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Thesis and Defense | Thesis Committee | Ph.D. Examinations | Admission to Candidacy

Admission

Students with an M.S. from another school who wish to pursue a Ph.D. degree at CSM must complete the admission process described here. A student who has recently earned an M.S. degree from CSM and who seeks admission to the doctoral program must write a memo to that effect to the MACS Graduate Committee. In either case, the Graduate Committee will review the application materials submitted by the candidate, and send its recommendation to the Graduate School.

The basic requirements for this degree are:

• completion of 72 credit hours beyond the bachelor's degree, of which at least 24 hours must be designated for research under the direct supervision of the student's faculty advisor (MACS 706);
• at least two semesters of full-time (10 hours) residence on campus;
• successful completion of the Comprehensive Examination (including Qualifying Examinations and a Thesis Proposal);
• a thesis written while the student is enrolled at CSM;
• a successful oral defense of the thesis.

Typically, students require a minimum of two years after the M.S. to finish a Ph.D. assuming the M.S. was completed at CSM. For students with a Master's degree from another institution, three to four years is more realistic.

Thesis Committee

The Doctoral Thesis Committee consists of at least five members. A thesis advisor should be chosen by the student, preferably no later than the middle of the second semester after completion of the Master's degree or its equivalent. The advisor will, in consultation with the student, recommend at least two more members of the Department. At least one member of the Thesis Committee must be from outside the Department. The final composition of the Thesis Committee is subject to the approval of the Graduate Dean. While all committee members share responsibility for conducting oral examinations, providing technical assistance, advice, etc., the thesis advisor assumes the major responsibility for monitoring the student's progress, directing the research, and coordinating times of exams. It is possible to have two co-advisors, one of whom may be from another department. The Thesis Committee should have been appointed by the end of the second semester.

Ph.D. Examinations

There are two examinations on the way to a Ph.D.: a Comprehensive Examination (which has several parts) and a Thesis Defense.

The first part of the Comprehensive Examination is usually called the Qualifying Examination. Its purpose is to determine whether a student is qualified to further pursue a Ph.D. degree in the Department. For this reason, it is an important milestone on the road to a Ph.D.

Students are expected to take the Qualifying Examination by their fourth semester after entering the Ph.D. program. Substantial preparation is expected for this exam; for the typical student this may require several months of study. The Qualifying Exam is conducted by the Department's Graduate Committee, and is normally offered once a semester. Students must file an appropriate notice to the Graduate Committee by a posted deadline stating their intention to take the exams and in which areas they will be taken. More details of the Qualifying Exam are given below.

The second part of the Comprehensive Examination is the Thesis Proposal. This part is conducted by the student's Thesis Committee and consists of an oral examination and possibly some written components as well. This exam will test advanced material in the student's research specialty area, as well as general knowledge of the major and minor fields. Prior to the Thesis Proposal itself, the student must submit a written description of the research topic to his or her Thesis Committee; this is usually done soon after the Thesis Committee has been formed and should be done at least one year before the Thesis Defense.

Typically, the Thesis Proposal consists of an oral presentation of the student's thesis topic. It may also involve (1) course material not contained in any of the qualifying exam areas, (2) in-depth questions in the student's specialty area, and/or (3) papers related to the prospective Ph.D. research. The exact content and range of the exam should be agreed upon by the student and the student's committee sufficiently far in advance to allow adequate time for preparation.

An oral defense of proposals should be announced (at least) one week in advance. The announcement should include (at least) the following:

• title of thesis
• student's name
• date/time/location of oral presentation
• abstract

1. create a flier with the preceding information, and have a copy of it posted around the department
2. email the announcement to all Faculty and Graduate Students in the department.

After successfully completing the Qualifying Examination, the student should file an Admission to Candidacy form with the Graduate School.

Qualifying Examination: Further Details

The format of the qualifying exam is dictated by when the student enrolled. Students who entered the graduate program prior to Fall 2003 can choose Option I or Option II below. Students who entered the graduate program after Fall 2003 must select Option I below.

For both Options, the student must pass both exams to continue in the doctoral program. One retry is allowed. In case of a failure, the student is allowed to alter the choice of the area or areas with the understanding that no further retries will be allowed. Any retaking of a failed exam must be done at the next regularly scheduled offering of the qualifying exams.

Qualifying examinations are organised as follows. The Graduate Committee (GC) appoints Examination Committees (ECs). Each EC will be responsible for the setting, grading and running of one qualifying exam. Each EC will normally consist of three examiners. In marginal pass/fail cases, the EC may seek additional evidence of the candidate's ability (such as by conducting an oral examination). The EC will make a pass/fail recommendation on each candidate to the GC.

If an EC cannot make a recommendation, or if the candidate wants to appeal the EC's recommendation, the GC will look at the candidate's work. If the GC cannot make a recommendation, or if the candidate wants to appeal the GC's recommendation, the decision passes to the whole MCS faculty. At each stage, a one-member-one-vote procedure will be used. If the MCS faculty cannot make a recommendation, or if the candidate wants to appeal, the decision passes to the CSM Senate.

Each candidate will receive the recommendation from the GC in writing. If an appeal is to be filed, it must: (1) be in writing; (2) contain a succinct description of the basis for the appeal; and (3) be received by the chair of the GC no later than 30 days from the date upon which the student received the written recommendation from the GC. A similar procedure will operate for appeals to the MCS faculty.

Admission to Candidacy

After successfully completing the Qualifying Examination, the student should file an Admission to Candidacy form with the Graduate School. This form lists all the courses to be counted towards the degree; subsequent changes must be approved by the Thesis Committee and the Graduate Dean. The Graduation Application form should be filed near the beginning of the semester in which the student expects to graduate.

Thesis and Defense

The doctoral thesis must show original research of substantial quality in a suitable technical field and exhibit satisfactory grammatical style. The subject is selected by mutual agreement between the candidate and the advisor, with the concurrence of the Thesis Committee. A written thesis proposal must be submitted to the Committee (at least one year before the defense). It is the responsibility of the thesis advisor/co-advisors to supervise the research and to ensure appropriate accuracy, completeness, organization, style, grammar, etc., of the initial drafts of the thesis. Other members of the committee can be involved as needed, except that the final draft should be available to every member of the committee at least one week prior to the defense. The defense is scheduled via the Thesis Defense Request form; all members of the Thesis Committee must sign this form which is then submitted to the Department office no later than two weeks prior to the date of the defense. The final oral defense, open to the public, consists of a presentation by the candidate of the results of the thesis, followed by (or accompanied by) questions from the committee members. These questions need not be restricted to the thesis material itself.

An oral defense of theses should be announced (at least) one week in advance. The announcement should include (at least) the following:

• title of thesis
• student's name
• date/time/location of oral presentation
• abstract

1. create a flier with the preceding information, and have a copy of it posted around the department
2. email the announcement to all Faculty and Graduate Students within the department.

Any revisions requested by the committee must be incorporated into the final copy of the thesis submitted to the Graduate School. The student should consult the Graduate School's "Thesis Writer's Guide" regarding rules for the format required for this final version, how many copies must be submitted, copyright releases, etc. CSM also has a Writing Center, where help with writing is freely available. There are also some good books on mathematical writing, one by Higham published by SIAM and one by Krantz published by the AMS.

A LaTeX thesis template that conforms to the Colorado School of Mines format may be found at http://acoustics.mines.edu/~kasper/thesistemplates.tar.gz.

The CSM Graduate School Office website has forms and other information for current students.

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