| Frequently
Asked Questions: The PhD Program |
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Where
can I find information on the various degrees offered?
The
official source of information about the graduate program is the
Graduate Program Web site,
in the Programs section.
What
is Normal Progress in the PhD program?
The detailed
rules are described under Normal
Progress on the Web. Briefly, in order to be making normal progress,
you must maintain a GPA of 3.0 or better and keep to the following schedule:
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First year: Satisfactorily
complete (with 3.0 or better) two full-year core courses, plus at last
one other course in each of two quarters.
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Second year: Pass
two prelims by the beginning of Autumn quarter, and satisfactorily complete
a third core course and a total of five 500-level courses.
-
Third year: Pass
one language or computer exam and finish prelims by the beginning of Autumn
quarter, and choose a thesis advisor by the end of Winter quarter.
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Fourth year:
Pass your second language or computer exam by the beginning of Autumn quarter,
and pass your General Exam by the end of Winter quarter.
Normal Progress is also
used for support decisions - as long as you are making normal progress
and your teaching performance is satisfactory, renewal of your financial
support is more or less automatic for the first five years. (After
that, support may be renewed on a year-by-year basis as long as you are
making reasonable progress toward completing a PhD dissertation.)
When
are exceptions to Normal Progress made?
The deadlines
for passing the language/computer exams, choosing an advisor, and passing
the General Exam can be postponed if there is good reason to do so; this
just requires an agreement between you, your advisor, and the Graduate
Program Coordinator. If you think you will need a postponement, it
is best to start talking with your advisor and the GPC as early as possible.
Exceptions to the rules regarding prelims, however, are subject to more
complicated rules and require a vote of the Graduate Program Committee.
The various conditions under which exceptions are commonly made are described
in detail in Normal
Progress.
What
are the core PhD courses?
Currently
there are five designated core
courses: Modern Algebra (502/3/4), Real Analysis (524/5/6), Complex
Analysis (534/5/6), Topology and Geometry of Manifolds, commonly called
"Manifolds" (544/5/6), and Linear Analysis (554/5/6). These are the
courses that the department faculty have designated as fulfilling the core
requirement for the PhD; they are also the areas in which preliminary
exams are given. In principle, courses can be added to or deleted
from the list of core courses at any time; but this happens rarely.
The last time a new core course was added was in 1993 when the Linear Analysis
course was created.
How
many core courses do I have to pass?
The simple
answer is three. However, if you pass a prelim, then you are exempted
from passing the corresponding course. So a more realistic description
of the requirement is that you have to pass three prelims.
Most students find that taking the core courses is necessary to prepare
adequately for the prelims.
Many PhD advisors
recommend that their students pass more than three of the core courses,
and it is not at all uncommon for PhD students to pass all five.
See Recommended
Programs of Study for details on which core courses are recommended
by the faculty in different fields.
How
should I choose which of the core courses to take?
Talk to
your advisor and to the faculty members in any field you are considering
as a thesis area, and consult Recommended
Programs of Study on the Web.
Do
I have to take 3 core courses my first year?
Not necessarily.
If your preparation is not sufficiently strong to allow you to take three
core courses, you might choose to take one 400-level alternative course
(see If I don't feel up to 3 core courses, what should
I take instead?). On the other hand, if your preparation
is exceptionally strong, or if you passed a prelim when you arrived, you
might choose to take a more advanced course in place of one or more core
courses. In any of these cases, be sure to discuss your decision
with your advisor.
May
I take more than 3 courses at a time?
Some people
do on occasion.
But until you've been in this program
for at least a quarter while taking three regular courses, you probably
shouldn't try it---especially if you also have a TA job. Most people
find three graduate courses plus a TA job to be more than enough to keep
them extremely busy. It is a common practice, however, to attend four courses at the start
of a quarter with the intention of trying them out and dropping one of
them after a week or so.
If
I don't feel up to 3 core courses, what should I take instead?
Each of
the core courses has one or more 400-level alternatives that you can take
instead. They are as follows:
You should consult your
advisor or the Graduate Program Coordinator as soon as you start to seriously
consider one of these substitutions. The most important prerequisite for
succeeding in any of the graduate courses other than algebra is a very
solid background in undergraduate real analysis, including a rigorous treatment
of differentiation and integration in several variables, uniform convergence,
and metric spaces. This is why 424/5/6 is listed as the primary substitute
for all of the core courses except algebra. The other 400-level courses
listed provide useful background and practice with the concepts, but for
most people the 402 or 424 sequence will be the most important fallback.
Note that PhD students are only allowed to take one 400-level course
at a time, unless they get special permission from the Graduate Program
Coordinator.
Besides
the core courses, are there other 500-level courses that first-year graduate
students can take?
There are
two other 500-level courses that are classified as entry-level
courses because they are commonly taken by first-year students and
have no graduate-level prerequisites: These are the Optimization
sequence (Math 514/5/6) and the Numerical
Analysis sequence (AMath 584/5/6). If you are interested in pursuing
your studies in one of these fields, you should probably talk with your
advisor about the possibility of taking the appropriate course during your
first year. Of course, within the limits of the Normal Progress rules,
you are welcome to take any graduate math course for which you are prepared.
(Note, however, that many advanced topics courses do not list formal prerequisites,
but instead rely on students having attained a certain level of that elusive
substance known as "mathematical maturity" by taking graduate courses for
several years. If you are at all unsure whether you have sufficient
background to take a particular course, talk with the instructor!)
What
are the registration requirements for beginning PhD students?
For beginning
PhD students who are financially supported by the department, until they
have passed prelims and chosen a thesis advisor and supervisory committee,
the basic requirement is at least 10 credits, including three graded courses
applicable to the PhD degree. This usually means three 500-level
math courses, but there are various exceptions. For example, with
your advisor's permission you may substitute one 400-level course for one
of the 500-level courses. Other exceptions require the permission
of the Graduate Program Coordinator. For details, see Registration
Guidelines on the Web. For unsupported students, there are no
minimum registration requirements.
What
are the registration requirements for advanced PhD students?
Once you
have passed prelims and chosen a thesis advisor and supervisory committee,
the "default" registration expectation is one course, one seminar, and
10 credits of "other stuff"--usually some combination of Math 800 (dissertation),
Math 600 (independent study), and other courses. But this is only
a guideline, and exceptions can be approved by your PhD advisor.
For details, see Registration
Guidelines on the Web.
I
can stop registering for three graded courses when I become a "precandidate."
What does precandidate mean?
"Precandidate"
is the Graduate School's designation for someone who has established a
supervisory committee but has not yet passed the General Exam (whereupon
you become a "candidate"). In practice, it just means you have (1)
passed prelims, (2) chosen an official PhD advisor, and (3) chosen two
other Math faculty members to be on your supervisory committee. See
Graduate
Student Classifications for definitions of the various classifications.
I
plan to register for three courses that amount to only 9 credits.
How can I meet the 10-credit requirement?
If you take
three 3-credit courses, you will need to sign up for at least one extra
credit to bring the total up to 10. The easiest way to do so is to
register for the Current Problems Seminar. Other options are to sign
up for one or more credits of 600B in conjunction with a three-credit course
(see What is Math 600B?) or to register for
a research seminar for credit.
What
is Math 600B?
This course
number is for supplemental reading in connection with a math course.
If you need additional credits to bring your total up to 10 credits, one
easy way to get them is to sign up for two credits of 600B in conjunction
with one of your 3-credit courses. You should reach an understanding
with the instructor of that course at the beginning of the quarter about
what work will be required for the extra credits. It could involve
outside reading, doing extra problems, or regular discussions with the
instructor, for example.
What
is the 15-credit rule?
It was a
Math Department rule requiring all supported graduate students to register
for at least 15 credits every quarter. It was repealed in 2000, and
replaced by more specific registration
requirements tailored to the educational needs of students at different
levels in the program.
Other
than the core courses, what course work is required for the PhD?
Basically,
you must pass three full-year 500-level math course sequences (or nine
quarters) in addition to three core courses. This is the easiest
requirement to fulfill--anyone who stays here long enough to get a PhD
will have easily completed more than enough courses for the degree, just
by continuing to register for a course or two every quarter.
Am
I allowed to take courses outside the Math Department?
Yes, provided
you are otherwise meeting the Normal
Progress and registration
requirements, and your advisor approves. Otherwise you'll need the
permission of the Graduate Program Coordinator.
What
do grades mean in graduate courses?
Passing
grades for graduate students are in the range 3.0 - 4.0. Grades below
3.0 do not count for graduate credit in the Mathematics Department, and
may not be used in fulfillment of any math graduate degree requirements
except by special permission of the Graduate Program Coordinator, and then
only if the grade is 2.7 or higher. In core courses, a grade of 4.0
means you have attained a superior mastery of the material, while a grade
of 3.0 means you are just barely performing at the level expected of a
graduate student. For core courses, grades of 3.8 or higher have
special significance; see
What is the 3.8 rule?
What
are prelims and what are they for?
Preliminary
exams, or "prelims" as they are commonly called, are four-hour written
exams in the core graduate mathematics subjects. There is one prelim
for each of the five current designated core
courses. Each PhD student must pass three of them (or pass two
and get a 3.8 course pass in a third; see What is the
3.8 rule?). The purpose of prelims is to assess whether you
have mastered basic graduate course material sufficiently well to warrant
being allowed to continue in the PhD program. These exams are the
main hurdle that PhD students must cross, other than actually doing original
research and writing a dissertation. Anyone who passes prelims is
almost certainly capable of completing a PhD degree.
Who
writes the prelims?
Each exam
is written by two faculty members with expertise in the field, usually
not including the faculty member who last taught the corresponding course.
The identities of the prelim examiners in any given year are kept confidential.
How
are prelims graded?
Typically,
each of the two examiners reads all of the papers independently and arrives
at a tentative score for each problem on each exam. Then the examiners
discuss the exams until they reach a consensus on a final score for each
problem. They submit a report to the Graduate Program Committee,
including a "raw" overall numerical score on each exam; a count of the
total number of problems each student got "substantially correct"; and
a tentative recommendation for each student's result (High Pass, Pass,
Low Pass, High Fail, Fail, or Low Fail). Then the Graduate Program
Committee discusses each exam with at least one of the examiners, and arrives
at a final result for each student, taking into consideration the overall
difficulty of the exams and the student's overall record.
What
does a "high fail" mean?
The Graduate
Program Committee decides on a grade of "high fail" when a student does
not quite show the level of mastery needed to pass a prelim, but demonstrates
enough knowledge and command of the material that passing would probably
not require a huge amount of extra work. It is meant to encourage
the student to try the same prelim again after further study.
When
will I learn the results of my prelims?
The Graduate
Program Coordinator will write you a letter describing the results.
These letters are usually delivered to student mailboxes by the Friday
preceding the start of Autumn quarter.
Can
I see my prelim after it is graded? How?
Yes, you
may. You must first choose a faculty member with whom you would like
to discuss your work on the prelim. Often this will be the faculty
member who taught the corresponding core course when you took it, but it
doesn't have to be. When you have told the Graduate Program Coordinator
who your chosen faculty member is, the exam will be released to that faculty
member, together with a summary of your results on that exam. You
can then sit down with the faculty member and look through your work on
each problem.
What
should I do if I think my prelim was graded incorrectly?
If, after
looking through your prelim with a faculty member of your choice (see Can
I see my prelim after it is graded?), you believe your exam was
graded incorrectly, you may appeal the grade to the Graduate Program Committee.
You will be asked to explain your position (either orally or in writing)
to the Graduate Program Coordinator, who will then take your request to
the committee, together with reports from the two examiners and the faculty
member who looked through the exam with you. The final decision on
prelim results rests with the Graduate Program Committee.
What
is the best way to prepare for prelims?
The most
important thing to do is to take the core courses corresponding to the
prelims you are planning to take. After that, it is an excellent
idea to spend the summer working on practice problems from old prelims.
If you will be in Seattle over the summer, you can participate in one of
the prelim prep seminars that are conducted every summer. If not,
you can obtain copies of past prelims (see Are
there past prelims that I can look at?) and study them on your
own.
Are
there past prelims that I can look at?
Yes.
They are available for photocopying in the Math
Research Library. If you take a prelim prep seminar in the summer,
you'll be given copies of some old exams to work on in the seminar.
Otherwise, you may request copies of old exams from the Student Services
Office (Padelford C-36, 206-543-6830, grads@math.washington.edu).
What
is the 3.8 rule?
A PhD student
may be exempted from one written prelim by receiving grades of 3.8
or higher in each of the three quarters of the corresponding core
course. See Normal
Progress.
If
I retake all or part of a core course and get 3.8's the second time, does
this count toward a course pass?
No.
The purpose of the 3.8 rule is to enable students who have unquestionably
mastered the material the first time to move on to other things, not to
encourage people to take courses repeatedly just to avoid written prelims.
If
I get a 3.8 course pass in a class and then fail the prelim, does the course
pass still count?
Yes.
If
I don't pass prelims by my third September, what options do I have, assuming
I really want to get a PhD?
That depends
on what the Graduate Program Committee says to you. If you haven't
passed three prelims by September of your third year, the committee will
probably tell you one of three things: (a) You are allowed to continue
in the PhD program anyway; (b) You are given the option of writing a Master's
thesis, and the committee will re-evaluate your case in the spring based
on your work on the thesis; or (c) You are not allowed to continue in the
PhD program and are expected to finish this year with a Master's degree,
with no further financial support from the Math Department after that.
Response (a) is rare indeed, and is only given when a student has passed
two prelims and nearly passed a third, and the rest of the student's record
is so overwhelmingly positive that the committee has no doubt that he/she
will be able to complete a PhD dissertation. Occasionally (about
once a year on average) response (b), the "MS thesis option," is given
to a student who is otherwise doing well in the program, who came close
to passing three prelims, and who the committee has reason to believe might
be able to do well at research despite having problems with written exams.
The overwhelming majority of students who do not pass prelims are given
response (c). Of course, even students who get response (c) sometimes
consider continuing in the program as self-supporting students, but experience
suggests that most such students would probably be better off moving on,
either to another university or to a different career path. Failure to
pass prelims by the third September places a student out of the PhD track;
unless the prelim requirement is waived by the Committee, the student is
not allowed to declare a PhD advisor or form a supervisory committee. In
case (a) the Graduate Program Committee decides to waive the prelim requirement
during its meeting following prelims in September. In case (b) it considers
the possibility of waiving the requirement during the review meeting the
following May. In case (c) it takes no action, leaving the student out
of the PhD track.
May
I change my advisor? How do I go about that?
Yes, you
may change advisors any time, provided all parties agree. Get an
advisor change form from the Student Services Office (C-36), fill it out
and, after it has been signed by yourself, your old advisor and your new
advisor, put it in the Graduate Program Coordinator's mailbox for his/her
approval. (Your new advisor must sign to indicate that s/he agrees to be
your advisor. The purpose of getting your old advisor's signature
is simply to ensure that he or she has been notified of the change.)
How
does the general exam work?
The General
Exam has two parts--an oral part and a written part. Its purpose
is to allow the Graduate Program Committee to verify that you've attained
enough knowledge of your chosen field to understand some open problems
and methods for attacking them, and are ready to proceed with thesis research.
The oral part is typically a 50-minute lecture on the background and methods
in your research area. The written part is typically a 10-20 page
expository account of the same material. To be making normal progress,
you must pass the General Exam by the end of Winter quarter of your fourth
year. For details, see the description of the General
Exam on the Web.
What
if I fail my general exam or don't take it on time?
First, it
must be said that it is rare for students to actually fail the general
exam. Usually, if a student is not sufficiently prepared for the
exam, the advisor will make arrangements to have it delayed until he or
she is ready. If you do fail, you can take it again.
As for the deadline, if you are not ready to take it by the deadline, you
and your advisor may negotiate a later time for the exam with the Graduate
Program Coordinator. As long as you're continuing to make reasonable
progress toward preparing for the exam, the department is often able to
be flexible about the dates.
How
many language exams do I have to pass?
Either two
language exams, or one language exam and one computer programming exam.
The choices are up to you, but you should consult with faculty members
in your chosen field (or with your thesis advisor if you have one) to make
sure that your choices are appropriate for your field. Some of the
Recommended
Programs of Study include suggestions about which language or computer
exams are appropriate.
What
is a language exam like?
Typically
you and the examiner agree in advance on a particular mathematical book
in the given language. Then on the day of the exam, the examiner
chooses a passage from that book, which you have to translate into English
with the aid of a dictionary.
I've
never studied language X. Should I take a course to prepare for the
language exam?
Only if
you want to study the language for your own reasons, for example to read
Voltaire, Goethe, or Tolstoy in its original language, or to prepare yourself
for spending a year in a foreign country. But for passing a Math
Department language exam, all you really need to do is buy yourself a dictionary
and a basic grammar book, get a couple of mathematical books in the given
language from the library, and spend some time during the summer reading
the math book with your reference books at hand, looking up each word or
construction you don't know and writing it down. At first, you'll
have to look up almost every word. But after a while, many of the
words and phrases you read will already be on your list. There may
be some troublesome grammatical constructions that you won't find in your
grammar book, such as "Let X be ... ," and you'll have to ask for help.
If you practice this way daily for a month or two, you'll be ready to pass
your language exam.
Who
can give language exams and in which subjects?
The list
changes from time to time. The current list is on the PhD
Exams page on the Web.
What
is the computer programming exam?
It is an
alternative to one of the language exams, designed to ensure that you can
design, write, and debug computer programs at a basic level. There
are basically two ways to pass the exam: You can pass one of a certain
list of designated courses with a grade of 3.0 or better, or you can present
a working computer program (either one that you have written previously,
such as for a course or a job, or one that you write for this purpose).
See the description
of the exam on the Web.
I
took course X, for which I wrote a substantial computer program.
Does it fulfill the computer requirement?
Unless the
course is on the current list of designated
courses that automatically fulfill the requirement, you'll have to
present your program for one of the examiners to evaluate. There
are many courses that sometimes require computer programming assignments
of varying scope, but the courses on the list are the only ones that the
examiners have accepted as automatically fulfilling the requirement.
If you know of a course that regularly requires a programming project whose
scope is similar to or greater than that of the PhD programming requirement,
you may request that the examiners add it to the list of designated programming
courses.
Who
can give the computer programming exam, and in which languages?
See the
description of the computer
programming exam on the Web.
Who
should take the computer programming exam?
Since computer
programming is increasingly important for mathematics research and teaching,
as well as being essential for using mathematics in industry, it is the
belief of the Graduate Program Committee that the great majority of PhD
students should choose the computer programming exam. For more specific
recommendations from faculty members in various fields, see Recommended
Programs of Study.
When
should I take the computer programming exam?
Probably
as early as possible. Because the summer after passing prelims is
an excellent time to try out an industrial internship, it would be a good
idea to learn computer programming during your first or second summer if
you haven't already done so.
What
is the best way to prepare for the computer programming exam?
If you think
you will be using computers extensively in your own work, then it probably
makes sense to take a course that requires a substantial amount of programming.
Otherwise, just choose a programming project that is interesting to you
(for example, something suggested by a math course or by a book or paper
you're reading), choose a language (you might want to ask around to find
out which language is most appropriate for your chosen problem), buy a
reference book about that language, and start writing code. The computing
staff or computer TAs can help you if you get stuck.
Is
a Master's degree required before going on to write a PhD dissertation?
No.
Many PhD students choose to get a Master's degree along the way, but it
is not required. Since you will probably fulfill all of the course
requirements for a Master's degree during your first two years in the PhD
program, all you have to do for a Master's degree is the final Master's
exam. Thus, adding a Master's degree to your credentials takes very little
extra effort and will never hurt you; it may help you (in unexpected ways)
in the future.
I
want to do something that isn't covered by any of the rules. Am I
out of luck?
Not necessarily.
Talk with your advisor first, and then talk with the Graduate Program Coordinator.
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