Degree Requirements

Table of Contents

Advising

Each graduate student is assigned an initial advisor when they are accepted into the program. PhD students consult with their faculty advisor to develop the Plan of Study, detailing courses to fulfill the breadth and depth requirements and the Preliminary Exam to be attempted. First-year PhD students must submit their Plan of Study, signed by their advisor, before registering for courses in their second semester. The duties of the faculty advisor will later be assumed by the chair of the student's thesis committee.

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Plan of Study

The PhD Plan of Study document lists the courses intended to fulfill the breadth and depth course requirements. This is an online form that students submit and may be resubmitted as many times as plans change.  A minimum of 30 credit hours of graduate level courses are required. In addition, a minimum of 30 credit hours of thesis work are required for all doctoral degrees within the Graduate School. Students are encouraged to take a mixture of breadth and depth courses during the first 2.5 years.

Several examinations that are required by the Computer Science Department for graduation with a PhD degree are described below. In addition, there are requirements of the Graduate School that must be met. These include requirements related to:

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Course Requirements

 

The doctoral degree requires 30 credits of courses plus 30 credits of dissertation hours. Coursework includes both breadth and depth courses. Depth courses should be closely related to the student’s research interests and should be intellectually distinct from breadth courses. Breadth courses should cover a range of Computer Science topics outside the student’s research interests.

Required Professional Development (3 credits)

• CSCI 6000 Intro to PhD 1 (1 credit) - taken during first fall.
• CSCI 6100 Research Colloquium (1 credit) - taken any semester.
• CSCI 6200 Intro to PhD 2 (1 credit) - typically, taken once students pass their area exam and before they defend their proposal. The objective of this class is to prepare our graduates for their careers. 
  • (Note: students need to have total 30 credits of coursework that counts towards their degree before they defend their poposal. Also, students may not double count the same course credit towards two degrees at the same level i.e. two PhDs, if you are in a more than one PhD program)

Depth Courses (18 credits)

18 graduate-level credits with faculty advisor approval. Within this 18 credits, no more than six credits can be Independent Study research hours and up to four (12 graduate level credits) non-CS classes with advisor approval.  Students need at least a B or better in these courses.

CSCI Courses

At least 12 of the 27 depth and breadth credits (i.e., 4 out of the 9 courses) must be CSCI courses, excluding dissertation credits, professional development series and independent studies. No more than six credits of independent study research and up to four (12 graduate level credits) of non-CS classes with advisor approval.

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Area Examination Requirement

The purpose of the Area Examination is to ensure that the student has sufficient depth to begin research in a selected area. The exam tests knowledge of the general area of computer science that contains the research topic, deeper specialized knowledge of the specific research area that the student will be working in, and intellectual sophistication needed to conduct research in the area.

The Area Exam is a component of the PhD Preliminary Exam. The PhD Preliminary Exam fulfills the Graduate School requirement for a Preliminary Exam. The Preliminary Exam consists of an Area Examination Requirement plus Course Requirements. It complements the course work requirement of the preliminary exam, which is meant to build breadth in computer science in general and general knowledge of the student's research area. The area examination contrasts with the comprehensive exam (proposal defense) which is devoted to a focused research theme.

Selecting an Examination

• Each student is given an advisor upon entry to the PhD program. Students must discuss with their advisors on the format and requirements of their area exams. Because the Area Exam and coursework selections are related to competencies in a specific subject area, any students with an academic advisor outside of CSEN or their area of interest should attempt to find a faculty member qualified to advice on the coursework and area exam components of the plan of study. The academic advisor signing the plan of study need not be a student's PhD research advisor, but should be in a related area in order to make the transition easier.
• A student may switch academic advisors with the approval of the new advisor. The new advisor will approve a revised Area Exam Plan. A student changing areas who has already completed an area examination will not be required to take another. Instead the student will be required to make up any deficiencies as determined by the new advisor.
• Once students select the Area Exam Committee, they need to email the list to their academic advisor (staff) to make sure all their members have current graduate faculty appointment. 

Examination Scope and Scheduling

• Committee requirements: There must be an area exam committee which consists of three members who hold graduate faculty appointment with Graduate School. It must have significant CS participation: at least two CS tenured or tenure-track faculty. Faculty outside Computer Science may serve on the committee as members; however, the chair of the committee must a tenured or tenure track Computer Science faculty member.
• Fairness requirements: The area exam requirements must be clearly written out and communicated to the student and the committee. These requirements can be standardized by area or for an individual student, it can be standardized by the committee in consultation with the student. However, it is important that these requirements along with expectations for pass/conditional pass/fail communicated up front.
• Timing Requirements: The area examination must be passed by the end of the sixth semester in order to be making adequate progress. It will normally be taken during the end of second academic year or start of third academic year. Students may opt to complete their area exam as soon as they complete the THREE BIN classes or wait to complete no later than end of the sixth semester.
• Reporting Requirements: An Area Exam Report must be submitted upon successful completion of the exam. This report form must be sent to the graduate advisor within 7 days of the exam's completion. It must be signed by all committee members and include the outcome: pass/conditional pass (if yes, what conditions)/fail. The candidate must get feedback from the committee.
• A student is allowed at most two attempts total to pass the Area Exam.
• The date the exam will be offered, as well as its format, are at the sole discretion of the committee offering the exam.
• Faculty will attempt to maintain consistency in the exams. Exams in different areas should be at similar levels of difficulty. The material tested by the exam is roughly the equivalent of two graduate courses minimum and three graduate courses maximum, although the exam need not be based on any specific courses.
• An exam must be offered again, within a year, if a student wishes to retake it to earn a passing grade.

Grad Comm suggested format:  

• Choose 20 papers on a broad topic related to the student's PhD research.
• Choose a set of 3 breadth + depth classes related to this area as pre-requisites that the student must complete with a grade of B or better before taking the exam.
• Present a survey of these papers for 45 minutes in front of the student's committee. The exam is open to other graduate students, faculty members, and members of the public. Ideally, the presentation should summarize, critique, and identify opportunities for new research to be carried out.
• After the presentation, members of the public may ask questions of the candidate
• After that, the committee will privately ask additional questions of the candidate. These questions can be free form but should pertain to the content of the papers read by the student and/or the pre-requisite classes in their area.
• The committee then decides whether to pass, conditionally pass, or fail the student based on the quality of the presentation, the level of sophistication of the student's understanding of the area, and their ability to properly answer the questions posed to them.

Once students complete their area exam, they need to fill out the AREA EXAM REPORT, collect signatures from the members and email to their academic advisor (staff). 

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Thesis Advisor & Committee

The student must find a thesis topic and a thesis committee; these are usually done in parallel. The committee must include five faculty and your advisor is automatically one of these and is the committee Chair. The other members need to have Graduate faculty appointment with Graduate School, who will agree to serve. The Chair’s policy requires that at least three members of the committee have to be tenured or tenure track CS faculty. If the chair of the committee is a faculty who holds a courtesy appointment with CS, they will be considered equivalent to a CS faculty for committee role purposes. There does not have to be a non-CS member on the committee for your Proposal Defense. Rules for your final Dissertation Defense committee are a bit different, so you might as well assemble your committee only once. For, your final Dissertation Defense committee, one member has to be from outside the Computer Science Department but from CU Boulder(termed as "Outside Member").

The thesis topic must be acceptable to the committee and the committee must believe that the student is capable of doing the research needed to complete a thesis on this topic. This is measured by the comprehensive exam (Graduate School's terminology), which as implemented in Computer Science is really a thesis proposal to the student's committee.

The student's thesis advisor is the chair of the thesis committee and takes over the advisory role from the student's initial advisor.

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Comprehensive Exam/Proposal

Each student is expected to take the Comprehensive Exam/Proposal within four years of the student's admission to regular degree status. The purposes of the Comprehensive Exam are to insure that:

• the student has a sufficient grasp of the fundamentals of the chosen thesis area to begin research;
• the student has the ability to exchange ideas and information with the members of the Advisory Committee; and
• the student has a broad base of knowledge about computer science.

The exam, normally an oral exam, will be given by the student's five-person thesis committee (approved by the Graduate Director). A passing grade is given if at least four of the five members of the examining committee vote to award to passing grade. The student shall not, however, receive a passing grade if the chair of the examining committee does not vote to award a passing grade. Doctoral Comprehensive Examinations must be scheduled with the Graduate School at least two weeks in advance by submitting a Doctoral Examination Report.

Once students are ready to defend their proposal -

Step # 1 - Please email  the list of your committee members to your academic advisor (staff) as soon as you decide and at least 3 weeks before your defense date, so that they may check Graduate Faculty Appointments for your committee members.  Once they give you an okay on your committee list, please go to the step #2.

• Most students use the same committee for dissertation defense; therefore, it will help to know information on Dissertation committee requirements. Dissertation committee requires that THREE faculty members be CS tenured or tenure track. One member needs to be and OUTSIDE member, defined as someone from CU Boulder but outside your home department. If you plan on using the same committee for your dissertation defense, then kindly inform who will serve as an OUTSIDE member in your committee. If you do not have anyone in that category but have an external outside of CU member, please notify your academic advisor and they will process their appointment to be your OUTSIDE member, accordingly.
• For any external (non-CU) members, your academic advisor will need the most updated short resume of the member to process their faculty appointment to allow them to serve on your committee. This process takes anywhere from THREE weeks to a month, in some cases.
• If you plan to use different committees for proposal and dissertation, then for your proposal defense the OUTSIDE member is not a requirement. You need to have THREE CS T or TT faculty and two members may be from CS, outside CS but in CU or outside of CU.

Step #2 - Please read the instructions at THIS LINK very carefully and follow instructions there to complete the process for your DocuSign Exam form.

Step #3 - Once you successfully defend your proposal, please visit  the Candidacy Application Instructional Guide and fill out the candidacy application form online.

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CSEN PhD Dissertation Hours

• To complete the degree requirements for the PhD, a student must register for a minimum of 30 dissertation credit hours.
• A student may not register for more than 10 dissertation credit hours in any one semester, including summer.
• Consult with your research advisor/PI (faculty) and graduate academic advisor (staff) regarding the number of hours you need to enroll in any given semester.
• Since these hours are controlled enrollment, in order to sign up for dissertation hours in any given term, you need to submit the Grad Petition available at under “Submit a Petition”
• You need to fill out this form EVERY TERM you wish to enroll in these hours.

Every PhD student on either TA or RA appointment and all international students need to maintain full time status.  Based on PhD student’s grad status, full time status is defined as follows:

• Status A - Registered for coursework – need at least 5 credits of graduate level course credit.
• Status C – Pre-Comps (proposal defense) - Registered for coursework or coursework/dissertation hour combination – requires at least 5 credits of graduate level course work OR if combining coursework and dissertation hours then 1 dissertation hour. 
• Status E - Pre-Comps (proposal defense) - Registered for dissertation hours only – requires at least 1 dissertation hour
• Status D – Post Comps (proposal defense) – Registered for dissertation hours only – requires at least 5 dissertation hours

Things to keep in mind before deciding on the number of hours - 

• Taking just 1 dissertation hour during your pre-comps (proposal) status puts you in full time status, unless you have federal student loans or any other financial aid, then please contact the loan provider to see the number of credits you are required to defer your loans.  If you have any other kind of scholarships, then you must check with the funding agency on their full-time requirements – if they go by Graduate School rules, then 1 hour during pre-proposal status is fine.
• For international students: taking 1 dissertation hour during pre-proposal status is full time for their visa requirements.
• For US Citizen and US Permanent Residents: please review the mandatory student retirement deduction information before making your final decision on the number of hours. For domestic students, if they wish to avoid the mandatory retirement deductions, we recommend enrolling in at least 3.0 hours.
• After passing the comps (proposal defense) students need 5 dissertation hours to be in full time status. After passing the comprehensive exam a PhD student is required to be continuously registered each fall and spring semester through the semester of the dissertation defense. The registration requirement is full-time (5 dissertation hours) or part-time status (3 dissertation hours).
• Students cannot enroll in more than 10 dissertation hours per term.
• Students need 5 hours during the term they defend your dissertation.

 Some of the details are also available on the Graduate School's Doctoral Degree Checklist.

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Thesis Defense

A thesis based on original investigation and showing mature scholarship and critical judgment, as well as familiarity with tools and methods of research, must be written on some subject approved by the student's Thesis Advisory Committee.

After the thesis has been completed, a final exam on the thesis and related topics will be conducted. This exam is oral and open to anyone.

The exam will be conducted by a committee, appointed by the Dean, which will consist of no fewer than five representatives, including at least three tenured or tenure track members of the home department, one outside member from CU but outside the home department, and the last member could be from CU or professor from the University at large or experts from industry, if required by their research.

More than one dissenting vote will disqualify the candidate in the final exam. Thesis Defense must be scheduled with the Graduate School at least two weeks in advance by submitting a Doctoral Examination Report.

Once students are ready to defend their Thesis and have finalized the committee members and the date of their defense:

Step #1 - Students should email their academic advisor (staff) the list of their committee members as soon as you decide and at least 3 weeks before your defense date, so that they may check that everything looks fine with the committee. Once they give you an okay on your committee list, please go to the next step.

• Dissertation committee requires that THREE faculty members be CS tenured or tenure track. One member needs to be and OUTSIDE member, defined as someone from CU Boulder but outside your home department. If you do not have anyone in that category but have an external outside of CU member, please notify your academic advisor and they can process their appointment accordingly.
• For any external (non-CU) members pleaes email your acdemic advisor the most updated short resume of the member, to process their faculty appointment to allow them to serve on your committee. This process takes anywhere from THREE weeks to a month, in some cases.

Step #2 - Please visit THIS LINK and read the instructions very carefully and follow instructions there to complete the process for your DocuSign Exam Form.

Step #3 - Once you successfully complete the defense -

• Please complete the Thesis Approval Form (TAF) process through docusign where you will identify your committee chair and one other member to sign the form.  The two members will receive the form simultaneously with a copy of your thesis attached for their review, to ensure that the committee approves the final version with any revisions requested by the committee. Once complete with approval signatures, you will receive the final version of the form, and you will save the pdf document and submit to UMI/Proquest as a supplementary file along with their thesis or dissertation. The thesis submission will not be complete without this supplementary form.  The form is located on our academic forms website, and step by step instructions are included as well.
• Your academic advisor will be processing your final grade report online a day before your defense and your advisor will receive a notification to submit the final grade after your defense.
• Students need to follow other deadline to submit documents to Graduate School for the term they are defending.
• Please send following information to your academic advisor a week before your defense to announce your defense.
  • Name
  • Title
  • Committee List
  • Date/Time/Venue of defense
  • One paragraph abstract
  • Few sentences of biographical note on yourself.

PhD students are required to submit the Survey of Earned Doctorates by the thesis/dissertation submission deadline.  While we have highly encouraged the survey’s completion in the past, we would like to better facilitate the data-driven work of the Graduate School, the NSF, and other federal agencies by requiring its submission.  The survey collects information to assess characteristics of the doctoral population and trends in doctoral education and degrees, and it is important for CU to be accurately represented.  More information about the survey is here.

 

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Transfer Credit

You may transfer up to 21 semester hours of approved courses from another university or graduate courses taken as non-degree student, with the approval of your advisor, the Graduate Director of the Department, and the Graduate School. If you are transferring these courses from another college, you need to do the following –

-        If you are wanting to transfer breadth courses, please reach out to your graduate academic advisor for the petition process as Grad Comm reviews breadth course transfer requests.

-       If you are wanting to transfer depth courses, please discuss this with your faculty advisor and a Request for Transfer of Credit form needs to be filled out. Once you have completed at least SIX credits with a B or better grade, please fill out the Transfer of Credit form.          This form will need to be signed by your advisor and then uploaded to the ONLINE PETITION FORM along with copy of your transcript.

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MS Degree for PhD Students

Many doctoral students enter the program directly from an undergraduate program and do not have a master’s degree. During the course of a normal doctoral program, if you complete either of the following TWO options for Traditional MS requirements, you may pick up a master’s degree on your way to PhD. Professional MS degree option is not available to PhD students. This does not apply to students who already have a Master's degree and are using transferred credits from MS to meet their 30 course credits towards their PhD requirement, unless they have any graduate level approved credits that have not been used towards any degree. 

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Grades

The Graduate School requires that to receive PhD, a student must maintain a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0 in all courses taken as a graduate student and no grade lower than a B- can be counted toward the doctoral degree. However, the department requires that no grades lower than a B can be counted toward the breadth and depth requirements. Department requirements supercede Grad School requirements.

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Timeline

All requirements for the PhD degree must normally be completed within six years of the start of course work.

In addition to completing your course requirements, preliminary exam and comprehensive exam, you should get started with your research agenda as soon as possible. This includes exploring research areas/topics, getting to know your research community, attending professional conferences in your research area, doing research and disseminating research results via writing/submitting/publishing research papers and presenting them at appropriate venues. An important first step towards achieving this goal is to start meeting with your adviser regularly and integrate yourself into a research group of interest as soon as possible.

The guidelines below serve as a checklist for you to ensure that you are making adequate progress. They are based on a timeline set by the Graduate School and the Graduate Committee, but we encourage you to complete them and the PhD program sooner if possible.

If you feel that you are behind according to this schedule, the Graduate Committee encourages you to seek discussion with your adviser, a faculty mentor or the Graduate Committee.

Please note that adhering to these guidelines is a necessary but not sufficient condition for success. Ultimately, the quality of your research and successful completion of the course requirements, preliminary exam, comprehensive exam and PhD dissertation will lead to the PhD degree.