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Defense
Application for
the Ph.D. Program
The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree is generally
intended for students who have a B.S. or M.S. degree in Computer Science and
who want to pursue a research and/or college-level teaching career. The program
leading to the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science is rigorous and requires
coursework, research, exams, and the writing of a dissertation.
In order to understand the requirements for the Ph.D.
degree it is important to understand how the Ph.D. program is administered by
the University. Since the Ph.D. degree is a graduate degree, it is
ultimately managed by the Division of Graduate Education at MSU.
Therefore, in order to earn a Ph.D. degree, a student must satisfy the
requirements of
The Division of Graduate Education ensures the quality of
a Ph.D. degree from MSU regardless of the College or Department in which the
degree is earned by establishing a minimum set of requirements for all Ph.D.
degrees at the University. Ph.D. candidates must therefore be aware of
all of the procedures and requirements established by the Division of Graduate
Education for the Ph.D. degree.
Every student is required to become intimately familiar
with the Division of Graduate Education at MSU. This can be done by visiting
http://www.montana.edu/gradstudies
The Division of Graduate Education web site provides
directions and forms for applying for graduate study at MSU. It also explains
common requirements for the Ph.D. degree such as regulations
regarding the composition of the committee.
In particular, Ph.D. students should pay special attention
to the sections of the online graduate catalog that apply to the Ph.D. degree.
The Graduate Catalog of Policies and Procedures can be found at
http://www.montana.edu/gradstudies/catalog.shtml
The specific requirements for the Ph.D. degree in Computer
Science appear in an upcoming section, but these are only valid in
the context of the requirements of the Division of Graduate Education and the
College of Engineering.
The Ph.D. requirements of the
College of Engineering can be found at
http://www.coe.montana.edu/coe/depts/phd_engr/PhDrqmts-afterAug07.pdf
When reading this document, students need to be aware
of the fact that the Ph.D. in Computer Science is a separate degree from the Ph.D. in
Engineering (i.e. Computer Science is not an option of the Ph.D. in Engineering
program).
Each student should also read the
COE Graduate Student Handbook
Applicants to the Ph.D. program
are required to fill out an online application.
Applicants to the Computer Science
Ph.D. program must meet all
College of Engineering and
Division
of Graduate Education admission requirements. In addition
applicants must meet the following admission requirements of the Computer
Science Department:
- Graduate Record Exam (GRE): general GRE minimum scores of 700 (Q),
500 (V), 4 (AW) are expected from a good candidate. These GRE scores
are just one metric used in determining admission and are advisory.
It is possible in some circumstances that a student may be admitted
into the Ph.D. program with GRE scores lower than these if other
indicators are favorable.
- Degree Requirements: a previous Bachelor's or Master's degree
in Computer Science or a closely related discipline.
- Grade Point Average (GPA): 3.30 GPA during the last two years
of the applicant's most recent computer science or related degree.
- Previous course work: acceptable previous coursework in most of
the core areas of computer science, including
- Computer Architecture
- Networks
- Operating Systems
- Programming Languages and Compilers
- Software Engineering
- Theory of Computing
Applicants who cannot show proof of sufficient previous coursework
or expertise in these areas may, at the discretion of the Computer
Science Department, be admitted into the Ph.D. program with
appropriate courses from the MSU Computer Science curriculum listed
as deficiencies that such students must take in addition to the
courses required for the Ph.D. degree.
- TOEFL: 600 or higher on the written TOEFL test, or 250 or
higher on the computer-based TOEFL test for students from countries
where the primary language is not English, and who do not have a
previous degree from an English-speaking university. International
students can find additional information about the application process by
following this link to MSU's Office of International Programs:
http://www.montana.edu/international/
- Letter of Endorsement (highly recommended but not required):
a letter of endorsement from a tenure-track member of the MSU
Computer Science faculty who agrees to serve as the applicant's
research and dissertation advisor.
Applicants must be aware that these are minimum
requirements and do not by themselves guarantee admission into the Ph.D.
program.
Students admitted to the Ph.D.
program with a previous M.S. degree in Computer Science or a closely related
area must complete a minimum of 36 credits to obtain the degree.
Students admitted to the Ph.D.
program with a B.S. degree in Computer Science or a closely related area (but
not an M.S. degree in computer science) must complete a minimum of 60
credits to obtain the Ph.D. degree.
Students who transfer into the
Ph.D. program from another institution may be able to receive credit for graduate computer
science courses taken at the other institution. Such cases will be
handled on an individual basis.
The program of study for the Ph.D.
degree will be individually tailored with the assistance of the student's
advisor. However, every program of study must include at least six (6)
graduate level computer science courses (courses numbered 500 or
above).The following sections elaborate the course requirements.
All students must take two courses from the following list.
- CS 510, Computability (3 credits)
- CS 513, Computational Research Topics (3 credits)
- CS 515, Algorithms (3 credits)
All students must take two courses from the following
list.
- CS 518, Advanced Operating Systems (3 credits)
- CS 540, Distributed Computing (3 credits)
- CS 545, Parallel Computing Systems (3 credits)
- CS 550, Design and Translation of Programming Languages (3 credits)
All students must take two courses from the following
list.
- CS 525, Graphics and Scientific Visualization (3 credits)
- CS 530, Data Mining (3 credits)
- CS 535, Advanced Database Systems (3 credits)
- CS 536, Advanced Artificial Intelligence (3 credits)
Students may be required to
take additional courses (possibly outside of the Computer Science Department)
as part of their program of study. This will be determined by the
student's advisor, program committee, and the
Department Head.
All students must complete a thesis, also known as the
doctoral dissertation. This is a formal publication of the results of a
student's research work completed under the direction of the student's
dissertation advisor.
- CS 690, Doctoral Thesis (18 credits)
Description: In
order to remain in the Ph.D. program, a student must sustain consistent and satisfactory
progress towards the degree, including maintaining grades in accordance with
Division of Graduate Education standards.
Timeline: Each Ph.D. student is evaluated yearly. This evaluation
typically takes place at the beginning of spring semester.
Outcomes: There are three possible outcomes for the Timely and
Satisfactory Progress evaluation:
- The student passes and continues with his or her studies.
- The student is put on probation and given one year to improve the
quality of his or her graduate work.
- The student fails and is dropped from the Ph.D. program.
Description: The Qualifier is an exam used to
evaluate whether a student is minimally qualified to begin work on a Ph.D.
degree. Any deficiency courses must be
completed before the examination can be taken.
The Qualifying Exam is
administrated by the program committee (the Department Head, the Ph.D. Program Coordinator, and the Student's Advisor).
The student must inform the committee about the intention of taking the exam in
written format (e.g. by e-mail sent to the Ph.D.
program coordinator) not less than two months before the date when the
examination is intended to take place. Please note the following:
- If the student has already earned an M.S. degree in computer science
or a closely related field, the exam is waived due to the fact that the
student has already passed an exam at the level of the qualifier or higher
(e.g. an M.S. comprehensive exam). However, the student must still petition
the program committee to have the exam waived - once the qualifying exam
is passed, the 2 year period of preparation for the Comprehensive Exam begins.
- Students who have no M.S. degree must submit a research paper as
first or second author to a well known conference or journal, and present
the findings in a departmental seminar. The paper must be co-authored by
at least one of the Computer Science faculty member. After a successful
presentation, the student may petition the program committee to evaluate
whether the Qualifying Exam has been passed. In some cases, the committee
will delay its decision until the evaluated article is accepted for publication.
Timeline: The exam must be successfully
passed within two years of commencing the Ph.D. program, regardless of the
student's course load. It is recommended that the exam be taken during
the first year of the Ph.D. studies.
Outcomes: There are four possible outcomes
for the Qualifying Exam:
- The student passes and continues with his or her studies.
- The student passes conditionally, but must satisfy provisions specified
by the program committee (such as completing certain courses with a
satisfactory grade).
- The student fails, but is given a second chance to retake the exam
within 12 months. The Qualifying Exam may be taken at most twice.
- The student fails and is dropped from the Ph.D. program.
Description: Near the end of the coursework
specified on a student's graduate program of courses and after the student has
established her/his doctoral committee and identified a research topic, the
student must pass a comprehensive examination.
The exam is administrated by the
student's doctoral committee and scheduled by this committee and the student.
The student must inform the Ph.D. advisor and doctoral committee about the
intention of taking the exam in written format (e.g. by e-mail) at least two
months before the desired examination date.
To be eligible to take the Comprehensive, a student must have:
- Passed the Qualifying Exam.
- Passed all six CS 5XX courses that have been specified in the
student's program of study from the areas of Theoretical
Foundations, Systems and Applications.
- Completed at least two-thirds (2/3) of the coursework required for
the degree.
The Comprehensive Exam consists of the following:
- A written thesis proposal, due to the student's doctoral
committee at least one month before the public presentation discussed next.
- A public presentation of the proposal during an open
departmental seminar.
- An oral clarification of the proposed research during a closed
meeting with the student's doctoral committee.
- The student can also be given an additional written examination
on all courses from the program of study where a grade lower than a B
was received.
The logistics of the Comprehensive Exam are as follows:
- At least one month before the exam, a
candidate must submit a written thesis proposal to the Ph.D. committee.
This proposal is called a prospectus. The prospectus' organization and
formatting must follow the format specified
in the most recent NSF's Grant
Proposal Guide (see the chapter on “Proposal
Preparation Instructions” at
http://nsf.gov.). The NSF Proposal Guide specifies the maximum size
requirements for the prospectus. The minimum length of the prospectus (not
including references, the author's CV, etc.) is 12 pages with
margins not bigger than 1.25 inch on each side, filled with single-spaced
lines and using font not bigger than 12 point. It is to the student's
advantage to have the advisor check and approve the preliminary version of
the prospectus before the Comprehensive examination.
- A public presentation of the prospectus must
be given after submitting the prospectus. It must be advertised for at
least one week and will typically be held during an open departmental
seminar.
- The chair of the student's Ph.D. committee
will work with the other committee members to design an oral exam based on
the thesis proposal. The oral component (i.e. clarification of the
proposed research) is typically conducted immediately following the public
presentation of the prospectus, and may not be delayed for more than 2
weeks after the seminar.
- If the student has received a grade lower than
a B in any courses, a written deficiency exam will be given on that
material within three weeks of the oral exam.
The written thesis proposal, also
known as a prospectus, should be a clear presentation of the research plan. The
document should include a clear problem statement, an explanation of why the
problem is important, an overview of related background knowledge, an overview
of preliminary work and results, a timeline that explains the future work to be
done and a bibliography. The student should work closely with the advisor
to produce a high quality prospectus.
During this exam, the student will
be asked questions regarding the prospectus. The student may also be asked to
present the research topic, identify specific problems to be examined during
the research, and discuss possible approaches to solve them (such as presenting
important literature related to the proposed research).
The deficiency exam will cover all
courses where the student received a grade lower than a B. The exam will be
closed-book, closed-notes. The questions will generally be at the level
of questions posed on a final examination in a graduate course. However,
the questions may require the student to demonstrate the ability to synthesize
concepts from a wide variety of subjects in relationship to the Ph.D. topic and
to reason both broadly and deeply about problems in Computer Science.
Timeline: The Comprehensive exam must be
taken within four years of commencing the Ph.D. program, regardless of the
student's course load. Furthermore, the exam must be taken within one
year of completing the six required CS 5xx courses. Typically, this exam
will be taken within two years of passing the Qualifying Exam.
Outcomes: There are four possible outcomes for the Comprehensive
exam
- The student passes and continues with his or her studies.
- The student passes conditionally, but must satisfy provisions specified
by the doctoral committee.
- The student fails, but is given the opportunity to retake the exam.
A minimum of six months and a maximum of 12 months must elapse before
the exam can be repeated. A student may take the Comprehensive exam
at most twice.
- The student fails and is dropped from the Ph.D. program.
Description: The final examination for the
Ph.D. degree is the Defense of Thesis. The Defense consists of two parts.
One part is public and the other private. In the public part, the student
presents a seminar on the thesis that is advertised on campus and is open to
the public. In particular, most of the faculty and graduate students in
the Computer Science department attend this seminar. The student's Ph.D.
committee is required to attend.
The private part is usually held
immediately after the public seminar. Typically, this is attended only by
the student's graduate committee. The committee will have read the
dissertation carefully and will ask the student questions about the
dissertation, probe the student's knowledge of his or her dissertation topic, point
out errors in the dissertation, congratulate the student on contributions made,
and provide helpful comments.
The Defense will be held after the
dissertation is deemed ready by the student and advisor. The actual
Defense must be scheduled in accordance with Division of Graduate Education
rules.
Publication Expectations: Each
Ph.D. student must submit at least one paper on the dissertation topic to a
mainstream journal. Paper(s) will normally be co-authored with the
student's advisor and possibly others. Evidence of the submission must be
presented at the time of the Defense of Thesis exam. This is a minimal requirement. A Ph.D. student will be more employable for an academic or
industry position if the student has been involved in numerous publications.
It is thus highly
recommended that
the student and advisor publish intermediate results along the way to the
degree. Graduate students should note that this
requirement is intended to help them establish their credentials in preparation
for future employment.
Timeline: The Defense is expected to be taken within 3 years of
passing the Comprehensive exam. The maximum time allowed between the
comprehensive examination and the awarding of the Ph.D. degree is five years.
Outcomes: There are three possible outcomes for the Defense:
- The student passes and can graduate.The dissertation must be
submitted to the Division of Graduate Education for final acceptance
and publication.
- The student passes conditionally, but must make corrections and
modifications to the dissertation to the satisfaction of the student's
graduate committee before submitting it to the Division of Graduate
Education for final acceptance and publication.
- The student fails and is dropped from the Ph.D. program. Note: The
Defense can be held only once.
Application for the Ph.D. Degree
Visit the
Division of Graduate Education for complete
information regarding the application procedures.
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