The qualifying examination must be passed in order to advance to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. It is an oral examination administered by four faculty members appointed by the Graduate Division on the advice of the graduate advisor. The composition of the committee will be chosen jointly by the student and the graduate advisor, in consultation with the research advisor, and with final approval from the Chair of the Graduate Advising Committee. The committee should reflect the breadth of the student's background by having members that have expertise in the different areas of study, usually the student's major and minor areas. At least three members should have expertise in the major or thesis area of the student, and at least one member must be chosen from outside the Applied Science and Technology Graduate Group. The student's research advisor is allowed to serve on the oral committee but cannot be the committee chair.

The purpose of the exam is to determine the ability of the student to carry out an independent research project. The student should prepare a short summary of his or her proposed research project. This will usually be the project the student anticipates for a thesis. The proposal should be written as an abstract of 1 - 2 pages and should outline the general goals of the project, their significance, and the methods used to approach them. It should not include "preliminary data." The summary should be distributed to the members of the committee no later than one week prior to the exam.

Typically, the exam will start with a 1/2 hour presentation of the research proposal by the student. The presentation will be interspersed or followed by questions from the members of the committee. These probe the student's grasp of the basic principles that underlie the project, the details of the methods used, and the significance of the project within a wider context. The student will be expected to be familiar with any area of knowledge that would be required to carry out the proposed research and to interpret the results. A total of about one hour will be allowed for the presentation and the questions.

In the second hour, the committee may explore relevant areas of science and engineering that were not adequately covered in the first hour. The questions will generally be related to the student's research area and the minor fields. The questions, however, must satisfy the breadth requirement of the qualifying exam by covering both the major and minor areas chosen by the student. Some questioning may go beyond the proposed subject to test the ability of the student to carry out independent research. It is strongly suggested that the student discuss the exam in advance with each member of the committee who will give some general idea of what the student is expected to know.