I. Communicate with the Graduate Office

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. 

II. Applying for Your Diploma

Applications for diplomas should be made at the Registrar's Office early in the term in which the degree is expected to be awarded. The dates are listed in the Graduate School Calendar. The student must apply for his or her diploma within four years of being admitted to candidacy. A student must receive his or her diploma at least one year after being admitted to candidacy.

Before a doctorate student applies for a diploma he or she must have:

1. Maintained at least a 3.0 average in all formal coursework
2. Passed the Final Oral Examination (Defense)
3. Completed a dissertation that is accepted by the Graduate School 

III. The Final Oral Examination (Defense)

The Final Oral Examination (Defense) is conducted by a committee appointed by the Dean of Graduate Studies. The student and his or her dissertation advisor must fill out the form Nomination of Thesis or Dissertation Committee. For the exam, this form must be completed three months before the date of the final oral examination. The completed form should be returned to the AMSC office where it will be forwarded to the Graduate School. 

IV. Selecting Ph.D. Final Examination Committee Members

Minimum of five voting members of the Graduate Faculty, including three Full Members. Chair should be the student's advisor and a Full Member of the Graduate Faculty. Requests for a Co-chair must have prior Graduate School approval. Each committee needs a Dean's Representative as a voting or non-voting member. The Dean's Representative must have a research interest related to that of the student. The Dean's Representative must be a tenured member of the Graduate Faculty and must be from another tenure home than the student's primary advisor, or co-advisor(s). Faculty that leave UMD (except Emeriti) are Grad Faculty for one year and are then nominated as Special Members. 

V. Scheduling the Final Examination

The professor who chairs the committee and the student establish the time and date of the examination. It is the student’s responsibility to notify the other members of the committee. We strongly recommend that the student remind the committee members where the exam is a couple of days before the exam.

Complete copies of the dissertation must be distributed by the candidate to the committee members at least 10 working days prior to the date of the examination. 

VI. Function of the Examination Committee

All Final Oral Examinations are open to anyone who is interested. After the examination, the Committee deliberates in private. The decision to accept the examination as satisfactory need not be unanimous, however two or more negative votes constitute a failure of the candidate.

The Examining Committee also approves or disapproves the dissertation for submission to the Graduate School. If the candidate fails the final examination then the dissertation is disapproved. If the candidate passes the final examination then the Committee can either: 

1. Approve the dissertation without revision 
2. Approve the dissertation with minor revisions that will be reviewed by only the dissertation advisor
3. Approve the dissertation with major revisions that will be reviewed by the entire committee 

VII. Repeating the Examination

The candidate may attempt the final oral examination at most twice.

Prospectus Form

Prospectus Form: Due 3 weeks before exam

Preliminary (Candidacy) Oral Announcement Form

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

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

Submit Preliminary Oral Examination: Bring this form to your exam and submit to the Graduate Office immediately after you present.

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.

Submission

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 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.) 

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. 

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

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.

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.