How is the syllabus for the candidacy exam determined?
The syllabus should consist of 20-30 technical papers in some cogent “area” (a textbook chapter, but usually not an entire book, would count as a paper for this purpose). The papers normally include a mix of fairly recent work as well as earlier seminal articles. Typically the syllabus is specified by your research advisor with input from you (the student) and the other committee members, and all the committee members must approve the syllabus prior to scheduling the exam. Sometimes the syllabus is specially tailored for a particular student; in other cases a lab or group (e.g., the databases group) has defined a standard syllabus to be used by all students in the group. It should be possible for you to read all the papers as well as prepare the candidacy exam presentation working approximately half-time for one semester.
