What are the requirements for completion of the degree?
Students in our Ph.D. programs must complete a set of qualifying exams to demonstrate basic knowledge. These exams are related to courses within our Masters programs, and students may wish to take these courses to prepare for the exams. (Courses taken to prepare for the qualifying exams are not included in the set of specialized courses discussed below.) For the Information Technology program, further information on the qualifying exams is available from http://mason.gmu.edu/~snash/Qualifying_Exams.htm. For the Computer Science program, see http://www.cs.gmu.edu/programs/phd_exam_prep.html. For the Electrical and Computer Engineering program see http://ece.gmu.edu/phd_in_ece.htm#qualifying. In all three Ph.D. programs, students then complete a set of specialized courses related to their planned research, pass exams that test readiness for doctoral research, and complete and defend a doctoral dissertation. For complete details on the Information Technology Ph.D. degree, see http://ite.g
