Applicants should consult with the field director of their choice before submitting an application. Students who do not enter the Ph.D. program through the M.A. program must complete SAIS M.A. requirements and will have one and a half years to do so. Ph.D. candidates from outside SAIS may have up to one half of their M.A. course requirements waived by the Ph.D. Committee in consultation with the faculty concerned. Ph.D. candidates will not be awarded the SAIS M.A. until they have completed the requirements for it and have passed their Ph.D. comprehensive examinations. Comprehensive examinations .
Students select three fields from among the functional fields and geographic areas.
Others spend their first year under supervision of their advisers in intensive preparation for the comprehensive exams, which they must then pass within the next three semesters. In addition to fulfilling the language requirement for the Master of Arts degree, students are required to pass a second language test which can be either a reading proficiency or two one-semester courses in methodology. Students are urged to complete this requirement early in the program. Emphasis will be placed on how each social science discipline deals with evidence and inference and with broader questions of how scholars move from the kernel of an idea to a testable research hypothesis and then to a research design. Students will complete a major, original qualitative research project during the semester.