Qualifying Exam and Dissertation

Qualifying Examination

The first part of the qualifying procedure is based on a combination of written and oral examination that is administered during the first week of June, during the first year of studies, and core course grades accumulated during the first three semesters. The examination is comprised of a written literature review and research proposal (along the lines of a NIH proposal) presented to and evaluated by a panel of faculty examiners. 

The second part of the qualifying exam involves a satisfactory defense of a thesis proposal as early as six months after passing the qualifying exam and no later than the end of the fall semester of year three.

To successfully give you post-qualifying status, both the written qualifier and oral proposal, have to be completed in a satisfactory manner.   

Dissertation Proposal

Each candidate writes a dissertation proposal that must be approved by the committee before the end of the fall semester of the third year. The proposal should contain sufficient detail to clearly define the research problem, describe the proposed research plan, and defend the significance of the work. Preliminary results are expected. The suggested length including figures, tables, and references is 15-30 pages, but the format is ultimately decided by the advisor/committee of the student. 

Dissertation Defense

Procedures for a dissertation defense are as follows:

• The dissertation committee, working with the student and reviewing dissertation drafts, concludes at some point before the end of the 6th or 7th year of study that the doctoral work is complete.
• The student requests that an “Outside Committee Member” letter be prepared by the Graduate Program Assistant with approval from the Graduate Director. This is for the 4th committee member. 
• A complete final draft of the dissertation document is due to the dissertation committee no less than two weeks prior to the dissertation defense to allow the committee time to review.  
• A dissertation defense is held to which the public is invited. The Graduate Program Administrator will assist the student by making a flyer and announcing the date of the dissertation via e-mail.
• Immediately following the public dissertation presentation, the student and committee members have a follow-up discussion in which additional questions can be explored at the discretion of the faculty.
• The dissertation committee meets in executive session to decide whether the thesis defense was satisfactory.  Additions or editorial changes to the thesis document may be suggested to the student by the committee at this point.
• The student makes final corrections on the written dissertation and follows the guidelines set by the BME Graduate program to upload to Sakai for checking and the Graduate School regarding the timely submission of all forms, the collection of signatures on the candidacy form and title page and the submission of all dissertation materials, as outlined in the Dissertation Style Guide.