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Examinations

Students will be required to take three examinations (oral and written) during the course of their Ph.D. degree in CSD. These are as follows:

  • Qualifying examination advancing to candidacy (Written and Oral)
  • Dissertation Proposal Defense (Oral)
  • Dissertation defense (Oral)

Qualifying Examination to Candidacy

Students will be required to take the Qualifying examination between the time they accumulate 18 and 33 credits in the program. The Qualifying examination will involve the following process:

i. Identifying a three-member Qualifying Examination Committee in the areas of expertise the student is interested in carrying out their research

ii. Completing a pre-doctoral NIH grant application for review by the above examination committee as guided by the faculty advisor

iii. An oral examination of up to two hours on the content of the grant application by the above examination committee

Outcomes from the Qualifying Examination may be as follows:

  • Pass without reservation: Successful completion of both steps (ii) and (iii) above
  • Pass with reservation: Resubmission of grant (step ii) or reexamination of student (step iii) above
  • Fail: Cannot advance to candidacy or continue in the program

Dissertation Proposal Defense
Ph.D. candidates, under the guidance of the faculty advisor and the Director of the Ph.D. Program, will be required to identify a mentoring dissertation committee of (at least) three members; two from Molloy College, within one semester of the successful completion of the Qualifying Examination. These members can be the same as or different from the members of the Qualifying Examination Committee for the student. The Ph.D. candidate, in conjunction with the faculty advisor and the Director of the Ph.D. Program, needs to identify one of the members as the Chair of the Dissertation Committee. The Chair is required to be a member of the Molloy College full-time CSD faculty. The research leading to the proposal defense must be approved by the Chair of the Dissertation Committee. The Ph.D. candidate, will complete a) a written proposal of the proposed dissertation project under the guidance of the Dissertation committee b) an application to the Molloy Institutional Review Board (IRB) and c) an oral defense of the written proposal. It is required that the proposal include pilot data collected for this project. The successful completion of the written Dissertation Proposal will require an oral proposal defense examination by the Dissertation committee and the Program Director of the Ph.D. Program. The defense will be open to all the students and faculty in the department and will be completed within two hours. 

Outcomes from the Dissertation Proposal Defense Examination may be as follows: 
• Pass without reservation: Ph.D. candidate can conduct the dissertation study as it stands
• Pass with reservation: Ph.D. candidate can conduct the dissertation with recommended modification by the Dissertation committee 
• Fail: Need to redesign dissertation study and redo proposal defense

Dissertation Defense
The Dissertation Defense examination will be the final examination of the Ph.D. candidate. The examination will be held only after the completion of the Doctoral (Ph.D.) dissertation as deemed by the committee and one external examiner. The completion of the Dissertation will entail the following: 
i. A completed written paper from the dissertation experiment(s) in the form of a publication to a peer reviewed academic journal as decided by the dissertation committee 
ii. A completed written paper formatted in the form of a dissertation from the publication in (i)
iii. Identification of an external examiner who is from an accredited university but not on Molloy College Faculty 
iv. A review of the completed written dissertation by the Dissertation committee and the External Examiner three weeks prior to oral dissertation defense
v. An oral dissertation defense examination scheduled for up to two hours attended by the Dissertation committee, the external examiner and the Program Director open to the entire college 
vi. The responsibility of chairing and moderating the dissertation defense examination lies on the Chair of the Dissertation Committee.

Outcomes from the Dissertation Defense Examination may be as follows: 
• Pass without reservation: Successful completion of defense with no change to the dissertation document
• Pass with reservation: Successful completion of defense with changes to the dissertation document or process recommended by the Dissertation committee and the external examiner
• Fail: Cannot be granted Ph.D. degree