Students may not take creative writing courses in satisfaction of the Ph.D. course requirements. However, a maximum of 8 points or two creative writing courses previously taken at the M.A. level may be credited toward the 72-point requirement. Morning and afternoon examination sessions are scheduled for three-day periods before the fall and spring semesters. The examination is partly based on a reading list of primary materials for each period. This list and a specimen examination can be obtained from the Director of Graduate Studies.
Grades are pass and fail.
Those students who fail but wish to continue in the program are required to take the examina- tion a second time within twelve months. Students who fail the examination twice are eliminated from the program. This examination must be taken within six months of the completion of all course work, and the student must have fulfilled the foreign language requirement. To pass the examination, the student must receive at least two passing votes from the three examiners. A student who has passed the oral examination selects a subject and finds a director for the dissertation.