PROGRESS
TO THE DOCTORATE
PRE-CANDIDACY
Ph.D. Program
First-Year Review. A progress review designed to assess and help
you with your capacity to think about problems and issues conceptually,
analytically, and critically is held in the spring of your first year.
The review lasts about 30 minutes with you, your faculty adviser, and
three review committee members appointed by the doctoral program chair.
For this review,
you submit two papers that you have written, one
of which must be from your work in the doctoral program.
Therefore, you may wish to include a course or seminar in your fall
schedule in which a scholarly paper is a requirement. Students may submit
the paper prepared for SW 279. Please submit papers which best indicate
your substantive interests and your ability to deal with these interests
abstractly and analytically. You must also tentatively identify your
three fields of study and submit a brief statement describing your educational
objectives and career plans. Discuss any questions you have with your
faculty adviser.
The purpose of
the review is threefold: 1) to permit faculty to evaluate your progress
to date; 2) to appraise the extent to which the doctoral program is
meeting your educational objectives; and, 3) to offer consultation regarding
possible fields of study for the qualifying examination and faculty
members with whom to work. During the review, discussion may focus on
your course work, research interests, fields of study, future plans,
or any matters related to your progress toward the Ph.D. degree. After
the review, your adviser will share the committee's recommendation with
you and will prepare a summary for your file. The committee's recommendation
is used in considering your continuation in the program. Successful
completion of the review is required before you apply to take the qualifying
examination.
If the committee
feels it is necessary, students may be reviewed again in subsequent
years. Yearly progress summaries, as reviewed by the doctoral chair,
may also show need for a student to be reviewed a second time during
their pursuit of the Ph.D.
Combined MSW/Ph.D.
students, including those who transfer from the MSW to the combined
program at the end of their first year, participate in the review at
the end of their second or third year in the program with the understanding
that they will not have had the same opportunity as regular Ph.D. students
to focus on Ph.D. requirements.
Qualifying Examination.
The qualifying examination is a three-hour oral exam addressing
your mastery of your three chosen fields of study and the written materials
you have submitted for the examination. It is conducted by a committee
of five faculty members proposed by you and approved by the Graduate
Division. Considering both the written materials and your performance
in the oral examination, the committee reports the results to the Graduate
Division. When passed, this examination marks your completion of required
course work, mastery of three fields of study, and readiness to proceed
to the dissertation. In the event of a not pass, and with committee
approval, you may repeat the examination, generally after a lapse of
at least three months.
Time Limits.
While you may take the qualifying examination as early as the spring
of your second year, it is customary to take it in the spring semester
of the third year (fourth year for combined MSW/Ph.D. students). To
be eligible for the Dean's Normative Time Fellowship for the full 2
semesters, you must take the qualifying exam by the spring semester
of your 3rd year (see Attachment I).
If you are not concerned about Normative Time Fellowship, you are expected
to submit your application for the qualifying examaination to the Doctoral
Assistant no later than your fifth semester and complete the examination
by the end of your sixth semester (seventh and eighth semesters, respectively,
for MSW/Ph.D. students). If you fail to meet these expectations, you
will be asked to submit a written request to the Chair of the Doctoral
Committee by March of your sixth semester explaining your need for an
extension and outlining your progress to date.
Fields
of Study for the Qualifying Examination.
You select
three fields of study: (1) a social problem area, and related policies
and institutions; (2) a social science theory area, theories, concepts,
empirical data, and methodologies; and (3) a social welfare intervention
area related to professional activity. Topics can be selected from the
following:
|
Social
Problem Fields |
Children & adolescents
Death and dying
Deviant behavior (including juvenile delinquents)
Disability
Elderly
Employment issues
The family, family functioning
Health
History of social welfare problems and institutions |
Housing (including homelessness)
Mental health
Migration and immigration
Poverty
Racial and ethnic issues
Status and roles of women
Substance abuse
Underdeveloped countries
Urban development
|
| Social
Science Theory and Research Fields |
Behavioral/social learning theory
Community theory
Economics of social welfare
Ego psychology and psychoanalytic theory
Organization theory
Personality theories
Philosophy of social science
Small group theory
Social psychology (including social exchange theory)
Social work treatment theory
Theories of acculturation of ethnic minorities (cultural orientation)
|
Theories of deviance
Theories of the family
Theories of human development
Theories of inter-ethnic relations
Theories of medical sociology
Theories of planning
Theories of psychopathology
Theories of social change
Theories of stress and coping
Theories of the welfare state
|
| Social
Welfare Intervention: Professional Activity Field |
Adult psychotherapy
Aging services
Behavioral approaches
Child & adolescent psychotherapy
Child welfare services
Cognitive approaches
Collaborative intervention
Community development
Community mental health services
Community organization
Family therapy
Group work
Institutional care
Long-term care |
Multicultural practice
Occupational social work
Policy analysis
Preventive social work
Research methods
Social casework/case management
Social development
Social planning
Social services in public welfare
Social welfare administration
Social work in education
Social work in health care
Training and professional development, social work profession
|
See Attachment
III,
"Ph.D. Program Qualifying Examination," for complete details
regarding eligibility, faculty supervision, adding new fields of study,
committee composition, scholarly standards and procedures for written
materials, examination scheduling, advancement to candidacy, and qualifying
for the normative time fee grant following successful completion of
your examination.
See
Attachment IV,
“Fields of Study for the Qualifying Examination,” for a listing of faculty
expertise in each field of study.
See
Attachment V
for guidelines to the three field papers and Attachment
VI for guidelines to field bibliographies for the qualifying
examination.
After passing your
examination and being advanced to candidacy, you enroll for a minimum
of two additional semesters working with the members of your committee.
(In a few cases, students complete the dissertation in a single semester.)
If you have been continually registered except for two semesters of
approved withdrawal (this withdrawal counts towards Normative Time unless
it is for reasons of health or parental leave) and are making corrections
to the final draft of your dissertation, you may apply to pay a "filing
fee" in lieu of full registration fees, but you must register for each
semester you use University facilities or faculty time other than that
required to read the final draft of your dissertation.
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