DOCTORAL DEGREE IN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING AND ENGINEERING
QUALIFYING EXAMINATION
Departmental qualifying examinations for the Ph.D. (Transportation Planning and Engineering) are given once per year (usually in May or June), and are coordinated with other qualifying examinations in the department. If sufficient demand exists, a second qualifying examination may be scheduled in December or January. Every Ph.D. student must pass a qualifying examination in the major area of study, and in any in-department minor areas of study before becoming a candidate for the Ph.D. Further:
- No student may register for dissertation units until the Qualifying Examination is passed.
- A dissertation committee cannot be formed until the student passes the Qualifying Examination.
- A student may take the Qualifying Examination twice. A third attempt is permitted only with the written recommendation of the Academic Advisory Committee and the approval of department head. In no case may a student take the examination more than three times.
Students normally take the Qualifying Examination (for the first time) after successfully completing most of their course requirements in the major and in-department minor areas of study.
The Qualifying Examination consists of a six-hour written portion (generally given in two 3-hour blocks on the same day) and an oral portion of approximately one hour. Both written and oral portions of the examination focus on the student’s major and in-department minor. The oral portion may also explore higher-level skill areas required to successfully conduct independent research. Students are deemed to have passed the examination based upon an overall evaluation of results of both the written and oral portions. While some students may not be invited to the oral examination if they have done poorly in the written portion, invitation to the orals does not imply that the student has “passed” the written portion of the exam.
The Qualifying Examination is either “passed” or “failed.” A letter indicating the result of each examination is placed in the student’s graduate file. In rare cases, a student may be deemed to have “conditionally passed” the Qualifying Examination. This occurs in cases where the student does extremely well in all areas except for a single subject area in which weakness has been noted. Such a student must follow a prescribed preparation plan for strengthening their knowledge and skills in the area of weakness, and must pass a special examination on the area of weakness within one calendar year. A student who has “conditionally passed” the Qualifying Examination may register for dissertation credits, and may form a Dissertation Committee.
All transportation faculty members participate in submitting written problems for the qualifying examination, in the grading process, and in the oral examination. All departmental faculty members are welcome to observe any oral examination and to ask appropriate questions. Each student’s Academic Advisory Committee will have the opportunity to review the entire exam before it is administered, and may suggest changes if it deems that the examination as presented is not an equitable test of the student’s abilities.
Recommendations on the results of the examination are submitted by each student’s Academic Advisory Committee, augmented by any departmental faculty in the sub-disciplines tested. The departmental faculty, acting as a whole, votes to accept or reject such recommendations at a meeting scheduled for this purpose.
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Qualifying Examination 
