Advancement to Candidacy

General Submission and Processing Information

Advancement to candidacy is formally recorded on the Doctoral Form II and submitted to the Graduate Division (gradacademics@graddiv.ucsb.edu) for processing. The form is signed by all committee members and the faculty graduate advisor.

Expectations of Departmental Staff and Faculty Graduate Advisors

• Staff Graduate Advisors should ensure that the form is submitted to the Graduate Division in a timely manner

• Staff Graduate Advisor should ensure that the Committee Create Action to nominate the committee has been completed

• Staff Graduate Advisor should notify the Faculty Graduate Advisor that all departmental requirements have been completed

  • If the student completed the department’s language requirement in a previous program, with prior college coursework, or is a native speaker, the GPA should note this on the Doctoral Form II

  • If the department wants to waive the language requirement entirely, a memo (signed by the Department Chair or FGA) explaining the rationale for the request should be submitted to the Graduate Division and GDASU staff will provide the information to the Graduate Council for review.

  • Students with an Incomplete grade (I), No Grade (NG), No Record (NR), or In Progress (IP) grade on their record are ineligible to advance. However, departments can request an exception if the course is not needed to fulfill advancement requirements. A memo (signed by the Department Chair or FGA) explaining the request should be submitted along with the Doctoral Form II.

Expectations of Graduate Division Academic Services Staff (GDASU)

• GDASU will ensure that the committee that signed is the valid nominated committee, if not, a Committee Create or Update Action will be requested as appropriate

• GDASU will verify academic residency (3 quarters minimum prior to advancement to candidacy)

• GDASU will verify 3.0 GPA and no incompletes

• GDASU will verify that the student was registered the quarter that they advanced to candidacy

• GDASU will enter the qualifying exam date into BLUE, which populates GradPoint and the student’s transcript

Notable Processes

Class Level

Graduate students will change from P1 to P2 status the quarter following their advancement to candidacy. For example, if a student met the advancement requirements in November, their first P2 quarter will be the following winter quarter. In order to become P2 for the next quarter, students must meet the advancement requirements by the last business day before the start of the current quarter.

• Student advances during Fall quarter (by the last business day before winter quarter): winter = 1st P2 quarter

• Student advances during winter quarter (by the last business day before spring quarter): spring = 1st P2 quarter

• Student advances during spring quarter or summer (by the last business day before fall quarter): fall = 1st P2 quarter

NRST waiver period

International graduate students will have their Non Resident Supplemental Tuition waived for 9 registered quarters after they advance to candidacy. If the student needs to be enrolled for more than 9 quarters after advancement, NRST will be assessed again. There are no exceptions to this tuition waiver period.

What to expect in GradPoint

Advancement to Candidacy is indicated by the entry of the qualifying exam date in the Exams Box in the Programs Tab

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