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| Progress in Candidacy and the Dissertation Proposal |
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Early in their graduate career, students should consult with
a faculty advisor or Director of Graduate Studies regarding departmental
procedures for the appointment of sponsors of dissertations. Dissertation
Sponsors are faculty members approved by Ph.D. programs and the Executive
Committee of GSAS to guide dissertation research and to participate at the
defense. The sponsor must be involved on a continuing basis in doctoral
instruction and research at Columbia.
The procedures for appointing a sponsor differ from program to program. In some
programs, the responsibility for finding a willing sponsor rests with the
student.
When the student has completed all requirements for the
M.Phil., the department/program must complete and submit an M.Phil. application. For the student to be considered a candidate for the Ph.D.
degree, the chair of the department/program must indicate that the student has
been approved to continue to the Ph.D. The M.Phil. application form must be
signed by the department/program chair and submitted to the Dissertation
Officer in the GSAS Dean’s Office.
Beginning in the spring of the second year, a student must
submit to his or her sponsor each year the Report on Progress in Candidacy online
at https://ssol.columbia.edu. The sponsor reviews the student’s report,
determines whether or not the student is making satisfactory progress, and
reports this evaluation of progress to the GSAS Dean’s Office via SSOL in the
spring semester. Students have access to the online report from mid-January through
mid-March, and faculty have access until mid-April; specific deadlines can be
found on SSOL. Paper reports are not accepted.
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences requires that each
Ph.D. program submit their current procedures for selection and approval of
doctoral dissertation proposals to the Office of the Dean. No procedure is
common to all departments/programs, but all students must submit a written
statement in sufficient detail and analytic specificity to define the research
problem, citing pertinent sources of data and describing the methodology to be
used. Students are responsible for checking with their department/program for
any additional requirements. The Executive Committee of the Graduate School of
Arts and Sciences has the responsibility for approving changes in departmental
procedures governing acceptance of a Ph.D. thesis proposal and making the
procedures known and available to students through their departmental faculty
or Academic Department Administrator.Ph.D. thesis proposals shall be approved in writing by a
committee of three faculty in which responsibilities for each member are
clearly designated. All of the faculty must be members of the Graduate School
of Arts and Sciences or specially approved faculty as described here; one of the
three may be from outside the student's department/program.
It is strongly recommended that departments/programs
institute a policy whereby the student is given the opportunity, before the
dissertation committee makes its decision concerning the proposal, to present
and discuss the thesis proposal with the dissertation research committee and/or
the members of an appropriate departmental dissertation seminar.
The completed Dissertation Proposal Committee Report, signed and approved by the committee members, should be sent to the
Dissertation Office in 107 Low Memorial Library by the student's department.
Students typically are expected to submit their dissertation
proposal within six months after completion of the M.Phil. degree. Students
should check with their Director of Graduate Studies to see if their
department/program has an earlier deadline.
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