Students who meet the course requirements with a cumulative g.p.a. of 3.00 or higher are admitted to the oral comprehensive examination upon presentation and preliminary approval of their written research proposal and research progress report; they must take the oral comprehensive examination no later than the end of their second year of enrollment.

Upon completing Ph.D. research, candidates prepare the dissertation. The final examination consists of an oral defense of the thesis, at which time the candidates present at least one published or accepted paper in a peer-reviewed journal based on the publishable portion of the thesis.