The Qualifying Examination (QE)

Qualifying Examination Committee

The standard Qualifying Examination Committee consists of at least four members. At least 50 percent of the committee must be Rhetoric faculty with voting privileges in the department, including the Committee Chair. One committee member must be designated as the Academic Senate Representative (ASR) and must be a member of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate. The ASR may serve as an examiner but may not serve as the QE Committee Chair. There are no co-chairs for QE committees. The QE Committee Chair may later serve as a co-chair, but not the sole chair, of the student’s dissertation committee. In rare cases, exceptions to the department’s committee-composition rules may be approved by the Head Graduate Adviser, provided the committee meets Graduate Division requirements. Students should consult the GSAO before submitting the committee form.

Qualifying Examination Areas of Study

Students establish three areas of examination: two subdisciplinary fields and one interdisciplinary research field that ideally anticipates or corresponds to the scope of the dissertation. Each area is supervised by one or more members of the Qualifying Examination Committee.The supervisors work with the student to establish a reading list of major texts and relevant scholarship in each area, which must be submitted to the Graduate Administrative Advisor prior to the Qualifying Examination.

Preliminary (Written) Examination 

The Preliminary (Written) Examination consists of two Field Statements and one Research Statement. The statements must be approved by the relevant examiners and submitted to the GSAO in both PDF and Word formats at least three weeks before the oral Qualifying Examination. The GSAO will distribute the statements to the full committee.

Qualifying (Oral) Examination

The Qualifying Examination is an oral examination conducted by the full Qualifying Examination Committee. It assesses the student’s breadth and depth of knowledge in the three examination fields and the student’s ability to discuss questions, methods, scholarship, and problems related to those fields. All committee members may participate in the questioning. Students who have passed the Qualifying Examination are eligible for Advancement to Candidacy for the PhD. After passing the oral Qualifying Examination, the student must submit the Advancement to Candidacy eForm through CalCentral. The student should submit the form promptly after the examination and identify the proposed dissertation committee as part of the application.

For detailed instructions and deadlines, including committee formation, statement submission, room scheduling, and post-exam steps, consult the Rhetoric PhD Guidelines and Best Practices for Students and Examiners. Students should contact the GSAO with questions about forms, deadlines, or committee requirements.