Program Description
The proposed doctorate in CSD will require a total of 60 credit hours designed to be taken over a four-year period, as a full-time student. All full-time students will be working in their mentor’s laboratory each semester. Students may substitute up to 12 hours taken in a graduate program external to Baylor University to count as credit toward the Ph.D. degree. Students may take Master’s level courses at Baylor (up to 9 credits) to meet program requirements. All courses selected by the student must be approved by the student’s mentor for the first semester, and by the student’s Plan of Study Committee for the semesters that follow.
Students must complete the following to advance to candidacy:
- Satisfactory completion of course work
- Satisfactory completion and submission of article for publication (Prof Writing II)
- Teaching portfolio from Mentored Teaching in CSD II
- Satisfactory annual student activity reports from all previous years
- Passing the written comprehensive examination
After admission to candidacy, the written prospectus for the dissertation must be presented and defended orally to the dissertation committee and approved prior to its initiation. A student’s dissertation must be passed in its written form and defended orally to meet the dissertation requirements.
Program Requirements:
| Area | Hours |
|---|---|
| Major Concentration Area | 22 |
| 1. CSD Proseminar (1 credit taken for 4 semesters) (4 hrs) | |
| 2. Concentration area (18 hrs) | |
| Interdisciplinary Area | 9 |
| Statistical and Experimental Design | 9 |
| Mentored Research (2 semesters) | 2 |
| Mentored Teaching (2 semesters) | 2 |
| Professional Writing (2 semesters) | 4 |
| Comprehensive Examination | No credit |
| Dissertation | 12 |
| Total Hours | 60 |
Prerequisite Courses
Although most applicants will have backgrounds in appropriately-related fields, the possession of degrees in these fields is not required for admission. Applicants with deficiencies in academic backgrounds will be determined by the student's mentor and remedial course work prescribed. In general, such remedial course work cannot be counted toward the credit hours required for the degree.
Transfer Course Credits
For those students with appropriate graduate level coursework from a prior degree or program may be eligible for up to 9 credit hours of transfer credits to be applied within their doctoral program course of study. Any transfer credits will be planned and discussed with the student’s program mentor/advisor and must be approved in writing by the Doctoral Graduate Program Director and the Department Chair. Only those hours in which a student has achieved a grade of B or better will be considered for transfer. Any transfer credits into the CSD doctoral program from prior coursework must comply with the general Baylor University doctoral program transfer requirements as noted in the Graduate Catalog (related to graduate level, graduate transcript, completed within 5 years of matriculation, grade achievement, and course content).
Plan of Study Committee
Comprehensive Advisory Committee-Comprehensive Examination:
Students will take a comprehensive examination upon completing all course work or within 6 hours of completing their course work. With the consultation of the student’s mentor, the student will form a comprehensive advisory committee that will serve to administer the comprehensive exam and consult on the dissertation research (see dissertation supervision section below). At least four faculty members will serve on the advisory committee, the composition of which will be approved by the CSD Doctoral Graduate Program Director and include at least three members within the CSD Department graduate faculty and one graduate faculty member outside the department.