The Advisory Committee determines the format and makeup of the speciality exam. This exam tests the student's intellectual potential and knowledge in her/his chosen area of research. Possible formats for this exam are a written or oral exam over selected research papers or the writing of a critical summary of selected research papers. The speciality exam is often combined with the dissertation proposal described below. In this case, the student makes a public presentation of the proposed dissertation research, followed by a closed session in which advisory committee administers the exam and provides detailed comments on the plans for the dissertation.
Again, as with the computational exam, the Advisory Committee will review the results of the speciality exam and decide on a pass, conditional pass, or fail, and again a vote of 75% is required for a pass or conditional pass. In the case of a conditional pass, the actions of the Advisory Committee parallel those outlined above for the computational exam.
The computational exam should be taken by the end of the second year of residence; the speciality exam should be taken within one academic year of passing the computational exam. Though a CS&E student is not required, for example, to take the computational exam until the end of the second year, s/he is advised to take it as soon as feasible.
Each exam--the computational and the speciality--may be taken twice. If either is not passed by the second try, the student will be dismissed from the CS&E program. A student may take the speciality exam before the computational exam. However, the computational exam should still be taken by the end of the second year of residency in the program.
After each part of the comprehensive examinations, the Advisory Committee may, if it wishes, meet with the student to discuss the results and/or contents of the examination. The Advisory Committee may wish to meet with the student before determining the outcome, i.e., pass, fail, or conditional pass, of an exam.
After successfully completing the comprehensive examinations, the form Report on the Comprehensive Examination(*) should be filled out and turned in to the Graduate School. The student is now said to have obtained Doctoral Candidacy.