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Subsections
The Doctoral Program of graduate study leads to the Ph.D. degree and
is normally completed in 4-5 years. The M.S. and the M.Phil.
degrees are granted to qualified students in the Ph.D. program who
wish intermediate degrees. (See §``Master's En Route to a Ph.D.''.)
Here is how a Ph.D. student's career goes.
In the first year, the student is expected to take courses and
familiarize himself or herself with the activities of the various
research groups in the Department. At the end of the year, four
Comprehensive Examinations are administered. Each student is expected
to pass at least two Comprehensive Exams in the first year and to have
passed all four by the end of the second year.
After the first year, the student comes under the direction of a
Supervisory Committee. Currently there are four principal Committees,
in Artificial Intelligence, Programming Languages and Systems,
Scientific Computing, and Theory of Computing, but additional
Committees are formed ad hoc by the Faculty as the need
arises. Each Committee is responsible for tracking a group of
students and evaluating their progress. Once a student has selected a
Supervisory Committee, any changes to the Committee require
consultation among the Director of Graduate Studies, the old
Committee, and the proposed new one.
In the second year, the student continues taking courses, completing a
total of twelve courses by the end of the year. Two of these courses
must be the CS 690 and CS 691 sequence, in which the student does a project
under the direction of a faculty Advisor. The Advisor for the 690
Project should be chosen before the beginning of the second year.
In the fall term, the student gives the first Local Graduate Student
Talk (LGST) to his or her research group. Since research is just
beginning, this talk can simply present a paper in the student's
intended area of study. In the spring term, the student gives the
first Official Graduate Student Talk (OGST). This will generally be
a presentation of the work to date on the 690 Project and serves as a
practice talk for the required 690 Project presentation. However, if
the 690 Project is complete by the scheduled date of the OGST, the
student's Committee may allow the OGST to be the 690 presentation as
well.
The end of the second year is the culmination of two years of study
and research. The student passes any remaining Comprehensive Exams
not passed in the first year, passes an Area Exam demonstrating
breadth of knowledge in the research area of the 690 Project, and
finishes the 690 Project itself, presenting it to the Faculty in oral
and written form.
By the start of the third year, the student chooses a Thesis Advisor
and begins dissertation research. The Thesis Advisor is often the
same as the 690 Advisor but doesn't have to be.
By the end of the third year, the student should have satisfied all
pre-candidacy requirements, including writing a Thesis Prospectus that
describes the general area and direction of the dissertation research.
The student is then admitted to Candidacy by vote of the Faculty. The
Graduate School will not allow a student to register for a fourth year
of study until this step has been completed.
After admission to Candidacy, the student's position in the Department
is secure, subject only to continued satisfactory progress toward
completion of the Dissertation. When the Dissertation is complete, it
is defended before the Faculty and approved by a Committee of Readers.
The requirements for the Ph.D. have then been met and the degree is
granted.
The milestones along the way to the Ph.D. are described in detail
below. The course requirements, examinations, and 690 Project should
be completed by the end of the second year, and all requirements for
admission to candidacy must be completed by the end of the third year.
The Dissertation and Defense must be completed no later than the end
of the sixth year. Exceptions to these rules require approval of the
Director of Graduate Studies, the Faculty, and/or the Graduate School.
Students are required to pass twelve courses, satisfying the following
constraints:
- Grade Requirement:
CS 690 and CS 691 must be passed with a grade of SAT. Two of
the remaining courses must be passed with a grade of HONORS;
the rest must be passed with a grade of at least HIGH PASS.
- Depth Requirement:
By the end of the second year, each student must pass three advanced
courses in a particular field. The student's Supervisory Committee
will certify that this requirement has been met.
- Research Requirement:
By the end of the second year, each student must take CS 690 and
CS 691 under the direction of a faculty Advisor, as described above.
The following rules govern which courses may be counted towards the
course requirements:
- CS Department courses:
-
No 400-level or below course can be used to satisfy a course
requirement.
-
Any 500-level course can be used to satisfy the 12-course
requirement and the depth requirement. For example, if a theory
student takes a 500-level theory course, it simultaneously counts
toward both requirements.
-
The CS 690 and CS 691 course sequence counts only toward the
12-course and research requirements.
-
A 600-, 700-, or 800-level course can count towards the 12-course and
depth requirements, but only if it involves regular meetings with a
faculty member and tangible written work that can be evaluated, and
results in a regular grade of HONORS or HIGH PASS.
In practice, some but not all 600-level courses will count, while
700- and 800-level courses normally will not count towards any
requirements.
- Non-CS Department courses:
A student can count a graduate-level course outside the Department
towards the 12-course and depth requirements if it is relevant to
the student's program of study. This determination is made by the
Director of Graduate Studies, possibly in consultation with the
student's Advisor.
In order to keep the Faculty apprised of research progress, each
student must give a public talk on the progress of his or her research
at least twice a year, beginning in the second year of study. These
talks are known as Graduate Student Talks (GST's). Each year
one of these talks is given in a Department-sponsored forum and is
called the Official GST (OGST). All faculty and students are
encouraged to attend OGST's. The other talk, called the
Local GST (LGST), is scheduled by the student's Supervisory
Committee.
The OGST must be scheduled in the fall, before the student registers.
The student should recruit two faculty members to sign up as promising
to attend the student's talk for that year. One of the faculty
members should ideally not be on the student's supervisory committee.
If a student is unable to find two faculty willing to promise to
attend the talk, the DGS will assign faculty. No faculty member is
expected to be required to attend more than three or four talks per
year.
The student must announce the talk in the departmental newsgroup,
``yale.cs.department'' at least a week in advance. The
announcement should be repeated as the date draws near. All OGST
announcements should indicate the student's year of study and the
current 690 Project Advisor or Thesis Advisor. Students who have been
admitted to candidacy should also list their reading committee and
expected date of completion.
For second year students, the LGST must be given in the fall term and
the OGST in the spring term. The student's Supervisory Committee may
allow the latter to be the 690 presentation as well.
In the year in which a student plans to defend his or her thesis, the
OGST must still be scheduled in the fall as usual. However, it will
be cancelled if the student has successfully defended prior to the
scheduled date.
Each student must pass a Comprehensive Examination in each of the
areas of Artificial Intelligence, Programming Languages and Systems,
Scientific Computing, and Theory of Computing. At least two
Exams must be passed by the end of the student's first year, and all
four must be passed by the end of the second year. The Comprehensive
Exams are administered each year in early May.
The purpose of each Exam is to verify basic competence in the
corresponding research area. If a student's educational background in
a particular area is inadequate, he or she can take a course in that
area to get up to speed. In addition, at the beginning of the year,
the Faculty will make available to all students a list of readings in
each area, familiarity with which is sufficient to pass the
corresponding Comprehensive Exam. By studying these materials, the
student can decide whether to take courses or just take the Exam.
The student must submit a written report on his or her 690 Project to
his or her Supervisory Committee, which grades it for (a) quality of
the work, (b) quality of the technical writing, and (c) quality of the
English. The grade and a one-page abstract must be transmitted to the
Director of Graduate Studies.
Please note that the course grades for CS 690 and CS 691 are not the
same as the grade for the 690 Report. The Advisor files a grade of
``SAT'' or ``UNSAT'' for CS 690 and CS 691,
indicating whether the student is making satisfactory progress toward
completing the research and the report on it. If not, the Supervisory
Committee and Faculty should be notified.
The student must pass an Area Examination by the end of the second
year. The purpose of the Area Exam is to demonstrate proficiency in
scholarship over a subject area that includes the area of the 690
Project, but is broader. The Exam is formulated and administered by
the student's Supervisory Committee. The Committee will decide
whether the same exam should be given simultaneously to a cohort of
students, as opposed to giving each student his or her own Exam.
The Exam typically includes either or both of the following:
-
A written or oral test of in-depth knowledge.
-
A test of the capacity to learn a topic from research literature
(e.g., an extended oral presentation and critique of one or more
research papers).
A regular faculty member must agree to direct the
student's Dissertation, thereby certifying that the student is capable
of doing original research. Meeting this requirement does not
automatically follow from the student's receiving a grade of
HONORS or HIGH PASS on the 690 Project.
The advisor may be a ladder faculty member from
another Yale department, if the student's Supervisory
Committee and the DGS approve. It is generally unproductive for a
student to attempt a dissertation in an area not covered by
the Faculty's interests; faculty members will normally require a
student to work in areas they care about. The Thesis
Advisor must be chosen by the beginning of the third year.
A Thesis Prospectus must be filed with the Director of Graduate
Studies and the Graduate School, this being a written summary (about 3
or 4 pages long) of the nature and scope of the thesis research and a
tentative title of the Dissertation. The Prospectus must also include
a proposed Committee of Readers (see below) and be signed by the
Advisor.
The Faculty will vote to admit the student to Candidacy when all of
the requirements described above have been satisfied: Course
Requirements, Comprehensive Examinations, 690 Project and Report, Area
Examination, Thesis Advisor, and Thesis Prospectus. It is expected
that a student will be admitted to Candidacy by the end of the third
year. If the requirements have not been satisfied by the beginning of
the fourth year, the student will be asked to withdraw.
The most important part of the Ph.D. program is research training,
culminating in the writing of a Dissertation. The Dissertation should
be concluded no later than the end of the student's sixth year. The
Dissertation demonstrates the student's ability to perform original
research. Thus, it must demonstrate technical mastery of the subject
and must contain conclusions that modify or enlarge what has
previously been known. Because Yale is a University, dedicated to the
dissemination of knowledge, all results of research, including the
Dissertation, must be made public. Access may not be restricted for
any reason, commercial or governmental.
The student must give an oral Defense of the thesis research when the
student's Committee is satisfied that the work is complete and
the student has a complete draft of the Dissertation ready to submit to
the Graduate School. To ensure the latter, one copy of the Dissertation
must be given to the Departmental Registrar and made available to the
Department Faculty at least one week before the Defense takes
place.
The Defense consists of a one-hour public presentation of the results
followed by a 15-minute question and discussion period, which is open
to the entire Department and its guests. The Faculty and outside
Readers then conduct an oral examination in closed session.
In order to give all interested faculty the opportunity to attend, the
Defense must take place when classes are in session (i.e., not during
vacation periods) and at times reserved for this purpose. They must
be scheduled with the Director of Graduate Studies and announced to
the Faculty at least one month in advance. Students are
strongly advised to begin the scheduling process several months before
they expect to have a complete draft of their Dissertation.
The Dissertation should be submitted to the Graduate School as soon as
the Thesis Defense has been passed and any final corrections to the
Dissertation have been made. This must be completed within one month
of passing the Defense, or the student must defend again.
A copy of the final draft must also be given
to the Departmental Registrar. After the Dissertation is submitted,
copies are sent to the members of the Reading Committee (see below),
who each read the thesis and complete a Reader's Report form. When
all Reader's Reports are in, they are made available to the Faculty,
who then vote to recommend the degree at a special faculty meeting.
The recommendation is then forwarded along with the Reader's Reports
to the Graduate School, which reviews the recommendation. Finally,
the entire Graduate Faculty votes to approve the degree.
In order to allow time for these steps to be completed in a timely
fashion, the Graduate School requires that the Dissertation be
submitted by September 14 for a December degree and by March 15 for a
May degree. While these deadlines have not always been strictly
enforced in the past, the Department and the Graduate School will feel
under no obligation to complete the degree approval process in time
for graduation if they are missed, and the actual award of the degree
may be delayed half a year as a result.
The Dissertation must be read by a Committee of four Readers, which is
a distinct entity from the Supervisory Committee (although it normally
overlaps with it). Three Readers must be Internal and one must
be External. An Internal Reader may be any faculty-level person
with a close affiliation to the Yale Department of Computer Science,
including regular faculty, visiting faculty, research scientists, and
associate research scientists. An External Reader may be any
qualified person who is not closely affiliated with the Yale
Department of Computer Science. In addition, the Reading Committee
must conform to the following rules:
-
at least two Internal Readers must be regular ladder faculty in the
Yale Department of Computer Science;
-
at least two Readers must be in the research area of the Dissertation;
-
all Internal Readers are normally expected to attend the student's
twice-a-year public talks and the Thesis Defense;
-
at least three Readers must attend the Thesis Defense.
Exceptions to these rules require approval of the Director of Graduate
Studies.
For the purposes of these regulations, ``close affiliation'' status is
conferred by any extended visit in the Department or any kind of
Departmental appointment or title, including affiliate and adjunct
titles. Occasional short-term visits or research collaborations do
not constitute close affiliation. Once conferred, the status of
``close affiliation'' persists for a period of two years after the
affiliation terminates. Thus, a faculty member who takes a position
elsewhere may continue to serve as an Internal Reader for two years
after leaving and may not serve as an External Reader during
that same period. The above notwithstanding, the Reading Committee
must always include at least one current regular ladder
faculty member in the Yale Computer Science Department. In addition,
if the Advisor leaves Yale, the Graduate School may require that a
current Yale faculty member serve as Acting Advisor.
The rules concerning the composition of the Reading Committee must be
satisfied when the Committee is first formed, at the time of the
Thesis Defense, and at any time that the Committee is changed.
Students must maintain a satisfactory rate of progress toward the
Ph.D. in order to remain in good standing in the program. During the
first year, progress is measured by formal course work and the
Comprehensive Exams. To remain in good standing, at least six courses
must be completed with a grade of HIGH PASS or better, and at
least two Comprehensive Exams must be passed.
After the first year, rate of progress is monitored by the student's
Supervisory Committee. The Committee looks at grade records, exam
results, the 690 Report, and research progress. The Committee is also
expected to attend the student's semi-annual GST's in order to see
first-hand how the student is doing. Students beyond the first year
receive written annual evaluations of their progress, drafted by the
Supervisory Committee. A copy of this evaluation is placed in the
student's file. A decision that the student is not making
satisfactory progress toward the Ph.D. may be made at any time by the
Supervisory Committee.
Whenever a student is determined not to be in good standing, either by
failing to achieve required milestones or by recommendation of his or
her Supervisory Committee, the student and the Faculty will be
notified. All information regarding the
student, including course grades, research performance, and
performance on exams, will be made available to the Faculty as a
whole, which will then determine a course of action for the student.
Possibilities at this stage can include continuation in the program
with revised expectations, academic probation, or dismissal from the
graduate program. The Director of Graduate Studies will inform the
student in writing of the Faculty's determination and, in case
continuation in the program is permitted, of conditions that must be
fulfilled to return to or remain in good standing.
In cases where the sole reason for the student's trouble is apparent
inability to do research under the supervision of his or her current
Committee, the usual expectation is that a new Committee will be
formed and will give him or her an appropriate period of time (a term
or a summer) to demonstrate ability to conduct a research project
successfully. The Committee will report to the Faculty at the end of
this period, so that a new decision can be made.
If the Committee determines that the student has not yet passed one of
the designated requirements, then the Committee should report at that
time, and as necessary in subsequent terms, on how the student is
progressing towards satisfying the requirements, and what its
recommendation is. The recommendation can range from ``the student
should be terminated'' to ``the student has satisfied all the
requirements for admission to Candidacy.'' One possible
recommendation is that the student change research area, under the
direction of a new Supervisory Committee. This recommendation is not
routine, and should not be considered the normal consequence of
failing a Comprehensive or Area Exam.
The Supervisory Committee's evaluation is particularly crucial at the
end of the second year, when the results of the 690 Project and Area
Exam become available. At this time, the Supervisory Committee is
expected to report in writing to the Faculty as a whole (as well as to
the student) on the student's status. This notification should be
given by the middle of May, and a special faculty meeting will be held
toward the end of May to act on any recommendations.
A student who fails to give the required OGST in one year will not be
permitted to register for the following year, except by petition
approved by the Advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies. A
student who fails to give the required OGST two years in a row will be
brought before the Faculty for possible dismissal from the program.
The LGST is considered equally important but will continue to be
regulated by each student's Committee.
In order to gain teaching experience, all graduate students are
required to serve as a teaching assistant for two terms during their
first three years of study. Teaching performed in order to meet the
obligations of financial aid packages can also be used to satisfy this
requirement. Students who perform teaching not required by a
financial aid package may receive additional compensation. (See
§``Financial Aid''.)
The Graduate School requires that a Ph.D. student spend a minimum of
three years in residence and that full tuition be paid for four
years. If the student graduates in fewer than four years, with no
leaves of absence, then any additional tuition is waived.
Whether a student is in good standing is independent of whether there
are funds to support him or her.
If a student's Advisor leaves Yale, then what happens depends on the
student's state of progress toward a Ph.D. A student who has not
completed the three-year residency requirement and been admitted to
Candidacy will normally be expected to find a new Advisor or go with
the departing faculty member and enroll in another Ph.D. program. An
advanced student normally finishes his or her Dissertation while
continuing under the technical supervision of the departed Advisor and
receives a Yale degree. In this case, the Graduate School may require
that a current Yale faculty member agree to act as official Advisor.
Such a student will have two years to finish his or her Dissertation
before the Department will no longer be bound to accept it. The
Thesis Defense must still be held at Yale, according to the usual
rules.
Students can expect to have office space in Arthur K. Watson Hall,
subject to availability, for their first six years.
Fast-track status enables students whose Computer Science education is
already well under way when they enter the Ph.D. program (e.g., after
receiving a Master's Degree in Computer Science from another
institution) to take fewer courses and to get started sooner on
research. Here's the way it works.
A student will be considered ``fast-track'' if, by the end of the
first year of study, he or she has passed an Area examination, has
passed six courses with grades of High Pass or Honors (or Sat in the
case of CS-690/691), and has passed at least two Comprehensive
Examinations. For such a student, one of the twelve required courses
is waived for each Comprehensive Examination passed. Thus, a
fast-track student who passes all four Comprehensive Examinations will
have four courses waived and need take only CS-690 and CS-691 in the
second year.
Students who expect to qualify as ``fast track'' may, with permission
of the Director of Graduate Studies, begin the 690 project in the
first or second term of study. Permission will generally be granted
to exceptional students who also expect to pass all four Comprehensive
Examinations in the first year. It may also be granted in those cases
where the intended Area examination covers work done for the 690
project (which is now the case in Programming Languages and Systems).
Such an early start on research will not affect the eventual
attainment of fast-track status nor the number of courses that will be
waived, both of which are determined as described above.
3.1.6 Master's Degrees en Route to the Ph.D.
A student in the Doctoral Program can earn a Master of Science (M.S.)
degree and/or a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) degree en route to the
Ph.D. The requirements for the M.S. degree are described in
§``The Master's Program''.
The requirements for the Master of
Philosophy (M.Phil.) degree are the same as for the Ph.D. except for
requirements having to do with the Dissertation.
Next: 3.2 The Master's Program
Up: 3. Graduate Programs
Previous: 3. Graduate Programs
Drew McDermott
2000-01-18