Progress to Degree

Qualifying Exams and Qualifying Exam/Course Requirements 

Passing into Candidacy

Educational Policies

A student must present their dissertation work within 4 years of advancing to candidacy. Time extensions may be made on a case-by-case basis.

All Math and Math Stat students must contact the Office of Graduate Studies (OGS) when scheduling their final oral (defense) exams. The OGS will assist you with the processing of departmental forms and the necessary paperwork for the Office of the Registrar and the Graduate School. Please contact Trystan Denhard and Jemma Natanson (Kirwan 1106/1108)  /  for further details. 

You must attend a graduation information session, which are advertised each semester. 

Helpful Links:

• Rules on preparation and submission of theses and dissertations and LaTeX templates.
• Policy on inclusion of published work in theses and dissertations
• Dissertation and Thesis Search

Admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree is granted by the Graduate School upon the recommendation of the MATH Graduate Committee. A student must be admitted to candidacy within five years after admission to the doctoral program and at least six months before the date on which the doctoral degree will be conferred. Before a student applies for admission to candidacy he or she must have:

• passed two written qualifying exams at the Ph.D. level and completed the four required courses with a grade of B or higher;
• maintained a 3.00 or better GPA in all formal course work;
• passed the Oral Candidacy Examination.

Please contact the Office of Graduate Studies to request information on preliminary exams, candidacy forms and the application for candidacy (j and ).

Forms: Please submit all forms to the graduate office. 

• Prospectus Form: Due 3 weeks before exam
• Preliminary (Candidacy) Oral Announcement Form:  Due 2 weeks before exam. Send an email to let us know it has been completed.
• Application for Admission to Candidacy: Bring this form to your exam and submit to the Graduate Office immediately after you present.
• Submit Preliminary Oral Examination: Bring this form to your exam and submit to the Graduate Office immediately after you present.

Checklist and Timeline

• Prepare A Prospectus—A prospectus for the examination must be filed with the Graduate Office before the examination is scheduled and publicly announced. (For additional information on how to prepare a prospectus, please read the attached MATH and STAT Candidacy Requirements). There is also the Prospectus Repository on UMD Box for examples.
• Submit a copy of the Prospectus along with a completed (attached) Doctoral Candidacy Preliminary Oral Examination Prospectus Form (include the names and signatures of your committee members) at least three weeks prior to the proposed examination date). Email as a PDF to . 
• Reserve your Exam Room: See Jemma Natanson at (Kirwan 1108) to reserve a room and time for the oral examination, preferably 3 weeks prior to your exam. Once the Graduate Office receives approval of the prospectus from all committee members, the examination can be formally scheduled. 
• Preliminary (Candidacy) Oral Announcement Form: After scheduling the oral exam, complete this announcement form at least two weeks prior to the examination date. (Don’t forget to inform Jemma that you have completed the G Form--announcement form.) 
• Submit Preliminary Oral Examination Report: After preliminary oral exam, have all committee members sign. Return form as a completed PDF with committee signatures to . Label your PDF as such: Last Name_First Name_ Prelim Oral Exam Report.
• Submit completed application for candidacy. Here is the link: Application for Admission to Candidacy
• After completion of preliminary oral exam, obtain Advisor’s signature and return application for admission to candidacy form to the Math Graduate Office (). Return as a completed PDF with your advisor’s signature (I will obtain the Grad Program Director's signature and forward your form to the Registrar). Label your PDF as such: Last Name_First Name_ Appl Cand. 
• If you have any questions, please contact Jemma Natanson (Kirwan 1108) at 301 405-5058, or Trystan Denhard (Kirwan 1106) at 301-405-5060, .

MATH and STAT Candidacy Requirements 
It is the responsibility of the student to submit an application for admission to candidacy to Trystan Denhard at when all the requirements for candidacy have been fulfilled. All work at other institutions offered in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the doctoral degree must be submitted with the application for admission to candidacy. Official transcripts of the work must be on file in the Graduate School. The student must complete their program for the degree, dissertation, and final examination (defense), during the four year period after admission to candidacy.

The Oral Candidacy Examination: The candidacy examination is an oral examination which serves as a test of the detailed preparation of a student in the area of specialization, and seeks to discover if they has a deep enough understanding to read the relevant research literature in the field and the skills to carry out the research for the dissertation. The examination is usually taken before a student embarks on serious dissertation research. The examination assumes further advanced coursework beyond that required for the qualifying exams. It shall follow the guidelines listed below.

Planning the Exam: To plan the examination, the student, with the help and approval of the prospective dissertation advisor, must prepare a prospectus for the examination.This prospectus defines the primary and related areas to be covered in the examination. These areas should be identified by course citations, literature citations, tables of contents, or other appropriate means. The prospectus should be filed with the Graduate Office before the examination is scheduled, and should also record the proposed format for the examination. Typical formats for the examination are either a seminar-type presentation by the student (or possibly two such talks) on one or more recent research papers, followed by questions from the committee on the presentation and related background material, or else a more traditional oral examination on subjects or courses listed in the prospectus.

Examination Committee: The examination committee is appointed by the Graduate Director (or if the Graduate Director is unavailable for an extended period, his or her designated representative) upon recommendation of the student's prospective dissertation advisor. The Graduate Director may, if necessary, consult with one or more field committee chairs in the area of specialization. The examination committee must consist of at least three members, at least one (usually the prospective dissertation advisor) representing the area in which the student plans to specialize. Usually all three of these will be faculty members from the Mathematics Department, but when there is a good academic reason, the student can petition the Graduate Committee to allow one to be from a related department (such as physics or computer science) or an outside institution (such as another university, NASA, NIH, NIST, NCHS, etc.). Disputes regarding the makeup of the examination committee will be referred to the Graduate Committee. Each committee member must agree to abide by the prospectus for the examination.

Possible Outcomes: Upon completion of the examination, the examination committee decides to pass, fail, or defer a decision on the student. In the last-named case, the manner in which the decision is to be resolved must be specified in the report of the committee. The distinction between "fail" and "defer a decision" is based on the committee's evaluation of the probability of successful completion of the Ph.D. degree.

Repeating the Exam: Upon failure, the Candidacy Examination may be repeated only once. Exceptions to this rule are granted only under extraordinary circumstances and upon petition to the Graduate Committee.

Possible Outcomes: Upon completion of the examination, the examination committee decides to pass, fail, or defer a decision on the student. In the last-named case, the manner in which the decision is to be resolved must be specified in the report of the committee. The distinction between "fail" and "defer a decision" is based on the committee's evaluation of the probability of successful completion of the Ph.D. degree.

Repeating the Exam: Upon failure, the Candidacy Examination may be repeated only once. Exceptions to this rule are granted only under extraordinary circumstances and upon petition to the Graduate Committee.

Graduate Students in the MATH, STAT, or AMSC programs are expected to make reasonable progress toward their degrees. In the following charts, a supported student is one who receives funding from the Mathematics Department, either as a TA, GA or as a fellow.

1. Notes:
   1. The time limits for support by the Mathematics Department apply even if the student is not supported by the Mathematics Department for some intervening period.
   2. In the absence of exceptional circumstances, students who do not pass all of their written qualifying exams by the end of the January cycle of their THIRD year will be dropped from the program.
   3. In some cases, upon admission, the Graduate Director can negotiate a slower timetable. Examples include part-time students, and students that would benefit from taking 400-level courses in their first year.
   4. Since the requirements in the Scientific Computation concentration of the AMSC program are somewhat different, there is a separate set of charts for students in this concentration.
   5. For students in the Applied Mathematics concentration of the AMSC program, "qualifying exam" may in some cases be replaced by its equivalent in other departments. In BMGT, this may mean two written examinations (since they only cover one semester of material each), and in CMSC this may mean "qualifying requirement".
   6. Please note that it is a University requirement that a student be registered during the semester that they plan on completing their degree/graduating.

To convert credit hours to units:

• 899, units = 18 × credits
• 799, units = 12 × credits
• 600 level, units = 6 × credits
• 400 level, units = 4 × credits

For the AMSC requirements for Applied Mathematics and Applied Statistics, see the AMSC website

Progress expected of students in the MATH and STAT Ph.D. programs

Progress expected of full-time students in M.A. or M.S. programs (non-thesis option)

(International students usually need to complete the Masters degree in 2 years because of visa requirements.)

Progress expected of part-time students in M.A. or M.S. programs

Progress expected of students in AMSC Scientific Computation M.S. program