The Qualifying Exam consists of four separate exams. One will cover Computation Theory and another Analysis of Algorithms. Two others will cover areas chosen by the student and his/her Advisory Committee. Each exam will be a 4-hour written exam. Questions on a given exam will be drawn from the material specified by a syllabus on file with the Graduate Secretary.
The Qualifying Exam will be given (when requested) in the beginning of fall and spring semesters of each year. If a student requests an exam and changes his/her mind and decides not to take the exam, the Graduate Secretary must be given two weeks notice prior to the exam that the exam will not be taken. Failure to give two weeks notice will result in a failure of the qualifying exam if the student does not take the exam.
Each exam will be both written and graded by two graduate faculty chosen by the CS Department Graduate Director. The CS Department Graduate Director and the faculty who wrote the exam will form a committee to determine pass or failure for each exam. A student passes an exam if 2 members of this committee vote pass.
Students have two years from the start of the first semester of enrollment in the CS Ph.D. program to pass the four exams. Extension of the deadline may be requested in writing by the student to the CS Graduate Committee. Students may take any exam at any offering as long as they are all passed within the two-year limit. Students will be given two opportunities to pass each exam. Students may petition the CS Graduate Committee in writing for an additional attempt.
The purpose of the Qualifying Exam is to ensure that each student is qualified to teach senior-level courses in both the theory needed in all fields of Computer Science, and two different general research areas (such as AI, graphics, software engineering, compilers, operating systems, architecture, etc.) within computer science.