The orals focus group met a couple weeks ago and had a lively and productive discussion. At the close of our meeting, we drafted a specific set of policy suggestions that we think will greatly improve the orals process. Now we need your input. We re eager to hear objections, confusions, revisions, or confirmations. Many thanks for your help.
Many people seem to leave the orals process without a clear intellectual focus.
As a result, it takes us a long time to get started on our dissertations, and our work suffers as a result. The scheduling process produces anxiety and confusion. It also creates a tremendous amount of work for the graduate secretary and the DGS, both of whom are overworked as it is. We would like to move to a committee system of advising. These faculty members would help the student construct the orals lists, and they would also administer the exam.