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The Third Year and Preliminary Examinations

Students are urged to specify their examination fields as early in their course of study as possible. By the end of the first year of study, the student will have compiled the necessary departmental form in which are listed the three fields in which s/he will be examined in the Preliminary Examination. The student will indicate the field in which his/her dissertation will be written. This will be the major field: the others will be the minor fields. No more than two fields may be in the history of the same national culture. Normally, all three examiners will be members of the History Department, and the fields will be chosen from the list provided in another part of this document. No later than the second semester of study, a student may petition the Department for presentation of a field not included in this list. A student may also petition the Department (again no later than the second semester of study) for permission to prepare one field in another Department or Program. All three examiners must inform the Graduate Advisor in writing of their willingness to supervise these fields. The boundaries of each field should be clearly understood by both the student and the examiner. Acceptable ways of doing this include the compilation of a reading list (or the designation of relevant course reading lists) or the initialing of a statement defining the precise focus of the field and the topics to be covered. This statement may be placed in the student's file at his or her request.

As part of the process of preparing for exams, students in their fifth semester will take two Field Preparation courses. These courses allow the student to engage in focused reading and analysis, and to meet regularly with his or her examiners.

Before the beginning of the sixth semester of full-time study, students will be expected to take the preliminary examination in the chosen three fields. This examination will be in two parts, written and oral. Students who have not passed the preliminary examination by the beginning of their sixth semester shall be considered not in good standing, and may be ineligible for further financial aid from the Department.

Students must petition the Department in writing for any postponement of the examination beyond the beginning of the sixth semester. Petitions must be accompanied by a recommendation of the student's examining committee. Grounds for such an extension include protracted illness, or the student's performance (at the Department's request) of teaching duties beyond those normally expected of second-year and third-year students. The Department also recognizes that students specializing in certain fields requiring extensive language or methodological training may need additional time.

Written examinations in each field shall be three hours long. All three fields must be completed within this five-day period. The oral examination shall be held as soon as practicable (and not more than one month) after the written examinations. It may begin, at the discretion of the candidate, with a statement prepared by the candidate, of not more than 20 minutes in length setting out the most important problems of the minor fields as they relate to the candidate's scholarly interests. The candidate will then be questioned by each examiner in the respective field for approximately thirty minutes (and slightly longer, if necessary, on the major field). The student's performance in the examinations will be judged as a whole, the written and oral portions being combined in the evaluation. Within two weeks after the examination, the examiners will provide the candidate with written evaluations of his or her performance. Copies will be retained in the Department's files.

If the examining committee judges that the candidate has failed all or part of the examination, it will recommend to the Department either:

1. A second opportunity after an interval of time to be determined by the committee (normally one semester) for the candidate to attempt the failed portion of the examination, or
2. Termination of the student's study for the Ph.D. degree.

If the candidate should fail the examination a second time, the Department will normally recommend termination of candidacy for the Ph.D.

Next: Teaching Requirement