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. 

Checklist and Timeline

Candidacy

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