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Students must pass their candidacy exam by the end of their third
year. Their first job is to find a major professor and committee.
This process should start well in advance, during their first or
second year.
The major professor is typically a faculty member in pure mathematics,
but in some cases other mathematics faculty members may be a co-director
in addition to an in-house director.
Checklist for Ph.D. Candidacy.
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Major Professor and Committee.
The major professor and committee must be declared
and officially appointed by the Department Chair
at least a month before the candidacy exam takes place.
The major professor is the main advisor to the student, and will guide
the student toward a Ph.D. thesis and degree.
The rest of the committee should consist of at least three mathematics
faculty members and one faculty member from an outside
department. All members of the committee must have Doctoral Directive Status.
This outside member, also called the University representative,
need not have any relationship with or specialized knowledge concerning the
dissertation topic. The primary function of the outside committee member
is to oversee the proceedings
and verify that these took place in accordance with University rules.
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Courses. In order to achieve candidacy, the student must have
finished all course requirements and passed 3 qualifier exams.
Students should be enrolled in at least one graded course (a core course
or a topics course) per semester until candidacy is achieved.
During the semester of candidacy, students register
for 2-4 credit hours of a DIS course with their major professor (MAT6908).
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Format. The student, major professor, and committee
agree on a format for the candidacy exam. Typically, this will
include one or two seminar-level presentations.
Sometimes the student will also be asked
to write a presentation demonstrating his mastery of the material
agreed to previously. Assigned written material must be submitted
in a timely manner, at least two weeks before the candidacy exam.
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Final Approval. The committee officially approves the student's work, and puts
the approval in writing usually after a final oral
Candidacy examination.
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Official Candidacy. Immediately upon passing the Candidacy Exam,
the student must register for MAT8964 for 0 credit hours. Only then is a
student officially considered a PhD Candidate. Students maintaining timely
progress must achieve candidacy by the end of their 3rd year in residence.
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According to University rules, a student may only keep his/her status as
PhD candidates for a length of five years after candidacy, after which
a renewal process is necessary to reinstate a student's candidacy.
See also
Departmental candidacy requirements for more information.
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