Completing Your Degree
Tracking your Progress
You must meet each semester with your doctoral advisor to determine what coursework/doctoral credits you should register for during the next enrollment period. Use the PhD Record of Progress to track your own progress in the program, and bring your personal copy when you meet with your advisor to lift your advising flag for the coming semester.
Time to Degree
PhD students are expected to complete all degree requirements within six years from the semester in which they are admitted and begin course work in the doctoral program. If you fail to complete the degree in this six-year period, you may be dismissed from the doctoral program. To continue, you must file a petition for an extension of the time limit with the Dean of the Graduate School. Such petitions must be endorsed by your thesis advisor and may be granted for up to one year. According to Linguistics departmental policy, if seven calendar years have elapsed since your matriculation in the program, the entire faculty must vote to approve any petition for extension that you submit to the Graduate School.
The faculty use the following benchmarks to define ideal progress through the doctoral program:
| Academic year 1 | Pass all required coursework, officially select thesis advisor and advisory committee, submit Prelim Exam proposal (deadline in early Spring semester) |
Spring of academic year 2 | Pass Prelim Exam and pass remaining coursework |
| Spring of academic year 3 | Submit Synthesis Paper |
| Academic year 4 | Engage in research towards the Dissertation Prospectus; successfully defend the Dissertation Prospectus |
| Academic year 5 | Successfully defend the Dissertation |
Full-Time Status & Continuous Registration
To retain full-time status, you must be registered for at least five credits of coursework or one doctoral dissertation hour prior to passing your proposal defense, or five dissertation hours beginning in the semester after the proposal defense.
A PhD student is required to register continuously as a full-time student.
Doctoral Thesis Credits
To complete the requirements for the PhD degree, a student must register for a minimum of 30 dissertation credit hours. These are distinct from the 30 credits of coursework hours that are required for the PhD.
Beginning with the semester following the passing of the comprehensive examination and extending through the semester in which the dissertation is successfully defended, PhD students must be registered for a minimum of five dissertation hours in the fall and spring semesters of each year. If the dissertation defense is held in the summer, students must additionally be registered for at least five dissertation hours for that summer semester.
PhD students are expected to complete all degree requirements within six years from the semester in which they matriculate in the doctoral program.