Application Information

Graduate Programs Degree Requirements

These are general degree requirements. For requirements specific to each program, see degree information for each graduate program.

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The progression for the MS and PhD programs includes the following:

Plan of Study

The plan of study is a carefully thought through map of courses you and your advisor have proposed for satisfying the scholarly expectations within your area of interest. The Plan of Study is to be filed online through your ssinfo account with Purdue University. Complete instructions are available in the Graduate Studies Office. The general goal of this plan is that it make academic sense. Once this plan of study is roughed out, you will want to share your intended plan with those faculty members you would like to invite to be on your advisory committee.

After you, your advisor, and your committee have approved the courses for your plan, you will submit the proposed plan electronically as a “Draft.” For Ph.D. students, you will personally present your plan of study to the HK graduate faculty for discussion and approval.

Your original “Drafts” go to each of your committee members and to the Graduate Studies Office. Any one of those persons may submit feedback, changes, or corrections to guide you in submitting a plan of study that can be approved.

M.S. Thesis Plan of Study

It is expected that all M.S. degree HK teaching assistants select the thesis option.

• The thesis option Plan of Study must include a minimum of 24 credits of regular coursework plus a minimum of 6 credits of thesis research (HK 698).
   
• The student, with the advisor's aid, decides upon a research area and describes that area on the Plan of Study form. The courses should support the stated research area and professional goals.
  
• It is expected that a minimum of 12 credit hours, in addition to HK 698, will be selected from HK courses. In addition, thesis option students usually take several courses in statistics.

M.S. Non Thesis Plan of Study

The non-thesis option is designed for students who view the Master's degree as a terminal degree and/or students who may be meeting professional certification requirements.

• A total of 30 credits of coursework plus 3 credits of HK 600 are the minimum requirements of these students.
  
• Independent study via a 600 project provides an experience designed to expose the student to the research process. This project is not meant to be comparable to a thesis in scope, depth or planning and is not the central focus for the degree. The culminating experiences of students in the non-thesis option must include a written paper as well as an oral presentation of the project. In deliberating on the acceptance of the 600 project, a conference of the committee in the absence of the candidate is not permitted.

Ph.D. Plan of Study

The usual completed Ph.D. Plan of Study includes 42-57 credit hours of registration in graduate level courses beyond the Master's degree or 72-87 hours beyond the baccalaureate degree.

• The Plan of Study needs to include a minimum of 21 semester hours of graduate coursework in the Department of HK beyond the Master's degree (36 semester hours beyond the baccalaureate degree). Of those 21 semester hours, at least 15 hours must be in substantive courses (500-600 level) excluding 590s, HK 600 and HK 690.
   
• The Plan of Study shall ordinarily include a minimum of three semester hours of coursework in the area of research design/methods. To this end, HK 610 Research Methods in HK is required of all Ph.D. students in the HK Department.
   
• Ph.D. students are required to take a minimum of three semester hours of coursework in quantitative statistical techniques beyond the level presented in STAT 502 (or equivalent).
   
• Finally, a Ph.D. student's Plan of Study must contain a minimum of 9 credits of 600-level discipline-based coursework in the student's field of study.

Qualifying Exam

All newly admitted Ph.D. students are expected to take and successfully pass a qualifying examination. This examination is intended to help the faculty get to know each Ph.D student and to give the student an opportunity to demonstrate their general academic abilities. The qualifying examination will be administered early in the spring semester each year. For the part-time Ph.D. student, you will be expected to take the examination during the spring semester following the completion of 9 credit hours. This in-house exam format will be both written and oral.

The written portion of the examination usually consists of approximately three hours. Questions will be written from a number of books, monographs, or articles assigned for study to each student. The oral portion of the exam will follow the written portion. It will consist of a one-hour appearance before representatives of our entire graduate faculty. The questions and answer format will be based primarily on your readings and on your ability to make connections between your readings and your chosen specialization.

Should you fail the Qualifying Examination (determined by not receiving 1/3 affirmative vote by the examining committee), you will be placed on probation for the next semester (excluding summer). You will be permitted to enroll in courses, but such courses will not be used on your plan of study. Midway through that next semester, you will be given a second attempt to pass. The format and procedures will be identical to the first attempts; only the readings might change. If you fail the exam for the second time, you will be requested to leave the doctoral program at the conclusion of the semester.

Preliminary Exam

Another step in the life of the Ph.D. student will be the completion of the preliminary examination. After doctoral students have satisfactorily completed most of the formal courses on the Plan of Study and satisfied any foreign language requirements, they become eligible to take the oral and written preliminary examination. The preliminary examining committee must consist of a minimum of three members from the Graduate School's officially approved list of faculty members. A minimum of two HK faculty is required on the preliminary examining committee. Members of the examining committee do not have to be the faculty members with whom the candidate has taken coursework.

A passing grade on the written preliminary examination will be required of all HK doctoral students. This written exam must be completed before the student presents their oral dissertation proposal meeting.

The written preliminary examination should be scheduled when the Advisory Committee feels the student is ready and after the student has completed at least 3/4 of the course work listed on the plan of study. For the full-time student, this should occur before the conclusion of the third year of doctoral study. Both the oral and written components must be completed within the first half of the academic semester.

The questions which comprise the written preliminary examination should be generated by 3 or more members of the student’s advisory committee. These questions will be based on the course work the student has taken, the student’s area of specialization, the student’s dissertation topic and/or readings provided by the committee members.

The written preliminary examination will be comprised of a closed book/in-house component and an optional take-home component in accordance with the desires of members of the student’s advisory committee.

At least two weeks prior to date specified for the examination, the “Request for Appointment of Examining Committee” form should be filed with the Graduate School. All members of the examining committee will be notified of the scheduled examination. Other faculty members may be requested to participate in the examination (without vote) by any member of the examining committee. Any interested faculty member may also be present, without vote.

The written preliminary examination will be graded by the committee who formulated the questions. The exam will be graded as satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

For an exam that received a grade of “no pass,” the student may take another written preliminary examination after one semester and this grade should be indicated on the “Preliminary Examination Form.”

If the report of the examining committee is pass, the student will be formally reclassified as a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. If the report is unfavorable, the student may repeat the examination after the lapse of at least one semester if the examining committee so recommends. Should the preliminaries be failed twice, the student may not be given a third examination, except upon the recommendation of the examining committee and with special approval of the Graduate Council.

Proposal Presentation

All of our graduate students, M.S. thesis option and Ph.D. alike, are expected to present a research proposal to their committee in an open meeting. It is customary that other faculty, staff, and students be invited to attend this presentation. For the doctoral student, the written preliminary examination must be satisfactorily completed before permission is given to present their research proposal. In all cases, however, M.S. thesis option and Ph.D. students will schedule their proposal presentations at the point in their studies when you are able to discuss the theory behind your research, your hypotheses, and your proposed methods of inquiry. The intention of the presentation is to provide an opportunity for you to receive helpful suggestions and feedback from your classmates and faculty members before you finalize your thesis/dissertation projects.

Final Presentation

The last step in successfully completing your degree requirements is the final examination. Essentially, this examination is an open meeting where your findings are presented. This meeting gives your committee members the opportunity to ask questions regarding your coursework and your research findings.

Each member of the examining committee should receive a copy of your thesis or project at least two weeks before the date of the final oral examination. For thesis students, you will want to review the guidelines and requirements for preparing theses. This information is available online at http://www.purdue.edu/GradSchool/Thesis/thesis.html.

The formal request for the appointment of the final examining committee must be filed with the Graduate School no later than two weeks preceding the examination. The examining committee will consist of a minimum of three members for the Master's student and a minimum of four members for the Ph.D. student. A minimum of two members of the doctoral examining committee are required to be H & K faculty. It is highly recommended that one member on the doctoral committee be from outside the department. It is also required that for doctoral students, at least two sessions elapse and be devoted to research between the completion of the preliminary examination and the scheduling of the final examination. The exam should be scheduled in accordance with deadline dates set by the Graduate School for each semester. This information is posted on the bulletin board and also distributed to each student who is on the graduation list.

Additionally, and regarding the scheduling of the final examination, please remember that almost all of our H & K faculty are on 10-month contracts. Since there is no expectation that these faculty will necessarily be available for such a culminating experience as the final exam during the summer sessions, it is recommended that every attempt must be made to schedule the examination during either the fall or the spring semester. We thank you for your consideration of this problem when scheduling your examination.

For the Master's degree, three committee members must concur that the student has satisfactorily completed the examination. In the case of the Ph.D. degree, not more than one dissenting vote is acceptable in certifying the candidate to receive the Ph.D.