This page was created to inform students and faculty on what and when is needed to successfully navigate our program’s major milestones. There are five important PhD milestones in the program after a student is admitted. These should be completed at the recommended times to avoid delays in completing the PhD. This summarizes what is documented in the graduate program manual available on the UGS website and presented to students during orientation. If you have questions or suggestions, please contact the GPD.
(D0) Written Part of PhD Exam: Passing the written part of the PhD qualifying exam is the first important program milestone that all PhD students need to complete before the start of the 3rd year in the program. The exam is administered in late August, the Thursday and Friday before classes begin. More information is available in the exam pages on this site.
- When: The exams are administered on Thursday (Classical) and Friday (Modern) of the week before classes begin in the Fall term every year. Must pass both sections, the Classical and Modern sections, before the beginning of the third year.
- Step by Step procedure:
- Student: sits for the exams the week before classes begin usually the second to last week in August.
- Faulty: If the student has already selected an advisor, he/she communicates, privately, whether the student passed or failed the exam(s); otherwise, the GPD informs the student. The pass/fail threshold is determined by the entire faculty no later than the second Thursday of the fall semester. Grades or passing thresholds are NEVER released to anyone outside of the faculty. If the student has questions about the exam(s) they can contact the GPD.
- More information about the exam here
The rest of the Program Milestones are listed below. There is no D4, not sure what happened to it, before my time.