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Ph.D. General Examination

The Ph.D. General Examination

After passing the Qualifying Examination and completing 60 credits at UW (a master's degree from the UW or another institution may be used as a substitute for 30 of these credits), the Ph.D. student may take the General Examination of the Graduate School which admits the student to Candidacy for the Ph.D. Note that 18 credits of coursework taken at UW must be graded credits.

The department expects students to take the General Examination within one year of passing the Qualifying Examination. An extension will be allowed in unusual circumstances by approval of the Graduate Studies Committee upon petition by the student's advisor.

After the department notifies the Graduate School that the student has passed the Ph.D. General Examination, the Graduate School will award the student a Ph.C., Candidacy Certificate. The quarter following the passing of the exam, the student should begin to register for dissertation credits (EE 800). The student must earn 30 credits of EE 800 for graduation.

Ph.D. Supervisory Committee

Graduate School Memo No. 13

The student's first step toward the General Examination is to consult with the faculty advisor to determine membership of the Ph.D. Supervisory Committee.

TIMING: The official UW Graduate School policy is that the committee should be appointed no later than four months before the General Examination. In extenuating circumstances beyond the student/advisor control, the graduate student and advisor may request a waiver of this requirement from the Graduate Program Coordinator; appointments may be approved for no later than two months before the exam.

MEMBERSHIP: The Supervisory Committee for an Electrical Engineering student must consist of a total committee membership of a minimum of 4 members including the GSR (see details below), of which 2 members must be EE faculty (tenure track or research faculty) whose primary appointment is UW Electrical Engineering. It is possible to appoint members from outside the department and university; consult the Advising Office for details.

EXAM ATTENDANCE: The mimimum committee membership attendance at the General and Final Exams is 4 members; the committee may be larger, but at least 4 members, including the Chairperson and the GSR, must attend exams.

APPOINTING THE COMMITTEE: Students should provide the names of the committee members who have agreed to serve to the Graduate Advising Office via email or in person. This begins the 4-month clock, and the General Exam may then be scheduled for 4 months hence.

Chairperson - the student's faculty advisor. Per Graduate School Memorandum 13, "Co-Chairs may be appointed when both serve with equal importance on a student's supervisory committee and equally share the responsibility for the student's progress."
Minimum of two additional committee members (one if there are co-chairs)
Graduate School Representative (GSR) - Students and their advisors may consult the Graduate Faculty website to determine eligibility. Students email or phone eligible faculty to ask them if they will serve as GSR.
PLEASE NOTE: GSRs cannot be from the home department of the student or the faculty advisor. GSRs cannot be from any department in which the faculty advisor holds an adjunct appointment (both GSR and faculty advisor can hold adjunct appointments in the same department). GSRs may have no research association or other conflict of interest with the faculty advisor or graduate student. Faculty members with primary, joint, adjunct, or affiliate appointments in the student's degree-offering unit or the committee chair's department are not eligible to serve as the GSR.

The Advising Office will notify the Graduate School of the committee appointments. The Graduate School will then notify the student and all committee members via email when the committee has been confirmed.

It is the student's responsibility to keep in contact with the full committee, informing them of ongoing progress and projections for General and Final Exam dates.

To reconstitute the committee membership at a later date, students should notify the Grad Advising Office of member names to add or delete.

EE General Exam Format

The purpose of the Electrical Engineering General Examination is two-fold: (1) to test a graduate student's capability to do independent research (2) to evaluate the technical merits and feasibility of the student's proposal for his/her Ph.D. dissertation. The examination format is as follows:

The student MUST submit a dissertation proposal to his/her Supervisory Committee 4-6 weeks before the exam to assure sufficient time for the committee to review the proposal before they agree to schedule the exam.

The Request to Schedule Exam form MUST be submitted to the Graduate School Office 3 weeks in advance of the exam date.

The proposal must contain a discussion of the background literature on the problem area, formulation or description of the specific topic of research, proposed approach or methodology, feasibility arguments, the objective of the research project, and a list of references. The total length of the proposal is normally about 20 pages.

The student will then make an oral presentation of the proposal. The presentation should include a critical review of the most relevant literature in his/her specific area. The student will be examined by the Supervisory Committee during a question-answer period. The Supervisory Committee will make the pass/fail decision based on the quality of the proposal, the presentation, and answers to the questions. Comments and suggestions from the Supervisory Committee concerning the proposal will be given to the student after the exam.

Scheduling the General Exam

After the Supervisory Committee has been in place for 4 months and the Supervisory Committee determines the study is prepared to present the dissertation proposal, the student may formally schedule the General Examination.

Again: The Request to Schedule Exam form MUST be submitted to the Graduate School Office 3 weeks in advance of the exam date.

Note that the Grad School does not make GSR substitutions because of scheduling conflicts, so students should plan ahead, particularly when planning a summer exam, so that the GSR will be able to attend, and so that the Request to Schedule form can be submitted by the deadline of 3 weeks in advance of the exam date.

THE STUDENT'S RESPONSIBILITIES ARE:

Submit a complete draft of the General Exam paper to the committee 4-6 weeks before the exam.
Confer with advisor and other committee members to determine if they agree that the paper is acceptable and that the exam can be scheduled.
At least 4-6 weeks before the exam, and after the committee has agreed that the student may proceed to schedule the exam, consult with the faculty advisor to find up to three 2-hour blocks of times which the faculty advisor has available for the exam. Relay these choices to the remaining members of the Ph.D. Supervisory Committee so that they can choose the time that works best for them.
After the date/time has been determined, reserve a room for the exam, using EE Departmental Calendars.
Notify all committee members of the final date/time/room, then as stipulated by the Graduate School, ask that they confirm via email stating "I agree that the student is ready to schedule the General Exam. I agree to the [state date/time] and [state location]." Note that these emails will be sent to the Graduate School by the Advising Office (see next step), and the Graduate School will *not* accept emails that do not include all of this information. ALL members of the Supervisory Committee including the GSR, regardless of whether or not they intend to attend the exam, must agree to the scheduling of the exam and will need to confirm their agreement via email.
After collecting all of the required emails from the committee, notify the Grad Advising Office of the exam date, time and location, the title of the talk, and forward the collected email confirmations from the committee members.
The Advising Office staff will then complete the required 'Request To Schedule General Exam' form and will forward it to the Graduate School. Upon receipt of the completed form, the Graduate School staff will review the student record for approval and then will forward the Final Exam warrant paperwork to the department. The Supervisory Committee Chair will take the General Exam warrant to the exam, and it will be signed by the committee members after the exam is completed.
Remind the committee members of the exam date a day or two ahead of the exam. A minimum of 4 members are required to attend: the chairperson, the GSR, and 2 other committee members.

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Updates or corrections to this page should be sent to fjones@ee.washington.edu.

This page was last updated Thursday, 26-Jun-2008 15:04:25 PDT