Written Portion of the Candidacy Examination

Procedures. The written portion of the candidacy examination may be administered within a limited time period or given sequentially over an extended time period. Rules for the form, timing, scheduling, sequence, and conduct of the written portion are determined by the Graduate Studies Committee.

Waiver. If, based on evaluating the written portion, the advisor or another member of the candidacy examination committee see no possibility for a satisfactory overall performance on the candidacy examination, the student may be advised to waive the right to take the oral portion. The candidacy examination committee may not, however, deny a student the opportunity to take the oral portion.

If the student decides to waive the right to take the oral portion, a written statement requesting the waiver must be presented to the candidacy examination committee. In such a case, the candidacy examination committee records an “unsatisfactory” on the Report on Candidacy Examination and submits a copy of the student’s waiver request to the Graduate School.