Ph.D. and Designated Emphasis Advising

*Faculty should have at least four weeks to review and return work with edits. This date is just four weeks before the final M.A. paper is due.

*The Ph.D Qualifying Committee form has to be submitted to the Graduate Division at least 4 weeks prior to the Exam date.
**Last date to take QE oral exam for candidacy to take effect the following quarter.
*** Obtain QE committee confirmation that they will be available for your QE during the summer.

There must be a minimum of three readers between the two statements. One reader between the two statements may be from outside the Sociology Department. The first reader should be from sociology. Any exceptions need to be approved by the Graduate Director.

Readers should have at least four weeks to read and approve the field statements. Students should anticipate a couple of rounds of revisions before their field statements are approved.

To be within normative time, final versions of both field statements should be approved by the 9^th quarter of study and no later than the end of the 11^th quarter of study. Students should begin their work on field statements after their master’s paper is approved. Typically, one field statement takes one or two quarters to complete.

Once field statements are finalized, copies of the field statements and a Field Statement Approval Form signed by all the readers should be submitted to the Graduate Coordinator. 

• A contextualized statement of the research/theoretical question. This should be a clear, descriptive statement about the question you want to study, why that question is theoretically, empirically, and/or methodologically significant, and sub-questions that will aid you in addressing your major question.
• A brief, initial literature review that indicates the context of the thesis. This is a critical review of the existing literature related to your question, including both what you have learned from it in terms of your work, and its productive value in helping you develop questions that speak to and extend the literature.
• A description of the methodology proposed for the thesis and its appropriateness, strengths, and weaknesses, along with a discussion of the material you want to analyze in order to answer your questions.
• A brief, initial bibliography.
• An outline of your probable dissertation chapters (if possible).

To be within normative time, the dissertation proposal should be completed by the 12^th quarter of study. A final copy should be submitted to all Qualifying Examination Committee (see below) members no later than the fifth week of the quarter in which the oral qualifying exam will be held. Students should anticipate the need to revise their dissertation proposal at least once or twice before it is approved. Faculty should be given up to four weeks to read and comment on the statements. It is the student’s responsibility to schedule and coordinate the various steps of the QE process. Students should begin their work on the dissertation proposal after their field statements are approved. 

This is the four-member committee that advises the student during the dissertation proposal writing phase and conducts the oral examination of the dissertation proposal. The committee comprises three Sociology Department faculty members and one outside member. In exceptional cases, with the permission of the Graduate Director, non-sociology faculty in place of the three sociology faculty may be appointed. An outside member may be a UCSC faculty member from a different department or a sociology faculty member from a different university. Although the department does not fund outside committee members to come to campus for the oral exam, hybrid arrangements may be made with the permission of the chair and other committee members. The chair of the Qualifying Exam committee cannot chair the Dissertation Reading Committee.

A Committee Nomination for the Doctoral Qualifying Exam form must be submitted to the Graduate Division for approval at least a month prior to the QE date.

To be within normative time, students must advance to candidacy by the beginning of their fifth year of study.  If students do not pass the qualifying exam by the end of the fourth year of study (leading to ATC at the beginning of the fifth year), they will be required to submit an extension of normative time form in order to extend financial aid eligibility. The appeal includes the reason for the delay, current status in the qualifying stage, and timeline for completing the work to advance to candidacy.  Qualifying exams should be scheduled in the quarter during, or immediately following, field statement approvals

The student should find a date and time that works for all of their committee members for the exam. Once a date and time have been set, email the Graduate Coordinator to schedule a room. As a rule, the oral exams are held during the regular academic year. However, students may schedule oral exams during the summer term, subject to the availability of the committee members.

This is the committee that will advise the student during the dissertation research and writing phase. Committee members should be nominated before a student advances to candidacy. A committee must have a minimum of three members, and the majority of the committee must be members of the UCSC Academic Senate. The chair of the committee should be from the Sociology Department. The chair of the Qualifying Exam committee cannot chair the Dissertation Reading Committee.

An outside chair must be approved by the Graduate Director. Students may also designate co-chairs. Emeriti faculty may serve on the committee, but they must have recall appointments in any quarter they sponsor Socy 299: Thesis Research credits, or to sign off on the degree. The Dissertation Reading Committee is likely to have overlaps with the Qualifying Exam Committee.

The final draft of the dissertation should be sent to the Dissertation Reading Committee at least four weeks prior to the end of the final quarter, except for in the spring term, when it must be sent to the committee at least six weeks prior to the end of the quarter. Approval is given via a signed front title page of the dissertation. Submission guidelines are published on the Graduate Division website. A hard copy of the title page with original signatures should be turned in to the Graduate Division. Email the Graduate Coordinator a copy of the title page with original signatures and a copy of the final draft.