COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION - Students are required to pass a comprehensive examination before being admitted to candidacy. The comprehensive examination should be completed as soon as possible following the completion of all required coursework, and no later than the summer prior to entering the 4th year of the program.  In no case may the comprehensive examination be taken in the same term in which the student is graduated. Specific details about the examination and its conduct are given in separate guidelines (below). The comprehensive examination will be conducted by an Examination Committee (see below).  When the comprehensive examination has been concluded, the Chair of the examination committee will complete and submit the form "Comprehensive Examination (PhD) Report” to the graduate program liaison. Should a student be required to retake the examination, a new form must be completed and filed with the Committee. Copies of this form are available from the Office of the Dean. When the comprehensive examination has been successfully completed, the event will be entered into the student's permanent graduate academic record as a "Milestone.”
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APPROVAL OF THE DISSERTATION PROPOSAL AND ADMISSION TO CANDIDACY – Students should schedule an overview or prospectus meeting with their doctoral committee as soon as possible following successful completion of the comprehensive examination. At this meeting, the student must present a dissertation proposal describing the research topic and experimental plan, for evaluation and approval by the committee. The research plan must contain sufficient detail  to permit the doctoral committee to provide detailed guidance in shaping the conceptualization and methodology of the plan. The doctoral committee must unanimously approve the dissertation topic and research plan before the student may be admitted to candidacy for the doctoral degree. Approval of the proposal does not imply either the acceptance of a dissertation prepared in accord with the proposal or the restriction of the dissertation to this original proposal.

At the prospectus meeting, the doctoral committee will also confirm that the student has met all of the requirements for admission to candidacy. To qualify for admission to candidacy, students must be in full graduate status, have satisfied the requirements of the preliminary evaluation, have completed all required coursework with a minimum quality point average (QPA) of 3.00, have passed the comprehensive examination and, have received approval of the proposed subject and plan of the dissertation research from their doctoral committee.

When all of the above conditions have been satisfied, the student will complete and submit the form "Approval of Dissertation Proposal and Advancement to Candidacy" to the graduate program liaison and to the Pharmaceutical Sciences Graduate Academic Affairs Committee. Copies of this form are available from the Office of the Dean.

Students are informed of admission to candidacy by the dean. The date of admission to candidacy is entered into the student's permanent graduate academic record as a "Milestone.”  Note that admission to candidacy for the Doctor of Philosophy degree constitutes a promotion of the student to the most advanced stage of graduate study and provides formal approval to devote essentially exclusive attention to the research and writing of the dissertation.
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