Sociology Department

Sociology Department> Degree Programs> Graduate Program> Qualifying Review

For the qualifying review (QR), two papers that have been completed while the student has been in the PhD program are submitted for evaluation by the department. Students are required to pass the QR to move on to Phase II of the program. Students are encouraged to take the QR by the fourth semester of enrollment in the program, and must do so by the sixth semester to remain in the PhD program. The QR will test whether a student has developed the following skills at a sufficient level for doctoral level work in sociology: understanding and creating theoretical and methodological material, thinking analytically, and writing effectively.

It is recommended that students discuss candidate QR papers with their guidance committee chair by the beginning of the semester in which they plan to take the QR so that they may receive feedback on which papers are most suitable and revise their papers as necessary. By a deadline specified in advance by the graduate chair (typically the seventh week of the semester), final drafts of two QR papers must submitted by the student to her or his guidance committee. If the student is in the fifth semester or earlier, the committee can determine that the student is not ready and require that the student wait until a subsequent semester to take the review.

If the student is proceeding with the QR, she/he must submit the completed QR papers to the department via the graduate secretary within two weeks after the deadline for submitting them to the guidance committee (typically the ninth week of the semester). Those who fail to do so will not be allowed to take the QR. Within the same two week interval, each member of the student’s guidance committee should write a separate confidential evaluation of the papers and the student using the department QR Guidance Form and turn the form in to the graduate secretary. Other than copyediting, the only changes a student may make between the final drafts turned in to the guidance committee and the completed papers turned in to the department are those that have been explicitly and specifically approved by the guidance committee.

Every semester, the graduate chair will select a qualifying review panel composed of three or more faculty members in the department. This panel reads the papers and committee evaluations for all candidates undergoing the qualifying review that semester, and decides whether each student passes the review, using the department QR Evaluation Form. Members of the panel will recuse themselves from judging papers for a candidate if they are on the candidate’s guidance committee, and the panel must be constituted in a way so that all candidates’ papers are read and evaluated by at least three members. A student passes if and only if she or he receives an average score of “acceptable” for both papers from the panel. The panel’s decision and comments are conveyed to each student and the student’s guidance committee.

If a student passes the qualifying review, she or he may be admitted to candidacy in the doctoral program. The student must prepare the top portion of the graduate division Doctorate Student Progress Form I and submit it to the graduate secretary in order for this to occur.

Students who have passed the qualifying review and have completed their Phase I course requirements are eligible to receive an MA en route to PhD, unless they already have an MA in sociology from UH or another institution. The MA en route is recorded on the transcript as an MA in sociology. Once the student is eligible to receive the MA en route and the graduate chair has submitted that information to the graduate division, the student must apply directly to the graduate division to graduate en route and pay a small graduation fee.

Students who fail the qualifying review on their first try are allowed to retake the QR one more time in the enrolled semester subsequent to the one in which they first took the exam. They may submit the same or a different set of papers for the second review, based on advice from their guidance committee. Students who fail the qualifying review a second time are dropped from the doctoral program. PhD students who have not passed the QRs are eligible for a terminal MA degree from the department, provided they have completed their Phase I course requirements and their guidance committee deems that the QR papers provide evidence of MA-level skills in theory and methods, analysis, and writing.