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Each
student is required to take a subject oral qualifying examination
at the beginning of the second term of the first year in residence,
the purpose of which is to examine expertise in kinetics,
thermodynamics and transport phenomena. The intended level
of the exam is approximately that of the corresponding undergraduate
courses at Caltech.
Three
types of decisions will be possible: pass, provisional pass,
fail. A student with a pass or provisional pass is permitted
to begin his/her PhD research. However, a student with a provisional
pass will usually be required to satisfy some additional requirements,
such as successful completion of specified coursework.
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Students who fail the oral subject exam may be permitted to
repeat the exam (or part of the exam) once at the end of the
spring term upon recommendation of the faculty.
See
Chemical Engineering Qualifying Exams for details in
our guide to the "Graduate Program in Chemical Engineering",
page 5. Please open for viewing or printing an
Acrobat PDF (88KB) or MS
Word (72KB) file. |
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A student will
be eligible for admission to candidacy upon satisfactory completion
of the requirements described in this section.
Prior
to admission to candidacy for the PhD degree, a student is
required to pass the candidacy examination. This exam consists
of two parts: a research progress report and an oral
examination based primarily upon the content of the report.
A student who fails to pass the candidacy exam according to
the timetable and procedures described below will not
be permitted to register in any subsequent terms, except for
the purpose of completing work toward the MS degree, with
the permission of the graduate studies committee and the research
advisor.
The
written research progress report required for admission to
candidacy must be submitted to the faculty before the end
of the second term of the second year in residence. The
report is to be based upon the PhD research project and is
expected to exhibit a professional quality of exposition and
should outline the research problem, the progress of the student
at the time of writing, and the areas proposed for future
study. It is also important that the report provide clear
evidence of the student's understanding of the motivation
for the research problem and its relevance to the general
research area, as well as an appreciation of relevant techniques
and methodology. The student should strive for a precise and
concise format. Normally, the text itself should not exceed
20 double-spaced, typewritten pages.
The
research progress report needs to be approved by an oral examination
committee consisting of no less than three faculty members,
including the research advisor, and at least one additional
member of the Chemical Engineering faculty.
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The choice of the
oral exam committee will be made by the student and his/her
research advisor, and must be approved by the Option Representative.It
is the responsibility of the student to obtain approval from
each proposed committee member for the date and time of the
oral exam. The list of the recommended committee members must
be submitted at the same time as the research progress report,
and the exam is normally scheduled within two weeks of submitting
the report. However, reports submitted within the last week
prior to final course exams will normally be examined within
the first two weeks of the subsequent quarter. The exam committee
may require revision of the report, and possibly a
reexamination. In any case, an approved report, including
any revisions, modifications etc., must be submitted to the
graduate studies secretary before May
15th of the second year in residence, and the reexamination,
if required, must be scheduled no later than June
15th. Exceptions to the rule may be granted by
the faculty in unusual circumstances such as extended illness
or a change of research advisors, but only upon written petition
by the student to the graduate studies committee prior
to the end of the first term of the second year in residence.
See
Procedures for Approval of Research Progress Report and
Application for Candidacy for details in our guide to
the "Graduate Program in Chemical Engineering,"
page 8. Please open for viewing or printing an Acrobat
PDF (88KB) or MS Word (72KB)
file. |
