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Ph.D. ProgramsThe Ph.D. program does not require the completion of a Masters degree, but directly admits those qualified applicants who hold an undergraduate history degree or who have completed appropriate undergraduate history preparation. Graduate Record Examination (Ph.D.)Applicants for the doctoral program must submit official scores from the General GRE Examination directly to the History Department. Transfer Of CreditWith the approval of a candidate's advisor, up to fifteen hours of prior graduate work in history, whether completed at the University of Colorado or elsewhere, may be transferred into the Ph.D. program. Grade Point AverageThe Department of History requires a 3.3 grade point average to obtain the Ph.D. degree. No grade below a B- will count toward fulfilling the minimum degree requirements. If a student's grade point average should fall below 3.0, the student will be placed on probation with one semester to raise the grade point average to at least 3.0; failure to accomplish this will terminate the student's participation in the program. Time LimitDoctoral students normally are expected to complete all degree requirements within six years from the date of the start of course work in the doctoral program. Students who fail to complete the degree in this six-year period may submit a petition, endorsed by the advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies, requesting a maximum of a one year extension to complete all degree requirements. If the Graduate School does not approve the petition, it may drop the student from the program. This six-year rule is applicable regardless of when the student passes the comprehensive examination. Students admitted for fall 1998 or earlier may elect to structure their committees and fields according to the following plan. Those opting for the following revised rules are also bound by the rules noted in those parts of the Graduate Handbook that are not here revised (such as rules governing transfer of credit, grade point average, the dissertation, etc.). Course Work RequirementsA minimum of 45 semester hours of post-baccalaureate course work at the 5000 level or above is required for the degree, including a minimum of six hours of seminar work at the 7000 level. Ph.D. candidates must have taken HIST 5000 - "Historical Methods: Introduction to the Professional Study of History"— or its equivalent. Students in American and European history must complete the relevant colloquium sequence in its entirety (three courses in American history, two courses in European history). Foreign Language RequirementAll Ph.D. candidates whose native language is English will be required to demonstrate at least second-year (fourth semester) college proficiency in a foreign language of the student's choice. This proficiency may be demonstrated by courses indicated on a student's undergraduate transcript or by passing a fourth-semester course in a foreign language with a C or better. At the discretion of the student's committee, additional languages may be required. Advisory CommitteeEach student has an advisory committee consisting of five members: two members from the comparative field (B or C), and one member from each of the other two fields. If no field is internally comparative, the student may select any member of the department to be the fourth member of the committee. (See below for the definition of these fields.) The Director of Graduate Studies ordinarily will be the fifth member of every committee. If the Director of Graduate Studies is already a member, another member of the departmental graduate faculty will substitute. The student, in consultation with his or her major advisor, should settle on the composition of this committee by the end of the student's first year in the program. After an initial meeting with the committee sometime during the first year, the student will meet regularly with his or her advisor and with the full committee if needed. Each spring the student and advisor will meet to assess the student's progress; the advisor will then prepare a report for the student's file. Students preparing for comprehensive examinations will meet with their advisory committee the semester before the examination to discuss the exam fields and preparation for the exam. At the beginning of the semester in which the student is to take the exam, the student will meet with the full committee and give the members lists of reading completed in the B and C fields. The purpose of the lists, as with the common lists for the A fields, is to set the boundaries of the exam in each field. The committee will also discuss possible exam topics and advise the student regarding his or her readiness to take the written and oral components of the exam. Comprehensive ExaminationThe comprehensive examination will be taken when the candidate has reached what may reasonably be assumed to be his or her last semester of course work. The candidate must have a 3.3 grade point average at this time and must have completed the foreign language requirement. A student must be registered as a regular degree student on the Boulder campus at the time the comprehensive examination is taken. The candidate must register for the comprehensive exam by filing the "Application for Admission to Candidacy" with the Graduate Secretary no later than the first week of the semester in which the examination is to be taken. The examination will be both written and oral. The written component of the examination consists of a four-hour written test in the A field. The questions are drawn up and graded by diverse members of the departmental faculty. Approximate Written Exam Schedule
The oral component of the examination is conducted by the candidate's advisory committee, but is, in principle, open to all members of the university's graduate faculty. The oral exam stresses the thoughtful articulation of ideas and arguments—skills that are central to the professional study and teaching of history. The written examination must be passed before the student may take the oral exam. PLEASE NOTE: All students admitted to the Ph.D. program as of the fall of 1999 will fall under these rules. All previously-admitted Ph.D. students may remain under the old rules or may choose to be under the newer ones. Once a student has begun the examination process under one set of rules, he or she may not change to the other system. Comprehensive Examination FieldsField A - Defined Chronological Ph.D. Fields 6-9 hours
Field B - Defined Thematic Ph.D. Fields 6-9 hours Students entering the Ph.D. program will choose, in conjunction with their advisor, the field in which they intend to prepare themselves to do advanced research under the geographic rubric of their A field. Examples of such fields include social and economic history, intellectual and cultural history, political history, labor history, women's/gender history, diplomatic history, Western-American history, and history of science. See Appendix B, "Boulder Faculty Fields of Research and Interest" for a list of potential B fields about which students may approach relevant faculty. Field C - World Areas, 6 Hours Students will take two courses in a single World Areas region (Africa, Middle East, Latin America, China, Japan), as follows: Course #1: a course focused upon a particular region, normally taken during the first year of the Ph.D. program. Course #2: Seminar: Topics in World History. Each student will focus on a topic or theme of interest (possibly related to his or her A or B field) in the same world region as Course #1. The Written Component of the Comprehensive ExaminationEach Ph.D. student shall be required to take a four-hour written comprehensive examination in his or her A field, answering three questions from a list of six. All A fields will have standard reading lists. The administration of the written comprehensive examination will be the responsibility of the Graduate Studies Committee, constituted and operating as follows: At the beginning of a student's Ph.D. program, each student would work with relevant graduate faculty to establish a 3-person subcommittee for the A field. Its function would be to advise that particular student on courses to take, reading lists to work through, and exam preparation for the A field. It would then be the committee's responsibility to set the A field exam for that particular student. While it will not be necessary for the student to take courses from each member of his/her committee, this system will allow the student to become familiar with the academic interests and orientation of each of the individuals who will be responsible for setting the written comprehensive examination. These committees will not be assigned by administrative fiat, but will be the product of faculty/student discussion and consultation. The three-person committee will be chaired by the faculty who will in all likelihood be the student's dissertation advisor. Comprehensive Examination Grading RulesThe committees for the various A fields who write the exams will have seven days to grade them. Each of the three essays shall be graded separately by each reader, using letter grades. Each Grade from A to F will be evaluated as follows:
All nine grades will then be averaged together. An average of B is the minimum passing grade on the written exam. If a student fails the examination, Graduate School rules allow the student to retake it only once. The Oral component of the Comprehensive ExaminationA. The Graduate Studies Committee, upon certifying the successful completion of the written component of the examination, shall direct the student's Ph.D. committee to conduct the oral examination. B. The oral examination will ordinarily last two hours and allows for thirty to forty minutes of questioning in each of the three fields. (Field A is included in the oral exam and is graded without reference to the written component.) The chair of the examination committee shall keep track of time and ensure an equitable division among the examiners. The student will select the order in which his or her fields occur in the oral examination. C. The student will leave the room at the end of the oral, and the committee will decide the results and convey them to the student immediately after the decision is made. The committee member responsible for the field (or members in the case of a comparative field) decides whether the student passes that field. The Director of Graduate Studies witnesses the exam and acts as an advisor to the committee. He or she does not vote on the fields, but certifies along with the others the grade on the exam. The grades for the fields are:
B is the standard for pass. A student must pass all three fields to pass the oral component of the exam. A student failing the oral exam must retake the entire oral exam in all three fields, and may do so only one time. DissertationThe University requires that a Ph.D. candidate be registered as a regular degree student in residence on the Boulder Campus for at least five and no more than ten dissertation credit hours each semester after passing the comprehensive examination. A student not in residence at the University may register for 3 dissertation hours and will be considered to have "off campus" status. The use of certain University facilities (e.g. the library, recreation center, etc.) is prohibited to off campus students. The candidate must accumulate thirty dissertation credits. The dissertation is to be based upon original investigation and must demonstrate mature scholarship and critical judgment, as well as familiarity with tools and methods of research. Dissertation research and writing are directed by the candidate's advisor assisted by a second reader, chosen by the advisor and student. Dissertation ProspectusPrior to undertaking dissertation research, a student must submit a Dissertation Prospectus to the Graduate Studies Committee for approval. Students will have six months from the time they pass their comprehensive exams to submit a dissertation prospectus. The prospectus must be accompanied by a letter of support from the student's advisor indicating the approval of the student's advisory committee. A guideline for preparing the prospectus is available from the Graduate Secretary. Defense of DissertationUpon completing the dissertation, the candidate will undergo a final oral examination (the defense) focusing upon the dissertation and the candidate's major field of specialization. For the defense, one member of the five-member committee must be drawn from the University's graduate faculty outside the Department of History. The four departmental members shall consist of the advisor, the second reader, and faculty related to the student's major areas of study (generally those who were members of the comprehensive oral examination committee). All committee members must have current graduate faculty appointments. Three of the five members must be Boulder campus resident faculty. The chair and outside member must have tenure and/or a regular appointment. In case any of these members is unable to be present at the defense, including the advisor or second reader, the advisor may substitute faculty from related fields with the express approval of the Director of Graduate Studies. The University or outside faculty representative should be from a discipline related to the dissertation topic or the candidate's major area of study. The second reader must be consulted by the advisor at all stages of the candidate's dissertation work. The oral defense shall not be scheduled until both readers have approved the dissertation. The advisor shall then submit to the Director of Graduate Studies the names of committee members for approval, after which the departmental office will schedule the examination and contact the committee members. All members of the committee shall have at least thirty days prior to the oral defense to examine a complete and finished copy of the dissertation. A finished copy is defined as a legibly typed copy that is complete with bibliography, though not necessarily in polished form. Rough drafts and patched-together copies are not acceptable. Only after full assurance that the foregoing steps have been completed shall the Director of Graduate Studies authorize the actual holding of the oral defense of the dissertation. The purpose of this oral defense is to ascertain that the dissertation is an original contribution to scholarly knowledge in the field. The above departmental rules with respect to the Doctor of Philosophy degree supplement, but in no way supersede, the requirements of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado as set forth in the latest University Catalog. |
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