The first major hurdle the Graduate Students face are the comprehensive exams, one in Analysis and one in Algebra, both at the level of the first year courses in those subjects.
The exams given this past September were taken by 17 students, with three of those being students who had just started gradute school, with the remaining 13 being students who had been in the program for at least one year.
Six of those 13 passsed the exam. The six are Nate Berglund, Michael Kettner, Jean-Phillipe Lessard, Bill McClain, John Pearson, and Turkay Yolcu. These results are some what better than the results from the last couple of exams given.
Some more students passed one exam, but not both, as is currently required.
Nevertheless, grad students and faculty are concerned about the administration of the exams, and the role they are playing the PhD program. The Graduate Committee, chaired by Professor Mucha, with the graduate student Christel Hohenegger on the committee, is considering the adminstration of the exam.
The committee will likely propose some tweaks to the system. The items under discussion include (and are not limited to)
(1) permitting the passage of one exam at a time, rather than both as is currently required
(2) having the exams three times a year, Fall, Spring, and Summer
(3) placing all students on the same time limit to pass the exams, in contrast to the current system that treats those with masters differently
These changes have to make it out of the Graduate Committee, and then be voted on by the whole faculty before becoming effective.
Some students and faculty have deeper concerns about the Comprehensive Exams. Namely, the time spent on the exams is really large. And the Exams do not serve the interests of all faculty, especially those with more applied interests. But, addressing these concerns would require a significant overhaul of the current Comprehensive and Oral Exams, and will have to be addressed at some later date.
Posted by lacey at October 7, 2003 09:49 PM