Advancing to Doctoral Candidacy

In order to advance to candidacy, you must take your oral qualifying exam after having completed the required coursework and filed your qualifying paper. Before you take your oral qualifying exam, you must fulfill the language requirement and nominate your committee. Since you must have your language petition approved by the Graduate Division prior to nominating your dissertation committee and you must have your committee approved by the Graduate Division prior to taking your oral qualifying exam, you should plan on submitting your language petition form to the Dept. at least two months before scheduling your oral qualifying exam to ensure that you can have your committee approved in time.

Guidelines and Procedures

1. You can demonstrate that you have satisfied the language requirement by means of:

(1) a UCLA Foreign Language Department Placement exam, showing equivalency to completion of the sixth quarter of instruction in a foreign language; or

(2) completion of the sixth quarter of instruction in a foreign language at UCLA with a minimum grade of Satisfactory or a letter grade of B or better. If you have completed the sixth quarter or the fourth semester of instruction in a foreign language at a different institution, you need to submit an official transcript showing relevant coursework. Since the point of the language requirement is to demonstrate your current level of language expertise, the Graduate Division might not allow you to fulfill the requirement with old coursework at other schools for previous graduate study.

If you are a non-native speaker of English, you may use English to fulfill the language requirement.

Please submit the language petition form along with any supporting documents to the department.

2. Once your language petition is approved by the Graduate Division, you can officially nominate your dissertation committee. To nominate your dissertation committee, read the Doctoral Committee Regulations in the Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA (pp. 10-12) and fill out the Nomination of Doctoral Committee form. Leave the information about language requirement fulfillment blank. Submit the form to the Dept.

3. After your doctoral committee is approved, you may hold your oral examination in order to advance to candidacy (ATC). Please note that you must be registered to take your oral. If you plan to take it in the summer, you must have been registered in the immediately preceding Spring quarter. As soon as you set a date for your oral, contact Kristina so that she can check the availability of Rolfe 2117. Before your oral, you will be asked to provide some additional information such as your tentative dissertation title for your advancement paperwork, which is to be prepared and submitted by the Dept. Once your advancement paperwork is processed, the Graduate Division will notify you electronically, and you will be billed for the doctoral advancement to candidacy fee.

*Make sure to submit a copy of your dissertation proposal/prospectus after you hold your oral examination.