A student entering the DPPD program with a master’s degree in a related field will likely be awarded ‘advanced standing status,’ applying a blanket twenty credit units from the previous master’s degree toward the 60-unit DPPD doctoral program requirement. These 20-units will be credited and applied to the transcript after the student passes the qualifying examination, the presentation and approval of the research proposal usually at the end of the third year of study, thus indicating a 40-unit total program requirement. With advanced standing, the DPPD degree is a full-time, four-year program with expectation students enroll in one course per semester for a coherent cohort experience.