A final ARA is required before the student is permitted to write the dissertation. The student collects and organizes all experimental data to be written into the dissertation as the final ARA document. This will be considered a preliminary draft of the dissertation. At the conclusion of the final ARA meeting, the dissertation committee will either recommend further experiments or approve the document and give permission for writing the dissertation. When the student has successfully passed the qualifying examination, the guidance committee recommends the student's advancement to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree.
Admission is by action of the dean of graduate studies.
At this time the guidance committee also approves the student's dissertation topic. After advancement to candidacy and approval of the dissertation topic, and with the unanimous recommendation of the committee to the dean of graduate studies, the guidance committee may be reduced to a three-member dissertation committee. This committee is responsible for counseling the student during preparation of the dissertation, and conducting the final oral examination during the dissertation defense. The student's research is reported in a dissertation written under the guidance of the research advisor. The dissertation must demonstrate the student's capacity for independent research, scholarly achievement and technical mastery of a special field.