After passing the qualifying exam, students are awarded the MS degree and admitted to Ph.D. candidacy. Dissertation Students complete a dissertation during their fourth and fifth years. The dissertation committee must be chaired by a Member of the SMLR graduate faculty, and include at least three other faculty. At least one member of the committee must be from outside the IRHR graduate faculty. Members from outside Rutgers are preferable.
All students present and defend their dissertation proposals in a seminar format.
The proposal defense is open to all interested faculty and Ph.D. students, although only the committee members vote on the acceptability of the proposal. A final oral defense takes place upon completion of the dissertation. It also is open to interested faculty and Ph.D. students. Click here for more details about filing a dissertation or click on the listing for Policies and Forms, below. Research Involvement Students are expected to be actively involved in research throughout the entire time they are enrolled in the program.