English Graduate Exams

 

In the course of the third year of full-time study for those admitted to the program from the BA, or in the course of the second year of full-time study for those admitted to the program from the MA, students will begin to organize a faculty committee. The graduate student can talk with the Director of Graduate Studies for guidance on determining their areas of study and for discussion of possible committee members and chairs. The same committee will typically serve as both the student’s comprehensive exam committee and dissertation committee. The student will start forming their committee by finding a faculty member who agrees to chair their committee; then, the student will build the rest of their committee with the advisement of their chair. In addition to the chair, the committee will have at least three additional members (for a total of four faculty). Once all committee members have agreed to serve in this capacity, the committee chair will submit a Graduate Committee Request Form to the Graduate School via SOAR.

 

Once the committee has been finalized, the student will create two exam lists with the guidance of their committee, particularly their chair: a comprehensive field area/historical period list (approximately 40 texts, at least 10 of which must be secondary sources) and a dissertation area list (40 texts maximum). This second list should include literature, scholarship, and theory, and is intended to prepare the student to write the dissertation. The two lists should not duplicate material between them. Once the two lists are completed, all committee members should approve the lists. Students are responsible for reading all the material on these lists in preparation for the comprehensive oral exam. Once the student has completed reading these two lists, they will start to draft a dissertation prospectus. The student will draft and revise this prospectus with the feedback and guidance of their committee chair. This dissertation prospectus will be approximately ten to fifteen double-spaced pages long. The prospectus should include the planned dissertation’s central argument, its specific intervention into the field(s) of study, methodological or theoretical framework, and a brief discussion of individual chapters. Once the committee chair believes the student is prepared for the exam and the prospectus is ready to be defended, the committee chair will schedule the comprehensive exam/prospectus defense two-part event.

 

The PhD comprehensive exam and prospectus defense both occur during one two-part event. This two-part event will take 2.5 hours and should be scheduled accordingly. At least two weeks before this event, the student must email their prospectus to their entire committee.

 

The event itself will begin with the student leaving the room so the faculty committee can have an initial discussion. After this discussion, the student will be invited to rejoin the room. The event will start with the comprehensive exam: faculty will ask the student questions about the texts on their two reading lists. The oral exam will last approximately one hour. When the oral exam is complete, the student will step out of the room, and the committee will decide if the student has passed or failed the comprehensive exam. If the student has failed the exam, they will not proceed to the prospectus defense. (To be clear, in this situation, the student will have only failed the comprehensive exam—they will not have failed the prospectus defense since the prospectus defense was not held.) When the rescheduled exam/prospectus defense should occur depends on how much time the student needs to prepare for the retake, but it must occur before the end of the following semester. If the student does pass the exam, they will proceed to the prospectus defense, during which the committee will ask the student questions about and provide feedback on the pre-circulated prospectus. When the prospectus defense is complete,the student will step out of the room, and the committee will decide if the student has passed or failed the prospectus defense. If the student has failed the prospectus defense, the committee will reschedule the prospectus defense once the prospectus has been revised to respond to the committee’s feedback. If the student has passed the prospectus defense, they will start to write the dissertation. It is possible that the committee might pass a student on the prospectus defense but require the student complete revisions on the prospectus by a certain committee-set date.

 

Any student that fails the comprehensive exam a second time will be dismissed from the program. Any student that fails the prospectus defense a second time will be dismissed from the program.

 

Committee chairs are responsible for submitting the comprehensive exam results to SOAR immediately after the two-part event concludes. The exam results form must be submitted whether the student passed or failed the exam. The Dissertation Proposal Form is also completed in SOAR, but it is only completed once the student has passed the prospectus defense.

 

PhD students who came into the program with an MA should form their committee during their fourth semester (second spring for fall admits; second fall for spring admits). Additionally, they should build their exam lists by the end of their fourth semester so they can take advantage of the summer or winter break to start reading their lists. The student will continue to read their lists and then write the prospectus during their third year. The comprehensive exam/prospectus defense should be scheduled during the second semester of their third year (third spring for fall admits; third fall for spring admits).

 

PhD students who came into the program with a BA (who are in the MA-PhD “combo” program) should form their committee during their sixth semester (third spring for fall admits; third fall for spring admits). Additionally, they should build their exam lists by the end of their sixth semester so they can take advantage of the summer or winter break to start reading their lists. The student will continue to read their lists and then write the prospectus during their fourth year. The comprehensive exam/prospectus defense should be scheduled during the second semester of their fourth year (fourth spring for fall admits; fourth fall for spring admits).