Skip to Content

The University of Texas at Austin

Steps to Completing Your Ph.D. Degree

Steps Toward Graduation

You will need to follow these steps along the path to the Ph.D.

  1. Complete your diversity program. You will do this at the same time you are doing the next step:
  2. Find a supervising professor and identify a research area (but not a specific topic at this point). In consultation with your advisor, choose three courses (in addition to your diversity program). Choose courses designed to prepare you for the research you plan to do. You do not need to have taken the courses yet. At most one course can be taken outside the CS department. No CS 395 (conference) course may be included. All courses must be taken for a grade. Note: although no conference course may be included in a depth program, all Ph.D. students must be enrolled in at least one conference course (CS 395) each semester until admission to candidacy. Once you have created your depth program, submit the required form to the graduate office.
  3. Schedule a Research Preparation Exam.
  4. Submit a Research Qualification (RQ) Document to the Graduate Office. In the RQ document, the student:
    • Provides evidence of satisfying the background requirements
    • Submits coursework (5 Diversity courses completed and 3 Depth courses, some of which may remain to be taken) with satisfaction of the GPA requirements
    • Provides evidence of completing the Research Preparation Exam
    • Formalizes dissertation advisor(s)
    The RQ document must be filed by the end of the 3rd year in the PhD program.
  5. Advance to Candidacy
  6. Schedule and Pass the Final Defense
  7. Submit the Dissertation to the Graduate School - you must follow the Graduate School's rules in preparing your dissertation. (PDF)

Throughout this process, feedback from your advisor and from the faculty as a whole will be very important to you. The GSC meets at the beginning of each semester. At those meetings, Research Qualification proposals will be reviewed and approved and the overall progress of each Ph.D. student will be evaluated. Students will be informed if their performance is not satisfactory. Any student whose progress is deemed unsatisfactory for two consecutive semesters will be terminated from the Ph.D. program.

A Ph.D. student is eligible to receive the MSCS degree upon completion of all Graduate School requirements for the Master's degree. Check the MSCS degree requirements if you wish to pursue this option.

Graduation Timetable
Milestone Time Since Admission
Completion of diversity program 1.5 - 2 years
Submission of Research Qualification proposal 2 - 2.5 years
Admission to candidacy 2.5 - 3.5 years
Dissertation defense 3 - 5 years

Please Note:

Graduate students are limited to 14 long semesters of employment as TA/AI/GRA's.

http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/employment/conditions.html External Link

Petitions may be submitted for exceptions to the fourteen-semester limit on student academic employment under the following conditions:

1. The student's dissertation committee reviews the status of the dissertation at the end of the twelfth semester of employment and reports that status in writing to the GSC. Please see http://www.cs.utexas.edu/academics/graduate/forms/ for the necessary departmental form.

Before a student begins a 13th semester of employment a report written by the student and faculty adviser, which was circulated and approved by the student's committee, should be sent to the graduate advisor. The graduate adviser also needs to receive evidence all members of the committee approved the report. As the requirement is to 'report the status in writing to the GSC' the report should be sent prior to the GSC meetings in January and August. Please observe deadlines sent in the Graduate Newsletter.

2. During the fourteenth semester of employment, the dissertation committee, on behalf of the GSC, hears a presentation by the student, reviews the progress made by the student since the twelfth semester report, and determines via recorded vote whether a petition will be submitted.

3. The petition for exception to the fourteen semester limit will include the twelfth semester status report, a fourteenth semester progress report, a plan for completion not to exceed two long semesters into the future, the vote of the dissertation committee, and an explanation for any dissenting votes. Please see http://www.cs.utexas.edu/academics/graduate/forms/ for the necessary departmental form.

4. The petition is submitted to the Graduate School jointly by the GSC Chair and the Graduate Adviser.

5. The Graduate School will approve petitions only under extraordinary academic circumstances.

The 99 Hour Rule

The "99 hour rule" refers to the implementation of Senate Bill 961, passed by the Seventy-fifth Legislature. It is the rule that students at UT Austin with over 99 doctoral hours may be subject to the payment of nonresident tuition.

http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/publications/policies/99in99.html External Link

Special Doctoral Travel Support

Ph.D. students may apply for travel grants from a departmental fund allocated to support their travel to present papers at conferences. To apply for such a grant: