After completing two semesters in the PhD program, every student will take qualifying exams in math and two topical areas, selected by the student and his/her dissertation committee. The student and committee will select 4 out of the 9 subjects in the math syllabus for the math qualifying exam. The student will be tested on these 4 subjects.  The student must answer all the questions in these 4 subjects and obtain 70% or above to pass.

The student and the committee will select the two areas for the topical exams.  70% or above is the passing grade in the two topic areas. 

For each of the three exams, two outcomes are possible:  Pass (70% or more) or Fail (<70%). If the student passes all three of the exams, the student must present his thesis topic proposal to his/her dissertation committee in the semester following the semester in which the qualifying exam is taken. If the student fails any or all of the exams in the first attempt, then he/she will either be allowed to retake the failed exam(s) or terminated from the program.  If the student fails any exam for the second time, this is sufficient grounds for termination from the program.

The application form for the PhD Qualifying Exam is available here.

Click the links below for syllabus and example papers