Graduate Student Requirements

2.5 The Candidacy Examination

Purpose. The purpose of the Candidacy Examination is to assess the student's mastery of the literature included on the Bibliography approved by his or her committee and to assess, as well, the student's facility in explicating the philosophical issues that are connected with that literature. Passing the Candidacy Examination admits the student to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree in the Department of Philosophy as specified in the Graduate School Handbook (Section 9-10).

Structure. The Candidacy Examination is a single examination that consists in two parts: a written examination in an area of philosophy, and a subsequent oral examination that may include discussion of the answers provided in the written examination.

The Candidacy Examination Committee. The Candidacy Examination shall be administered and evaluated by a committee of four faculty members: an Advisor, two experts, and a fourth person from outside the student's area of special interest. The Advisor selected by the student must be willing to serve as Advisor and must be approved by the Graduate Committee; the other members of the committee are selected by the student and his or her Advisor, subject to the approval of the Graduate Committee. Each proposed member of the committee must sign the Departmental Candidacy Examination Committee Form provided for this purpose, which is then submitted to the Graduate Committee for approval; a copy of this form is put into the student's record. Upon approval, the Advisor of the committee then becomes the student's Advisor of record (see sec.1.4 above). This committee as a whole prepares the written exam for the student. Augmented by a Graduate School representative from another Department, appointed by the Graduate School, the committee administers the oral portion of the Candidacy Examination.

The Written Examination. The members of the student's committee will meet to determine by vote the questions that shall appear on the written examination. After the student has taken the written examination, the committee will discuss the student's performance; the Advisor will inform the student of the evaluation, the student then being free to consult other members of the committee.

Scheduling. No earlier than the fourth quarter of full-time graduate study and no later than the sixth quarter of full-time graduate study (not including Summer Quarters) - typically in the student's second year - the student and the committee shall draw up a Bibliography in the area to be covered by the Candidacy Examination, and the Bibliography must be approved by each member of the committee. The student is expected to take the initiative in constructing the Bibliography, and, in consultation with the committee, construct a tentative draft that is submitted to all members of the committee for final approval or amendment. Committee members indicate approval of the Bibliography by signing the Departmental Bibliography Approval Form provided for that purpose. Once the Bibliography has been approved, the student may at any time request that the Candidacy Examination be administered, at a time convenient to both the student and the members of the committee. (The Candidacy Examination is not typically given in Summer Quarters.) Note that the written portion of the candidacy examination is to be completed no later than the second week of the eighth quarter of full-time graduate study (not including Summer Quarters) -- typically the Winter Quarter of the student's third year. After the student has completed the written portion of the Candidacy Examination, as described below, the committee shall read the student's answers and convene for an oral examination of the student no later than two weeks after the written examination has been taken.

Procedure. The procedure for the Candidacy Examination is as follows:

The written portion of the Candidacy Examination consists of six questions prepared by the committee, of which the student must answer three. The student may choose to take the exam in either one of the following formats:
1. 4 hour. The student will be given four hours in which to complete the exam without the use of any notes, papers, books, digital or electronic media. The exam is taken on a departmental computer during university business hours.
2. All day. The student may begin and end the exam at any time during university business hours, so long as the exam is completed on the same day it is begun. The exam must be taken without the use of any notes, papers, books, digital media or electronic media. The exam is taken on a departmental computer during university business hours.
Students are encouraged to discuss the choice of format with their advisor and other members of the candidacy exam committee. The student must inform the advisor of the format in which the exam will be taken at least one week before the written exam is taken.
If upon completion of the written portion the student should decide not to proceed to the oral portion, the procedures in the Graduate School Handbook are followed and the result of the Candidacy Examination is recorded as unsatisfactory.
The oral portion of the Candidacy Examination is a two-hour examination that may include discussion of the answers provided in the written examination. The oral examination will be concerned with the student's mastery of the bibliographic materials and the student's facility in dealing with philosophical issues connected with that literature.

Evaluation of the Candidacy Examination. Based on the written and oral examinations, the committee shall decide whether the student: (a) passes the Candidacy Examination, and thereby merits an M.A. degree; (b) does not pass the Candidacy Examination but is allowed to take it again; (c) does not pass the Candidacy Examination and is not allowed to take it again, terminating progress in the program. The committee shall first vote on (a). If the vote is not unanimously positive, the committee shall then vote on (b). If this vote is not positive by a majority of at least three out of five, (c) is the result. In the case of (b) or(c), the committee may also decide whether the student's performance is of sufficient merit to award an M.A. degree. In the case of (b), the re-examination must be completed no later than the fifth week of the immediately following quarter, and the committee's options are limited to (a) or (c). The vote for (a)must be unanimously positive; otherwise, (c) is the result.

If a student is scheduled to take a Candidacy Examination, or a Qualifying Examination, or a final defense of the dissertation, and the student does not successfully petition for an extension of the deadline for taking that examination but also fails to take the scheduled examination, then the student will automatically fail that examination.

Next page: The Qualifying Examination