#ive seen the second milestone called prelims quals or comps (comprehensives) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sevenfactorial · 19 days ago

Text

* i.e. you're both a n-th year and a n+1-th year between end of spring semester and start of fall semester

** this option is specific to PhD programs in math and fields with similar structures. These are the exams typically taken during your first/second years before you get an advisor and are more breath focused instead of depth focused. I'veseen them called qualifying exams or preliminary exams and most departments will have their primary round in either late May/early June or in August (most also have another round in January and I've seen one school with all three).

#the names of the milestones are absurdly non standardized between math department #like everyone recognizes thesis and dissertation as interchangeable terms for the last step #but in addition to the first exams being either quals and prelims #ive seen the second milestone called prelims quals or comps (comprehensives)#and the format of the secone milestone is also extremely varied. the written exams dont vary so much #we have comps for our second milestone and the format is different for math ed students compared to the other research areas #even though we're all in the math phd program in the math department #seven stories

14 notes · View notes