Degree Requirements

Advising

When you are admitted as a doctoral student, you will be assigned an academic advisor, who will serve as your sponsor and mentor for the duration of the program. You may change advisors at any time in the course of your program, provided you and your advisor agree on this.

Study Plan

You and your program advisor will outline an individualized study plan that outlines your major within the department and your minor outside the department.

You may alter your study plan at any time with consent of your program advisor. You must complete this plan before taking the comprehensive preliminary examination.

Coursework

Course requirements for the Ph.D. program consist of:

  1. Core courses. Required core courses include a departmental proseminar and courses on research methodology, grant writing, and teaching methods.
  2. Content courses. Content courses provide depth in your area of specialization.

First-Year Project

In your first-year research project, you will work in your advisor’s lab on your own research project. You will gather data, run analyses, write a research report, and present your data to faculty and students at the departmental proseminar during your second year.

The first-year project is an opportunity to synthesize newly learned skills. It usually leads to your first publication in graduate school, though your dissertation may or may not be related to it.

Ph.D. Minor

The UW-Madison Graduate School has a breadth requirement. For our department, this is fulfilled by a minor concentration consisting of 10 credits taken outside the major area of concentration.

You can fulfill this requirement two ways:

  1. Minor in an outside department and enroll in 10 credits in only that department; or
  2. Choose a distributed minor, which can include credits from within the Department of Communicative Disorders.

Preliminary Exam

Before official admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree, you must demonstrate competency to begin dissertation research by passing a preliminary examination in your area of expertise. This exam is written and evaluated by three faculty members knowledgeable in that area.

Dissertation and Oral Exam

As a doctoral student, you will complete a dissertation covering original research, and you will be examined by a committee of five UW-Madison faculty members.