Ph.D. Qualifying Exam

Exam Purpose

The exam evaluates your capacity to perform outstanding research, and has several goals:

  1. To motivate you to review and synthesize course work and research material.
  2. To determine your creative potential to pursue doctoral research.
  3. To determine your ability to understand and apply fundamental concepts.
  4. To test your oral communication skills and your ability to respond to questions.
  5. To identify areas that need strengthening as you work towards the doctorate.

Exam Structure

Exams are given during the second and third weeks of the Fall, Winter, and Spring academic quarters. The exam lasts approximately two hours. It begins with a 20 minute research lecture followed by questions about your research, and detailed questions in four technical subject areas.

Administrative Procedure to Schedule your Exam

 

PLEASE DOWNLOAD THE QUALIFYING EXAM FORM HERE

PLEASE DOWNLOAD A PDF VERSION OF THE POLICY AND PROCEDURES HERE

  1. Obtain a Faculty Sponsor. An Academic Council Member from the Department of Mechanical Engineering must be willing to supervise your Ph.D. program and dissertation. The decision by the faculty member to supervise the program and dissertation is based on your potential to become an independent scholar, as well as many other factors, including your undergraduate and graduate course record, research, teaching, and professional experience. The most important factor is the direct knowledge the faculty sponsor has of your research capabilities. You need a minimum graduate Stanford GPA of 3.5 to be eligible for the exam. Students are encouraged to work together to prepare for the exam. Typically the exam is taken shortly after earning the masters degree. Students with MS degrees from elsewhere are expected to take the qualifying exam during spring quarter of the 1st year, or autumn quarter of the 2nd year of the Ph.D. program.
  2. Prepare an Application Folder with:
    1. Updated transcripts of all undergraduate and graduate course work.
    2. Curriculum vitae.
    3. Unofficial Stanford transcript and GPA calculation.
    4. Title and abstract for the research lecture given during the exam (less than 200 words).
    5. Preliminary dissertation proposal (one to three pages) providing a rationale and methodology for the proposed work.
  3. Choose an Academic Quarter for the Examination. Exams must be taken in the second or third week of the Autumn, Winter, or Spring quarters. The application folder must be submitted first to the faculty advisor for approval on the date indicated below. Approximately two weeks later, the folder is due to the Office of Student Affairs.

    Due to Faculty Sponsor Due to Department
    Fall Quarter Exam — May 15* June 1*
    Winter Quarter — October 15* November 1*
    Spring Quarter — January 15* February 1*
    * If this date falls on a weekend or holiday, the material is due on the closest following business day.
    After the committee has been identified and you have received department approval, schedule the specific date and time of the exam with the examiners.
  4. Choose Four Subjects. Together with your faculty sponsor, choose four independent subjects. Two of the subjects must be taken from separate lines in the list below. For example, "Solid Mechanics" and "Design" satisfy the two subject requirement, whereas "Fluid mechanics" and "Heat transfer" do not.

    The two remaining subjects may be drawn from the list without constraint. Alternatively, one or both of the additional subjects may be topics not listed. Unlisted Subjects need to be chosen together with your faculty sponsor to reflect the breadth and depth of your knowledge in topics relevant for your thesis.
    1. Biomechanics
    2. Controls
    3. Design
    4. Fluid Mechanics - OR - Heat Transfer
    5. Manufacturing - OR - Materials
    6. Mathematics - OR - Computational Methods
    7. Thermodynamics - OR - Reactive Systems
    8. Solid Mechanics
    Note that these requirements do not prohibit the use of two subjects from a given line in the above list, as long as at least one other line is represented. For example, the following four subjects would be allowed: "Mathematics", "Computational Methods", "Manufacturing", and "Materials".
  5. Choose Examiners. Select four examiners together with your faculty sponsor. At least three examiners must be members of the academic council. The faculty sponsor may be one of the examiners, but not the chair of the committee. At least one of the examiners should be from outside the faculty sponsor's group.
  6. Meet with Examiners and Focus the Subject Material. Meet with each examiner at least two months before your exam to discuss and determine the specific subject content. Each subject shall be approximately equivalent to the content of two courses, which may or may not be available at Stanford.
  7. Prepare a Research Lecture. The exam will start with a 15-20 minute lecture on your research. One week prior to the lecture, send each committee member a "reminder" containing the abstract of the lecture, as well as the time and location.

Outcomes

Immediately after the exam, the committee will deliberate on all of the information it has acquired during the process and will decide on a result (pass, conditional pass, or fail) as described below:

  1. Unconditional Pass
  2. Conditional Pass
    In this case, the committee will outline the weaknesses and conditions the student must fulfill before attaining candidacy. Examples of conditions include courses to be taken with performance at a specified level, improved communication skills as evidenced by a certain activity, completing one quarter as a Teaching Assistant in a relevant course, or re-examination in one or more subject areas. These conditions should be recorded on the appropriate form and submitted to the Student Services Office. When the conditions have been met, with the faculty sponsor's endorsement, the student will request a change in status from "Conditional Pass" to "Pass". The Chair of the Graduate Curriculum Committee will act on the request.
  3. Fail (with or without the option to retake)

A majority vote of the Examination Committee is required for both the pass and the conditional pass. The exam cannot be taken more than twice and may not be retaken during the same quarter. The Chair of the exam committee will notify the student and Student Services of the results.

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