W DISSERTATION each fall and spring semester until graduation.  Registration in CE X99W is required in the final semester. 

The next step is Comprehensive Exam.

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.