Candidate Checklist for
PhD or DIRECT PhD DEGREE

It is your responsibility to make sure all degree requirements have been met, before filing for candidacy.  Registering for candidacy 3 times in a row attracts a fee of $200 from the Purdue Graduate School.

To help review if all degree requirements have been met, please check against the list below:

  • Cumulative GPA is at least 3.0
  • Plan of study is updated with required courses for your degree, and is complete:
  • Minimum of 90 graduate course and research credit hours are needed (including at most 30 credit hours from your Master’s degree)
    • PhD
    • Minimum of 21 credits of graduate level coursework (500- and 600- level) beyond the Master’s degree is required, that are technical and quantitative-in-content
    • Includes at least one 600-level lecture course (cannot be same course used to meet math requirements)
    • Includes 6 credit hours from the Math (MA) department (cannot include independent study courses)
    • Incudes another 3 credit hours from Math or an approved applied math course.
    • Includes no more than 3 credit hours of independent study
    • Includes enough credit hours of thesis research completed with “S”, so that with your Master’s credits plus the 21 credits of PhD coursework, you achieve at least a minimum of 90 credit hours (usually more) total.
    • D-PhD
    • Minimum of 36 credit hours of 500- or 600-level coursework required that are technical and quantitative-in-content
    • Includes at least one 600-level lecture course (cannot be same course used to meet math requirements)
    • Includes 6 credit hours from the Math (MA) department (cannot include independent study courses)
    • Incudes another 3 credit hours from Math or an approved applied math course.
    • Includes no more than 3 credit hours of independent study
    • Includes at least 54 credit hours of thesis research completed with “S”, so that with your 36 credits of PhD coursework, you achieve at least a minimum of 90 credit hours (usually more) total.
  • All 3 Area Exams have been passed, and any conditional passes have been completed.
  • Preliminary Exam has been passed
  • Two completed, registered semesters took place between the Preliminary Exam and the Final Exam.
  • Final Exam has been held, or will be held before the semester deadline, early enough to get completely approved before the deadline. (See the Final Exam page for more details.)
  • Deposit date will be at least a day before the semester deadline.
  • Make sure to register for candidacy in the scheduling assistant, before the end of the first week of classes.
  • If registering as CAND 991, are you registered for research in the candidate semester?
  • If registering as CAND 992 or 993, research registration took place in the semester before the candidate semester?

 

ME Graduate Office
516 Northwestern Ave. (4th floor of Wang Hall)
West Lafayette, IN 47906
MEgradoffice@purdue.edu
(765) 494-5730
Virtual office hours available every Tues/Wed/Thurs