A student must be admitted to candidacy for the doctorate at least 12 months before the degree can be conferred. The 12-month period is the minimum time frame (two semesters plus summer term) needed to fulfill the graduation requirement of 18 credits of BIOE 899: Doctoral Dissertation Research. It is strongly recommended that the candidate maintain the same membership on the Committee for the entire period of candidacy. Any necessary replacement of a committee member should be conducted as soon as possible. It is further recommended that the candidate meet with each committee member, individually or in a group (inclusion of Dean’s representative optional) once per year and that the candidate assemble a meeting of the entire committee as a whole (Dean’s representative optional) ~6 months prior to the intended dissertation defense date to present work completed and propose experiments to finalize the dissertation.

The following are required for the student’s application for admission to candidacy:

• Successful completion of the Ph.D. proposal exam
• Completion of all required coursework with a grade of B (3.0) or better in each of the core courses and a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0
• Application for Admission to Candidacy form (PDF) signed by advisor

All students must be admitted to candidacy within five years after admission to the Ph.D. program. Prior to approval of the Application for Admission to Candidacy form, the BIOE Graduate Office conducts a candidacy audit of the student’s file. The form must be received by the Graduate School prior to the 25th of each month in order for the admission to candidacy to be processed for the first day of the subsequent month.