PhD Qualifying Exam

All students in the PhD programs in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering must take the Qualifying Exam by the end of their 4th year in the PhD program. Any exceptions to extend the period by one year must be submitted no later Drop/Add day of the 2nd semester of your 4th year. Such requests will be evaluated by the Department’s PhD Affairs Committee based on a petition by the student.

The Qualifying Exam lasts between one to two hours and consists of a seminar-style presentation of the student's research to date together with a plan for what will be completed by the time the student is ready to graduate. It is common for committee members to ask questions during the presentation. An additional Q&A session follows the student's presentation.

The committee will ask the student to leave the room to deliberate and come to a decision on whether the student has passed the exam. The student is then invited back in and informed of the result of the exam. The committee may also ask the student to step out for a couple of minutes prior to the Exam start so the advisor can discuss any relevant issues about the student and answer questions from the committee.

The student must prepare a written Thesis Proposal as a part of the Exam. This must be shared with the committee no less than one week prior to the Exam. The proposal typically contains an introduction, chapters/papers describing work completed to date, and a final chapter on plans for work to complete the PhD. This document often serves as an initial draft for the final thesis.

Plan for at least three weeks before the Qual Exam, to complete the PhD Committee System and Forms at https://myviterbi.usc.edu/ and upload your documents. This is the typical processing time for the committee to sign the form and process your request. If the committee has not been approved by the Dean or you have not uploaded your documents at least 7 days before the proposed exam date, you will not be able to take the exam at the scheduled time, and a new date will need to be agreed upon and entered into https://myviterbi.usc.edu/

Documents to upload:

• Thesis proposal document
• Pointers to, or copies of, relevant publications
• Current curriculum vitae (CV), including a listing of relevant graduate coursework and grades

The Qualifying Exam Committee consists of five persons, including at least three with a primary appointment in ECE, of which a minimum of two must be tenured or tenure-track faculty. One outside member must be a tenured/tenure-track faculty member with primary appointment in a USC department other than ECE; T/TT faculty with courtesy appointments in ECE may serve as the outside member.  The policy of the USC Graduate School is that qualifying committees can only have five members.

Note: the outside member of the qualifying and defense committees must be a full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty member at USC with the authority to chair a PhD committee in his or her home department/school. It is particularly important to check this for faculty from the Keck School of Medicine, many of whom do not have this privilege.

After the Committee Form has been signed by the Department Chair and the Viterbi Dean, a Report on PhD Qualifying Exam will be generated by the PhD Committee System and Forms system and sent to the committee (starting with your advisor) for the exam results.

Registration is required in EE 794a and EE 794b in consecutive semesters after passing the Qualifying Exam in order to defend. Continued registration is required in 794c, d, and z in subsequent semesters after having passed the exam, until the dissertation is defended. The maximum number of EE 794 units is 8 (2 units each), with EE 794z being 0 units. All EE 794 registrations give students full time student status each semester.