To Advance to Candidacy, students need to:

Pass a Qualifying Examination

This exam is taken after a student has satisfied all course requirements. A student may take the qualifying exam before completing all course requirements under special circumstances.

Form a Dissertation Committee

This committee should consist of four members, including one member of the STEM Education Graduate Faculty who agrees to serve as Supervisor. At least three members must be on the STEM Education Graduate Studies Committee (GSC), and at least one of the four must come from outside the STEM Education GSC.

Complete the Dissertation Proposal

All students are required to write a dissertation proposal and to submit it to their committee one week prior to a public discussion. A public discussion will be held to provide feedback and suggestions on the proposal. Notify the Graduate Coordinator via email with the planned date of the proposal discussion. The Graduate Coordinator will generate a signature form (in FMP) and place it into Docusign for the committee. The purpose is to have an official accounting that the proposal defense happened. The Graduate Coordinator will update the electronic files with the date.

Contact the C&I Graduate Coordinator for the STEM Ed Advance to Candidacy form

Complete the Advance to Candidacy form which includes your Program of Work, plus an approximate title and abstract for the student’s dissertation proposal. Request an unofficial transcript from the Graduate Coordinator, if needed. Upon approval, this form, along with a letter from the Graduate Advisor, is either shared with the STEM Education GSC for discussion and a subsequent vote at a meeting, or instead emailed to the STEM Education GSC for balloting. In the latter case, the GSC is given seven days to respond, and can call a meeting to discuss the questions if there are questions about the program of work. In either format, a majority vote is necessary for advancement, and the student is not present at these meetings.

Submit an online application for Doctoral Candidacy

The Graduate School's Advancing to Doctoral Candidacy webpage contains important information. The completed online application includes the names of the members of the student’s doctoral committee and a description of the dissertation proposal that is no more than 60 lines. The student's dissertation supervisor, the Graduate Adviser, the Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee, the doctoral degree evaluator, and a dean at the Graduate School all must sign off on the electronic form.

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