The Supervisory Committee As soon as possible after the student has been admitted to the Ph.D. program, a doctoral supervisory committee should be selected to approve a program of study for the student. The committee consists of five members, a representative from each of the three fields in political science included in the student's program, a member from outside the Department and a fifth member normally from the area of the student's dissertation research. The chair and at least one additional member of the committee must be members of the graduate faculty who have been approved for the direction of doctoral dissertations. Membership on supervisory committees may be altered at the request of the faculty or the student. Ph.D. qualifying examinations normally are taken after four or more semesters of study.
Students generally take from one to three years to complete the dissertation.
Students are required to pass qualifying examinations in the major field and one minor field. Students are expected to complete the equivalent of four or five seminars in preparation for the qualifying exam in the major field and three seminars in preparation for the qualifying exam in the minor field. Completion of two seminars in the minor non-examination field is expected. Each field specifies which seminars are needed to meet its requirements. Students are responsible to ensure that all field requirements are met.