As soon as possible after joining the program, Ph.D. students should submit to the graduate chair a "breadth statement" which consists of a detailed description all graduate-level courses taken, and designate which of the nine subject areas described in the qualifying examination they believe each course falls under.  The document will be reviewed by the graduate committee and the graduate chair will communicate for which subject areas the student will be given credit and how many areas are yet to be covered.  Credit for a subject area will be given if the student has a graduate level course which is deemed by the graduate committee to fall within that subject area.

The outcomes of this process are either:

• that it is determined that the student has covered at least 5 subject areas and has passed the qualifying exam; or


• that it is determined that the student has covered less than 5 subject areas.  In such cases, the student is granted a conditional pass of the qualifying examination subject to taking the necessary number of additional graduate courses in areas not already deemed to be covered to bring the number of covered subject areas up to 5.

Guidelines for Preparing your Breadth Statement

The graduate committee has prepared a set of guidelines for writing your breadth statement.