UPDATED AS OF 11 October 2023
- Through the PhD Comprehensive Examination a student should demonstrate extensive familiarity with two disciplinary areas within which they wish to establish their professional career.
- One of these areas, which includes within it the student’s dissertation topic, will be considered the Major Area; the other will be considered the Minor Area.
- Major and Minor Areas are defined as topics of a systematic nature within the cultural study of music and/or adjacent disciplines.
- For each of the chosen areas, the student will be expected to show a firm grasp of bibliography, historiography / ethnography, methods and problems, and current scholarly concerns, and to be able to articulate how their proposed dissertation work will contribute to the disciplinary conversations in their areas.
- No later than six months before their proposed PhD Comprehensive Examination date, Student identifies a Division faculty member who agrees to serve as their PhD Advisor. It is possible for two faculty to be Co-advisors if all parties agree.
- In consultation with their PhD Advisor(s), student identifies other faculty whom they wish to serve on their Comprehensive Examination Committee, and obtains agreement from those faculty to serve.
- The Comprehensive Examination Committee must have five faculty members, two of which (including the PhD Advisor) must be members of the Division.
- Since the Graduate School requires that the Dissertation Committee include at least one faculty member from outside the Butler School of Music, having that faculty member join the Comprehensive Examination Committee is customary.
- In consultation with their PhD Advisor and the members of their proposed Comprehensive Examination Committee, the student identifies a Major and a Minor area of expertise for their Comprehensive Examination.
- No later than the third week of the semester during which they intend to take their Comprehensive Examination, the student proposes their Comprehensive Examination to the Division by submitting the BSOM Ethno/Musicology Request Form for Division Approval of Comprehensive Exams and the BSOM Ethno/Musicology ABD Requirement Verification Form to the Division Head.
- Within one week of the student’s submission of the Comprehensive Examination Proposal form, if the Division would like to request clarifications or changes, the Division Head conveys that request to the student. Otherwise, the Division Head verifies to the student the Division’s approval of the Comprehensive Examination Proposal.
- Within two weeks of Division approval, the student meets with each Comprehensive Examination Committee member to begin discussing specific topics of interest within the Major and Minor examination areas.
- In consultation with the members of their Comprehensive Examination Committee and especially their PhD Advisor, the student compiles a bibliography of resources that they will consult in preparation for the Comprehensive Examination.
- In the following weeks the student continues regular conversations with the members of their Comprehensive Examination Committee, in order for each member to have the opportunity to construct one or more exam prompts and/or contribute to the reading lists based on their conversations with the student about their mutual areas of interests/expertise within the student’s chosen Major and Minor Areas.
- No later than one week before the proposed start date for the Comprehensive Examination, the student’s PhD Advisor consults with the other members of their Comprehensive Examination Committee, and compiles a set of prompts for the student to address through their Comprehensive Examination.
- The format and scope of the Comprehensive Examination should be tailored to the student’s professional goals in transparent conversation with their PhD Advisor and Comprehensive Examination Committee. Sample prompts from past Comprehensive Examinations are linked here.
- The purpose of the collected prompts is to demonstrate the student’s professional preparation and to help them construct a bridge between what they have done in their coursework and what they would like to do for the dissertation.
- The prompts should be constructed so that the student is not surprised by any of the questions, and is challenged to take the conversations they have had with the Comprehensive Examination Committee a step further and ideally incorporate issues tangential to the Major and Minor areas.
- The expectation should be for a student to spend the equivalent of about 15 focused hours of writing, or write the equivalent of approximately 40 double-spaced pages in 12 point font size in response to 6-8 prompts, or some comparable focused effort. Further details are to be agreed upon in conversation between the student and the Comprehensive Examination Committee.
- The student will determine with their Comprehensive Examination Committee what period of time they would like to have available for this focused writing, with the understanding that it should not exceed two weeks.
- The PhD Advisor forwards the collected prompts to the BSOM Graduate Coordinator, who forwards them to the student on the date the student has designated for the start of their Comprehensive Examination.
- Upon completion, the student returns the completed Comprehensive Examination to the Graduate Coordinator, who forwards it to the PhD Advisor, who in turn circulates it to the Comprehensive Examination Committee.
- In consultation with their PhD Advisor and Comprehensive Examination Committee, the student schedules an oral follow-up (“defense”) to the written Comprehensive Examination, usually about two weeks after completion, but a longer period can be set with the Comprehensive Examination Committee’s agreement.
- If the student wishes to advance to candidacy immediately after the defense, the student forwards their Dissertation Prospectus (which they have been developing in consultation with their PhD Advisor) to their Comprehensive Examination Committee at least two weeks before the defense to give the committee the opportunity to review the prospectus thoroughly.
- The Dissertation Prospectus:
- should be between 6,000 and 12,000 words in length, double-spaced in 12 point font, not counting bibliography, notes, and citations;
- should focus on situating the proposed work within extant scholarship through a systematic literature review and brief outline of the goals and significance of the project;
- will ideally serve as the basis of the first chapter of the student’s dissertation;
- should include:
- a methods section;
- a statement of significance;
- a provisional list and description of the chapters the student intends to include;
- a plan of work.
- Samples of past prospectuses by Division students are linked here.
- The student should also provide an abstract of the prospectus of approximately 250 words that will be included in their candidacy application.
- The Division understands that the student’s focus can change, and probably will, so nothing is set in stone. The goal of the prospectus is to demonstrate that the student has a plan in place for the independent dissertation work.
- If the comprehensive exam has included a prompt that has allowed the student to articulate the substance of the prospectus, the full draft of the prospectus may be turned in fewer than 2 weeks before the defense with the agreement of the Comprehensive Examination Committee.
- At the defense, the Comprehensive Examination Committee discusses the student’s exam submissions (and Dissertation Prospectus, where applicable) and poses questions and suggestions moving forward.
- If the student does not wish to advance to candidacy immediately after the defense, the student forwards their Dissertation Prospectus (which they have been developing in consultation with their PhD Advisor) to their Comprehensive Examination Committee no later than the second week of the long semester following the comprehensive examination. The Examination Committee then consults with the PhD Advisor to determine whether an oral conversation about the Prospectus is advisable or whether written feedback to the student is sufficient.
- Once the Comprehensive Examination Committee has verified the student’s passing performance on the Comprehensive Exam and given approval to the student’s Prospectus, the student submits a proposal for doctoral candidacy to the Graduate School with the assistance of the BSOM Graduate Coordinator.
- If the student wishes to obtain a Master’s credential, once they have passed the Comprehensive Examination and submitted their Dissertation Prospectus, they should consult the instructions at Obtaining a Master’s Degree during PhD Coursework.