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| Requirements: | General | Undergraduate | M.A. (Non-Thesis) | M.A. (Thesis) | Ph.D | Courses |
Doctor of PhilosophyWork leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Anthropology is designed to give prospective candidates a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of their professional field and training in their methods of research. Students entering the Nautical Archaeology Program receive a Ph.D. in anthropology with additional specialized coursework and dissertation research in ship reconstruction, seafaring, and conservation.Student's Advisory Committee Upon admission to the Ph.D. program the student will be assigned a provisional advisor. The advisor will be a faculty member whose research is related to the topics of interest identified by the student in his or her application materials, but may or may not continue as Advisory Committee Chair. Incoming students should consult with their provisional advisor before registering for classes regarding any background preparation they may need in preparation for the core courses. By the end of the second year, the student should select an Advisory Committee Chair and, in consultation with the chair, select the remainder of the Advisory Committee. The student's Advisory Committee will consist of not fewer than four members of the Texas A&M graduate faculty representative of the student's fields of study and research. The chair or co-chair must be from the student’s department. Two members should be from the Department and one must be outside the Department. The duties of the committee include the responsibility for the proposed degree program, the annual evaluation, the dissertation research proposal, the preliminary examination, the dissertation and its oral defense. An individual who is not a member of graduate faculty may be on the committee in name only. This person will not be listed nor sign any Office of Graduate Studies (OGS) paperwork. S/he will review a student’s work and advise within their expertise. Degree Plan By the end of the fourth semester a student must prepare a degree plan for approval by his or her Advisory Committee. The degree plan lists the courses that the student will take to satisfy the course requirements of the Ph.D. degree. The degree plan may be modified later by the student with the approval of his or her Advisory Committee. Please refer to the Office of Graduate Studies website for proper procedure. http://ogs.tamu.edu/ All degree plans must include the following: Residence: A Ph.D. candidate must spend two academic years (one of these in continuous full-time residence) in residence beyond the baccalaureate degree, or one year in residence beyond the Masters degree. Archaeology, Biological, and Cultural Programs The Degree Plan must be filed prior to completion of 66 credit hours, usually by the end of the sixth semester. Core Courses
Students who are granted a waiver for ANTH 602 must take an alternate Archaeology Program course. Archaeology Program students must take ANTH 602 Archaeological Methods and Theory at TAMU. There are no exceptions to this policy. Quantitative Methods All students must take STAT 651 Statistics in Research or an equivalent course. Any course that is not STAT 651 or ANTH 642, for example a graduate-level statistics course taken at another university, must have prior departmental approval before being placed on a student’s degree plan. Nautical Archaeology Program The Degree plan should be filed by the end of a student’s fifth semester. Core Courses
Students who are granted a waiver for ANTH 602 must take an alternate Archaeology Program course. All Programs Anthropology Courses All students must take at least 33 credit hours within anthropology. Students entering with an MA must take at least 30 credit hours. (This is in addition to ANTH 601, 602, 604, and ANTH 691 Research.) Outside Electives All students must take at least 6 credit hours outside the Department of Anthropology in subjects related to their research interests. These include such courses as history, geography, geology, ecology, second foreign languages, and other areas of technical or theoretical specialization approved by the student’s Advisory Committee. Courses required to satisfy the minimum foreign language requirement and STAT 651 cannot be used to meet this requirement. Research Hours Students must take a reasonable number of Research (ANTH 691) credit hours not to exceed 22 hours. Research hours taken while registered as an MA student can not be used on the PhD degree plan. Undergraduate Coursework Advanced undergraduate courses (300 or 400-level) are permitted on the degree plan. The exact number of credit hours is contingent on Advisory Committee approval. Other Course Exclusions No more than 12 hours of ANTH 660 may be used. No credit hours of FREN 601 or GERM 603 may be used. No more than 3 hours of ENGL 697 may be used. No correspondence study may be used. No credit hours of extension course work may be used. Transfer Credit A grade of B or higher is required. A student must be in a degree-seeking status at TAMU or the institution where courses were taken when the courses were completed. Courses previously used for another degree are not acceptable for degree plan credit. Course work in which no formal grades or letter grades are given is not acceptable. Total Hours The degree plan must include 96 credit hours beyond the baccalaureate or 64 credit hours beyond the master’s. Foreign Language Requirement All Ph.D. students must have competence in at least one foreign language used in research. This language should be one with significant scientific literature of relevance to the student’s research areas (e.g. French, German, Spanish, and Russian) or be a language the student will use in his or her field research. Students in the Nautical Archaeology Program must have a reading knowledge of two foreign languages or can substitute one language for a research skill at the discretion of their graduate committee (e.g. quantitative methods, remote sensing). The student’s advisory committee can specify what language(s) must be used to meet this requirement and how the requirement is to be met. In general, the language requirement can be met in one of the following ways:
Time Limit Students must complete all requirements within 10 years. Continuous Enrollment Students who have completed all formal course work on their degree plan must be registered each fall and spring semester until they graduate. Usually, a student will register for 1 credit hour of ANTH 691 Research each semester while finishing the thesis. Students who fail to register for a semester will be blocked from registration until they have undergone a favorable recommendation from a departmental review committee, the endorsement of the department head, and the approval of the Office of Graduate Studies. Annual Evaluation Each student will be evaluated by the faculty in that student’s area of study (nautical archaeology, physical anthropology, archaeology, and cultural anthropology/folklore) each Spring semester. The purpose of the evaluation will be to gauge the student’s academic progress and provide guidance for the following year and if the student should continue in the doctoral program. The evaluation will be sent out each year on the listserv, and each student is responsible for filling one out and submitting it to their faculty advisor/committee chair. Any student that does not turn in an evaluation by the stated deadline will have a registration block placed on their account. A student that has inadequate progress for two or more years may be dismissed from the program. Students not continuing in the doctoral program may have the opportunity to meet the requirements for the MA degree as described in the appropriate section of this document. Dissertation Proposal The research proposal is a description of the research which the student intends to undertake and which will be reported in a detailed, comprehensive fashion in the completed thesis or dissertation. It offers the student an opportunity to convince the Chair and other members of the Advisory Committee of his/her ability to pursue the projected topic to a successful conclusion. Filing the proposal is one of the requirements for the admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree. The proposal must be approved by the entire advisory committee. Committee members and the Department Head sign the Proposal Title Page. http://ogs.tamu.edu/forms/current/prop.pdf The proposal and signed Title Page are then submitted to OGS. The proposal must be approved by OGS at least 14 weeks prior to graduation. The proposal must be approved by OGS at least 15 working days prior to the final examination, the defense. Preliminary Exam A preliminary examination is required. It is to be given no later than the end of the first semester after completion of course work and no earlier than a date at which the student is within approximately six credit hours of completion of the formal course work on the degree program (with the exception of courses 681, 684, 690, 691 and 692). The student must have an overall and degree plan >3.0 GPR at the time of the examination and must have met the Foreign Language requirement. Prior to scheduling the preliminary examination, the committee chair will review with the student the eligibility criteria using the Preliminary Examination Checklist http://ogs.tamu.edu/forms/current/preliminarexam.pdf. The schedule for the preliminary exam must be arranged with all committee members. The preliminary examination for all Ph.D. students will include both written and oral portions. Each member of the advisory committee is responsible for administering a written examination in his/her particular field. A member may choose to waive participation in this part of the examination. Two or more members may give a joint written exam. Each written exam must be completed and reported as satisfactory to the chair before the oral portion may be held. The exact format of the preliminary exam is determined by the student’s Advisory Committee. Students in the Nautical Program are required to take the written portion of their preliminary examination as closed book. Access to outside reference sources is not allowed. If a student’s committee wants to administer the exam otherwise, it is to be addressed and decided upon at a Nautical Archaeology Program faculty meeting. Students are required to be on campus for the oral portion of the preliminary exam. If the preliminary examination is failed, there is no obligation for a re-examination. At their discretion, the advisory committee and OGS may allow one re-examination when adequate time has passed to allow the student to address inadequacies (normally six months). The chair will report the results of the examination along with the checklist http://ogs.tamu.edu/forms/current/preliminarexam.pdf to OGS within 10 working days of the scheduled oral exam and at least 14 weeks prior to the date of the final examination, the dissertation defense. All students must complete all requirements for the Ph.D. within four years after completing their preliminary examination. Otherwise the student will be required to repeat the preliminary examination. Candidacy To be admitted to candidacy the student must have met the residency requirement, completed all formal course work listed on the degree plan, passed the preliminary examination, have an overall and degree plan 3.0 GPR and filed a dissertation proposal with the OGS which has been approved by the student’s Advisory Committee. Dissertation Defense A student must have been admitted to candidacy to take the final examination, the dissertation defense. The student must be registered at the time the final exam is administered. The dissertation must be in final form and ready for distribution to committee members. All members of the student’s Advisory Committee must have a copy of the dissertation before the defense can be scheduled. OGS must have approved the schedule of the final examination at least 10 working days prior to the exam. http://ogs.tamu.edu/forms/faculty/ogsfinalrequest.pdf The format of the dissertation must be acceptable to the Thesis Office. The dissertation must be approved by all members of the student’s Advisory Committee and must represent the candidate's ability to conduct original, independent research which represents an advance in the field and to communicate the results of that research. The student shall present an oral presentation (open to the public), on the topic of the dissertation research. This presentation will generally be presented on the same day as the actual defense of the dissertation. A candidate for the Ph.D. degree must defend the dissertation by deadline dates announced in the graduate studies calendar. http://ogs.tamu.edu/calendar Award of Ph.D. Degree The style and format of the dissertation must be approved by the library thesis clerk and the student must deposit two copies of the dissertation in the library before the degree can be awarded. The final copies of the dissertation must be deposited within one year of the dissertation defense. http://thesis.tamu.edu/ The semester a student intends to graduate an application for graduation must be submitted electronically to the Office of the Registrar by the deadline given. https://degreeapp.tamu.edu/index.asp There is also a graduation fee that must paid. A student who applied for graduation and will not graduate at the intended date must file a Graduation Cancellation Form with OGS. http://ogs.tamu.edu/forms/current/graduationcancellationform.pdf The complete graduate student handbook can be found Here. |