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Home > Graduate Studies > Degree Programs > Ph.D. : Ph.D. Forms & Procedures

Doctor of Philosophy Forms & Procedures

You will be delighted to know each stage of the Ph.D. is rich with forms to be filed with the Graduate School and the English department. Below we have outlined the forms and procedures necessary for each stage. The Graduate School provides a forms page. General questions about doctoral studies at Minnesota should be directed to the Graduate School.

Coursework Stage

  • Establish a committee. Your committee should have three internal members and one external member. If you have a formal minor, the external examiner must have Graduate Faculty status in that minor. To make changes to your committee, have your adviser contact the Director of Graduate Studies. If you would like to have someone from outside the University on your committee, you need to write a justification for that request and give it along with the person’s CV to the DGS. The DGS will write a statement of request to the Graduate School.
  • Declare a minor field, if you intend to do so. You cannot declare a minor field after you take your preliminary oral.
  • Degree Program Form. File with the Graduate School at least one semester before you take your oral preliminary exam. The English Ph.D. program is currently designed so the student should take the written and oral prelims in his or her third year. File your degree program as soon as a) you know what courses will be used to fulfill the requirements, and b) you have an advisor and have created your committee. Do not wait until the semester of your written exam to file your degree program. Please note that the degree program form is not the same as the "advising card" that you have been using to keep track of the degree (distribution) requirements.
  • Foreign Language Certification Form. File with the Graduate School to verify your reading knowledge of a foreign language. A reading knowledge of two languages is generally required. It is possible that you may be able to exhibit "advanced proficiency" of one language; if this is the case you do not need to certify a second language. Check with the DGS about the guidelines for this. The Graduate School must have a record of your language certification before your final defense.
  • Operational and Advising Record (PDF). File with the Department of English Graduate Studies Office and update periodically in conjunction with the Director of Graduate Studies.
  • Degree Progress form (Word). File with the Graduate Studies Office every year to maintain active funding status and, for those beyond funding, to remain in good standing.

Preliminary Exam Stage

  • Register for pre-thesis credits (EngL 8666). You may register for up to 12 credits of EngL 8666 to compose a booklist and prepare for your preliminary exams. With DGS permission, you may register for up to 12 further credits of EngL 8666. Doctoral students enrolled before summer 2007 may complete up to 60 credits of EngL 8666.
  • Booklist. You and your committee create a booklist of fifty to seventy works in your area of research. Sample booklist. Submit a final copy of your booklist with all committee members' signatures (either on the list or up to two cover letters) to the Graduate Studies office at least one month before taking your preliminary exam. Create the booklist for your preliminary exam in consultation with your advisor and committee. Committee members should not add books to your list after you turn it in to the Graduate Studies Office.
  • Schedule your preliminary written exam with your committee, and inform the Graduate Studies Office of the time you will be picking up the questions. There should be more than two weeks between turning in your preliminary written exam and taking your preliminary oral exam. Pick up the exam questions from the Graduate Studies Office secretary. The English faculty members of your committee will provide two or three questions from which you pick one (sample questions). You will have one week to write the exam essay, or up to two weeks if you are an international student whose first language is not English. Distribute a copy of your exam to all committee members, and give a copy to the Graduate Studies Office for your file. Normally the written prelim exam is read by the three internal members of your committee.
  • Preliminary Written Examination Report. File this form with the Graduate School after you pass the Preliminary Written Exam. Your committee has one week before they must tell you whether you have passed and an additional week to distribute comments on the exam. Committee members will turn in a copy of their exam evaluations to the Graduate Studies Office, which will be put in your file. The Preliminary Written Examination Report form needs to be signed by your advisor and DGS and submitted to the Graduate School no later than one week before your oral exam.
  • Doctoral Preliminary Oral Examination Scheduling Form. File this form with the Graduate School a week before taking the Preliminary Oral Exam. Preliminary oral exams must be scheduled with the Graduate School by the student. You must be able to say where your exam will be held. Exams are usually scheduled in Lind 207A, in the Wright Room, or in the Center for Medieval Studies, if appropriate. If one of your committee members has to attend the exam via speakerphone, inform the Graduate Studies Office secretary as soon as possible so she can make arrangements.
  • Preliminary Oral Examination Report. The Graduate School will mail the Report of Preliminary Oral Examination to your advisor, who will be the chair of your preliminary oral exam. Following the exam, the committee signs this form, and the student must deliver it to the Graduate School within 24 hours. If a committee member has attended via speakerphone the form must be sent via express mail to that person. You should inform the Graduate School of this fact so they know that the report form will be arriving in their office a few days late.
  • After you pass the oral preliminary exam, you have five years to complete and defend your dissertation. This time may be extended by a petition to the Graduate School when circumstances warrant

For more information, see Preliminary Exam FAQ.

Dissertation Writing Stage

  • Choose a chair for your final defense who cannot be your advisor. The examination chair must be a Full Member of the Graduate Faculty; he or she may be from outside the English department. Your defense committee should have three internal (major field) examiners and one external (minor or supporting program) member. If you have a formal minor, the external examiner must have Graduate Faculty status in that minor.
  • Choose dissertation readers from your defense committee. Your advisor, one other English professor, and the outside professor are the “reviewers” or “readers” of your dissertation. They read each chapter as you complete it and provide advice and guidance on improvements, from major rewriting to minor revisions. You may find it helpful to join a writing support group: most of the subfields or research groups act as support by reviewing and responding to chapters in progress.
  • Thesis/Project Proposal Form. File with the Graduate School within one semester of passing the preliminary oral examination. The Thesis/Project Proposal Form is three pages: The front page lists your final exam committee, the second one includes the title of your dissertation, and the third page has space for a 250-word abstract of the dissertation.
  • Thesis Proposal. The Department of English requires a more extensive, formal proposal. Under the guidance of your adviser and committee, you will draft a prospectus of 10 to 15 pages, including chapter titles, outlines, and also a brief critical review that situates the project within existing scholarship and describes its methodology. The chapter outlines should mention some of the texts you expect to address within the dissertation. Your committee will give you advice on the overall feasibility of the project and may make suggestions about your theoretical approaches, the scope of the material you plan to include, and research opportunities you should explore. The committee must formally approve your prospectus.
  • Register and complete thesis credits (EngL 8888). As you write your dissertation, you must complete 24 thesis credits. The Department requires you to register for 12 thesis credits a semester. After that point, you must register for Full-time Equivalent (EngL 8444) to remain eligible for University employment or fellowships. The DGS will approve Grad 999, a zero-credit, zero-fee, non-graded registration option, for those students who must register solely to meet the Graduate School’s fall and spring registration requirement. Do not register for Grad 999 if you must be registered to hold an assistantship, maintain legal visa status, defer loans, or receive financial aid.
  • Dissertation Formatting Guidelines (PDF). As you finalize your writing, make sure you are following the Graduate School's published formatting guidelines.

Oral Defense of Dissertation Stage

  • At least two weeks before your final oral defense, pick up or request a packet from the Graduate School which includes the Thesis Reviewer's Report, Survey of Earned Doctorates, Microfilm Agreement, Application for Degree, and graduation information. You do not need to register your thesis title with the Graduate School.
  • Thesis Reviewer's Report Form. After you complete your dissertation, your three reviewers sign the Thesis Reviewer's Report verifying that it is ready for “defense.” You may fax a Xerox of the reviewers' form to any reviewer who is out of town at this time. This is not true of the final exam report form, where a signature is needed on the original form. Turn in the Thesis Reviewer's Report to the Graduate School at least one week before the oral exam. At this point you must tell the Graduate School where the exam will be held.
  • Schedule your final oral defense. Inform the Graduate Studies Office secretary of the date, time, and place of your exam, as well as the title of your dissertation. If one of your committee members must attend the exam via speakerphone, inform the Graduate Studies Office secretary as soon as possible so she can make arrangements. You need to defend your dissertation within five calendar years after you pass the preliminary oral.
  • Exam Report Form. The chair of your exam committee will receive this form in the mail and bring it to your exam. The Graduate School will review your file and check that all necessary forms have been filed, including the forms for language certification. If there is a problem, they will call you. In case there is no time for them to mail the form after clearing up any problem, they will ask you to pick up the exam report form and deliver it to the exam yourself. Upon successfully completing the final oral defense, you should submit the final Exam Report Form to the Graduate School offices within 24 hours. If a committee member has attended the defense via speakerphone, the form must be sent via express mail to that person. You should inform the Graduate School of this fact so they know that the report form will be arriving at their offices a few days late.

Graduation Stage

  • Application for Degree Form. To qualify for graduation in any given month, you must submit the application and pay the graduation fee to One Stop Student Services in 200 Fraser Hall on or before the first work day of that month.
  • Dissertation. You must also turn in to the Graduate School one unbound copy of your dissertation and the dissertation abstract (signed by your adviser), by the last working day of the month, to graduate that month.
  • Commencement Attendance Approval Form. In order to attend commencement ceremonies in either December or May, you must obtain the signatures of your adviser and the Director of Graduate Studies on this form and submit it to the Graduate School by the deadline date published in the current calendar posted on One Stop.
  • Survey of Earned Doctorates. File with the Graduate School.

For more information, see Dissertation Writing FAQ.

A Few More Rules

The Graduate School's Degree Program Form is an official document, essentially a contract between you and the Graduate School. You should maintain a working version of the Degree Program Form and the Department's Operational and Advising Record to help you keep track of where you are going. A petition is necessary to make changes in your degree program, i.e., to change your language requirement if you declared a language but ended up studying another, or to ask for a time extension to complete your degree. You can pick up a petition in the Graduate School or in the English Graduate Studies Office. Both your advisor and the DGS must sign the form.

To remain on active student status you must register every Fall and Spring semester. To be a teaching assistant, research assistant, or administrative fellow, you must take at least six credits during the term (or, after you have completed thesis credits, one credit of EngL 8444). Registration for Pre-Thesis (EngL 8666) and Thesis (EngL 8888) counts toward your minimum-credit-per-term requirement. You are not required to register for intersession or summer school if you are teaching in those terms.

With the prior approval of the DGS, you may use a 3-credit Directed Readings course (EngL 8992) for part of your Degree Program.

You may transfer up to 40% (17 credits) of your course requirements from another recognized graduate school, or from courses taken at the University of Minnesota for graduate credit. These courses must appear on your official graduate transcript. More information about transfer credits.

Continued financial support from year to year depends on your demonstrated satisfactory progress toward the degree and successful completion of assigned duties.