Formal admission to PhD candidacy is based on satisfactory performance in coursework and passing a qualifying examination, which is administered to ensure that students have mastered intermediate physics and astronomy.
A student must take the PhD Oral Qualifying Examination by the end of their third year. Prior to the end of the third year, the student must undertake a directed research project with a member of the faculty. Ideally, the research should lead to a potential dissertation topic. The purpose of this directed research is to ensure that the student has the preparation and the ability to conduct the original research required for the PhD thesis. It is expected that the directed research will lead to publishable results.
The PhD Oral Qualifying Examination is based primarily on the directed research project: the student presents the results of the research in a formal seminar and is examined afterward by a panel consisting of the student’s research advisor and other members of the Department of Astronomy faculty. The panel questions the student about their research and about the student’s knowledge of related fields of physics and astronomy.
