Ph.D.
students are required to complete two subject area examinations:
- One
Major Area Examination
- One
Minor Area Examination
Students
are expected to successfully complete both subject area examinations:
- By
the end of their fourth year if admitted to the program
at pre-M.A. level
- By
the end of their third year if admitted at the post-M.A.
level and admitted to the Ph.D. program at the end of their
first year
- Students
cannot take a major or minor exam before they have completed
their M.A. degree.
Exams
may be taken, without petition, in the following areas:
- Demography
and Ecology
- Deviance
and Social Control
- Family
and Kinship
- Gender
- Institutional
Analysis
- Methodology
- Social
Psychology
- Stratification,
Race and Ethnic Relations
- Theory
In
addition to the established subject areas, students may propose
syntheses across these areas and/or other recognized areas
of sociological specialization. Setting up a synthetic subject
area examination involves four steps.
-
The student must submit to the Graduate Program Committee
a proposal that includes a description and rationale for
the examination area, a reading list, a list of relevant
coursework that will be taken to prepare for the examination,
and a list of at least three department faculty who agree
to serve as members of the examination committee. The
chair, and at least one additional member of the synthetic
examination area committee must be voting members of the
department.
-
The
Graduate Program Committee will consider the proposal
and either give it a preliminary approval or reject it.
-
If
the Graduate Program Committee gives the proposal a preliminary
approval, the Graduate Program Coordinator will notify
all departmental faculty members of its action and give
them an opportunity to file written objections to the
examination area. At this time it will also give members
of the department an opportunity to serve on the examination
committee if they want to do so, or to nominate other
members whom they think should be on the committee.
-
On
the basis of the results of step 3, the Graduate Program
Committee will give a final approval or rejection to the
proposal. In the case of approval, it will also specify
the membership of the examination committee to be the
members originally proposed by the student plus additional
faculty who have asked to serve or, having been nominated,
agree to serve.
At
any stage in the above process, a voting member of the department
may ask to have the synthetic subject area examination proposal
be considered by the faculty as a whole at a regular faculty
meeting. To do so, the faculty member must submit a written
statement to the department Chair outlining the objections
to the GPC's decision(s).
- Students
wishing to take an exam must submit a request to the Graduate
Program Coordinator.
- Consult
the Area Committee Chair to arrange a time for the exam.
- Submit
a Request for Major/Minor
Examination form to the Graduate Program Coordinator
or Graduate Program Assistant.
- The deadline to submit exam requests is the end of the second week of the quarter.
- Subject
area examinations are expected to be graded and comment
provided to the student within two weeks of the examination
date.
- Results
of an area examination must be communicated to the Graduate
Program Assistant.
- The
student should complete the top box of the Major/Minor
Examination Results form.
- Give
the form to the examining professor along with the completed
exam.
- The
examining professor should complete the bottom portion
of the form and give it to the Graduate Program Assistant
for the student's file.
- Note:
there is a separate form for the Minor in Social Statistics
which is the only minor available by coursework to cohorts
after 2000. See Minor Area
Examinations.
- Grading
categories for the exams:
- Pass with Distinction
(in exceptional cases)
- Pass
- Conditional
Pass
- Subject area coordinator
communicates to student in writing within two weeks
of completion of exam the conditions required for
passing exam (copy placed in student's file)
- Student must meet
these conditions 60 days after receiving the subject
area coordinator's communication.
- Students who do
not convert a Conditional Pass to at least a Pass
by the time specified will, in the absence of exceptional
circumstances, be put on warning status in the Graduate
School (see Failure to Meet Requirements" below).
Students thus placed on warning status must re-take
the subject area examination within one quarter
after the original exam date.
- Fail
- Student will be
put on warning status
- Re-examination will
be scheduled no later than one quarter following
original examination quarter
- If performance is
not satisfactory on second try, student ordinarily
terminated from program.
- Student failing
two opportunities on subject area examination can
receive third opportunity only if two-thirds of
department faculty approves.
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