Advancement to Candidacy

*Please note: Students must be registered for at least one credit of HIST 998 in the semester in which you plan to advance to candidacy. The exception to this policy is for the summer semester: students do not be registered for summer to advance to candidacy in the summer and begin 999 hours in the fall. 

Advancement to candidacy is the process by which doctoral students complete every degree requirement, except for the dissertation, within six years of admission to the PhD program. Please see the Student Handbook for full details on each degree requirement listed below. 

Degree requirements needed to advance include: 

• Completion of all coursework on the program of study ~57 total credits (including Consortium and/or transfer credits) with a grade of B- or higher 
• Obtaining a passing grade on the minor field exam(s)
• Obtaining a passing grade on the major field exam
• Documenting the formation of a dissertation committee comprised of a minimum of three faculty members (dissertation chair and second member of the committee must be full-time History & Art History department faculty members with active Graduate Faculty status, member number three must have active Graduate Faculty status)
• Publicly presenting the dissertation prospectus at Colloquium and documenting dissertation committee approval of the prospectus

Students must provide the Graduate Coordinator with the signed and completed Dissertation Prospectus Approval form and Dissertation Committee Approval form at least two weeks before the conferral date in order to advance for the semester. The official deadline to advance is set by CHSS. Students should complete the degree requirements in the order presented above.

The dissertation and exam forms are located in the right content block ->

Students are responsible for obtaining all faculty signatures prior to submitting forms to the Graduate Coordinator. Please refrain from leaving student forms in the possession of faculty members.