Graduate Student Handbook

Students Admitted with Conditions

All students must contact their departmental/program Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) graduate advisor before registering for courses.  This is especially important for those admitted conditionally; failure to meet the conditions specified upon admission will result in termination from the degree program. 

English Language Requirements for International Students

Degree candidates who are citizens of countries in which English is not an official language are required to take the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Placement Test prior to registration for their first semester.  The placement test is offered by the Language Center.  Those with TOEFL scores of at least 600 (paper-based) or 250 (computer-based) are exempted.  Based on the results of the Placement Test, students may be required to take an EFL course or courses.  Students placed in EAP 110 must register for this course in their first semester.  Those placed in EAP 111 should discuss their status with their Director of Graduate Studies. 

Program of Studies

Students should meet with their Director of Graduate Studies in their first semester in order to draw up a Program of Studies.  This should be a detailed statement of the individual requirements of each degree program and the dates by which each requirement should be completed.  It should include a list of all courses that the student will take each semester and a list of all exams that the student must pass, with dates by which the student intends to pass them.  The student and department should keep copies of this Program of Studies and consult it regularly as the student progresses through the program.

Note that Master's students must complete all requirements within four years, PsyD students within five years, and PhD students within eight years.

Grades and Scholarship Requirements

CCAS policies regarding grades and scholarship requirements are outlined in the Graduate Bulletin. 

No student will be permitted to graduate with a GPA (grade-point average) of less than 3.0.  In the English Department, Master's students are required to maintain a 3.25 GPA and Ph.D. students a 3.5 GPA.  In the History Department, PhD students are required to maintain a 3.5 GPA.  If a course is repeated for credit, all grades received for the course remain on the record and are included in the GPA.  Students are advised that courses numbered less than 100 may never be taken for graduate credit.  With the permission of the department and the instructor, courses numbered between 100 and 200 may be taken for graduate credit (it is expected that the instructor will provide additional work to make it a graduate level course). 

Registration and Work Load

Students are required to register each fall and spring semester. (Registration during the summer is optional except for students in the Center for Professional Psychology, and for those who plan to graduate in August.)  Failure to register requires that a student apply for readmission.  

Students who are temporarily unable to continue their program may request a Leave of Absence (LOA).  The student should submit a petition form to their department.  If the request is approved, CCAS will inform the student and submit the required registration paper work to the Office of the Registrar.  Students on LOA will lose many of their privileges including access to the library.  Note that no more than two semesters LOA is allowed over the total period of enrollment in the program. 

Students who have not yet completed all their required course-work (and are not on LOA) must register for at least three credit hours per semester.  Note that this applies also to those registering for Thesis/Dissertation Research.  Students must register for at least five hours per semester to be considered a half-time student, and at least nine hours to be considered full-time.  Students who register for too few courses to be considered half- or full-time may have problems with their student loans and, if from outside the U.S., their student visas.  Special permission is required for a student to register for more than fifteen hours in the fall or spring semesters or more than six hours in a single summer session.  Students who are employed for more than 20 hours per week should register for no more than six credit hours per semester.

Students who have completed all required course work, all special departmental requirements, and all Thesis/Dissertation Research registration requirements and are within their CCAS program deadline (4 years for Master's, 5 years for PsyD, and 8 years for PhD) must register for one credit of Continuing Research (CR) each semester.  Continuing Research is listed in the Schedule of Classes under Columbian College as CCAS 940 for doctoral students and CCAS 920 for Master's.  Students who have exceeded their CCAS program deadline must petition to continue a further semester and, if approved by the Associate Dean, may be required to register for up to six credit hours of Reading and Research for audit.  

Dropping, Adding, Withdrawing from Courses

Any changes in course enrollment made after the end of the registration period must have the approval of the instructor involved, the Director of Graduate Studies, and the CCAS Graduate Office, and must be made by the stated deadline (see below).  Registration transaction forms (RTF and RTF-EZ) are available on the Office of the Registrar's web page.  Tuition will be adjusted according to the schedule of refunds in the GW Graduate Bulletin.  Refund request forms are available through the Student Accounts Office.

During the Fall and Spring semesters the deadline for dropping a course without academic penalty is the end of the eighth week of classes.  A course dropped during the first four weeks of classes will not appear on a student's transcript.  A course dropped after the fourth week but before the end of the eighth week will appear on the transcript with a grade of "W".  Students who wish to drop a course after that deadline must work with their Director of Graduate Studies to petition the CCAS Graduate Office.  Please note that the dates relevant to academic status have no bearing on refund policies.

Students who find it necessary to withdraw completely from the University must notify the CCAS Graduate Office in writing.  If notification is not given, and the student fails to register for the next Fall or Spring semester, action will be taken to terminate the student's degree candidacy.  If it is necessary to withdraw from the University during the semester, the student must withdraw from all courses according to the procedures and policies stated in the previous paragraphs.  The student's GW photo ID must be turned in to the CCAS Graduate Office at the time of withdrawal. 

Student Rights and Responsibilties

The University's Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities is available from the Dean of Students Office.  This statement includes the Code of Student Conduct which defines student behavior that is considered to be disruptive to the academic enterprise and life within the campus community.  The Code also details the procedures by which the University takes disciplinary action against students who violate the provisions of the Code. 

Student Grade Appeals are handled through the CCAS Arbitrary or Capricious Academic Evaluation procedures. 

Academic Integrity

The University community, in order to fulfill its purposes, must establish and maintain guidelines of academic behavior.  All members of the community are expected to exhibit honesty and competence in their academic work.  Incoming students have a special responsibility to acquaint themselves with, and make use of, all proper procedures of doing research, writing papers, and taking examinations. 

Members of the community will be presumed to be familiar with the proper academic procedures and held responsible for applying them.  Deliberate failure to act in accordance with such procedures will be considered academic dishonesty.  Acts of academic dishonesty are a legal, moral, and intellectual offense against the community and will be prosecuted through the proper university channels. 

Copies of the University Code of Academic Integrity can be obtained from the following offices: all department chairs, all academic deans, the Registrar, and the Vice President for Academic Affairs or on line. 

Program Transfers

Students contemplating a transfer to another school or program must consult with their current Director of Graduate Studies as well as with the Director of Graduate Studies in the program to which they are considering transferring.  Transfers to another program within CCAS and transfers to programs within another school in the University require formal application.

Graduation

Degrees are conferred in January, May, and August, although only the May graduation is marked in a commencement ceremony.  It is necessary to be registered during the semester or summer session in which the student intends to graduate. 

An Application for Graduation must be filed in the student's final semester by the date noted in the academic calendar and all applicable fees must be paid.  The Application for Graduation for degree candidates and Certificate Completion Form for certificate students can be found on the Office of the Registrar's web site.

Students who do not graduate at the end of that semester for which they have submitted the form must reapply for graduation for the next semester or summer session (no additional graduation fee is charged).

Graduate Certificate Program Requirements

Students should be thoroughly familiar with the regulations in the Bulletin. 

Columbian College requires all certificate candidates, both full-time and part-time, to complete all academic requirements within a maximum of three calendar years from admission. 

Transfer of Credits

All courses transferred in to a CCAS Graduate Certificate program must meet the following conditions:

• Must be graduate-level work from an accredited institution. 
• Must have a grade of B or better. 
• Must have been taken not more than two years prior to admission to the Certificate program. 
• Must have approval from the Department issuing the Certificate. 

In addition, the following restrictions apply: 

• At most one course from outside GW can be transferred in. 
• At most two courses that have been used toward a previously completed CCAS Master's or Doctoral degree can be transferred. 
• No course may count toward more than one Certificate. 
• Students who wish to transfer courses taken toward a degree in a GW school other than CCAS must contact the CCAS Graduate Office. 

Certificate Completion

To be eligible for a Graduate Certificate, students must complete all course requirements with a minimum GPA of 3.0, with no grades of "F". 

Graduate Certificate students must submit a Certificate for Completion by the deadline date noted in the academic calendar.  Certificate students are not eligible to participate in the University's Commencement ceremony.

Admission to a CCAS Master's or Doctoral program

Certificate students are not automatically admitted to Master's or Doctoral programs; they must submit an application for admission and meet the admissions requirements of those programs.

Students may concurrently register for a Certificate and another CCAS degree.

All Certificate course work that satisfies the conditions listed below may be counted toward a concurrent or subsequent CCAS Master's or Doctoral degree (but not toward another Certificate program):

• Grade must be B or better. 
• Course must be taken no more than two years before beginning the Master's or Doctoral program. 
• The department must approve the course work as appropriate to the Master's or Doctoral program. 

Master's Degree Requirements

Students should first be thoroughly familiar with the regulations in the Bulletin. 

Columbian College requires all master's candidates, both full-time and part-time, to complete all academic requirements within a maximum of four calendar years from admission to candidacy.

The Master's degree requires satisfactory completion of a minimum of 30 credit hours of approved graduate course-work (several departments require more).  Some departments require a Master's thesis while others do not; many have special departmental requirements in addition to those stated here (see Special Departmental Requirements). 

Transfer of Credits

A student who is a degree candidate in Columbian College of Arts and Sciences may request transfer of post-baccalaureate, graduate-level course work taken outside the School.  No more than one-quarter of the semester hours of graduate course work required for a degree may be approved for transfer (up to 9 hours in a 36 hour program, for instance).  Please note that this policy applies to all post-baccalaureate, graduate-level course work, including credits earned on a non-degree basis at GW. 

Students who wish to transfer credit into their program should consult their Director of Graduate Studies as early as possible and arrange for the department to petition CCAS via the appropriate form. 

For a transfer of credit to be approved, all of the following conditions must be met: 

• The course work must have been taken at an accredited college or university. 
• The department must approve it as appropriate to the student's program of studies. 
• It must have been taken within the past two years. 
• It must not have been applied to the completion of requirements for another degree. 
• The student must have received a grade of "B" or better. 
• An official transcript showing completion of the course work must be on file in the CCAS office before the request can be considered. 

Once enrolled as CCAS degree candidates, students are not permitted to transfer course work taken outside the university, except under extraordinary circumstances (petitions must be submitted, in advance, through the department to the CCAS Graduate Office). 

Special Departmental Requirements

Many programs and departments have adopted special departmental requirements in addition to the CCAS requirements stated here.  Students should consult the department listing in the Graduate Bulletin and their Director of Graduate Studies regarding such requirements.  Students are encouraged to complete their requirements as early as possible; delay may postpone graduation. 

Language reading examinations in French, Spanish, and Italian are offered once during the Fall and Spring semesters.  Registration for these examinations is handled by the Language Center.

Masters Comprehensive Examination

Master's Comprehensive Examinations are designed and administered, usually once each semester, by the departments; students should consult their Director of Graduate Studies for details. 

Students who fail a Master's Comprehensive Examination may, with the approval of the department, repeat the examination at the next scheduled examination date.  If the student fails a second time, no further opportunity is permitted and the student's degree program is terminated. 

The Master's Thesis

Master's theses are submitted electronically by the student once the document has been approved as final by the faculty.  Information and deadline dates are posted on the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) website.  Formatting guidelines are included on the ETD site. The guidelines are designed to produce documents that are uniform in style, but they also allow for the particular requirements of the various disciplines.  The student must also submit to CCAS the completed ETD Approval Form.

Theses will first be sent to the Gelman Library for approval.  Once approved by Gelman, the thesis will be forwarded to CCAS for a final check.  Students may receive instructions from Gelman or CCAS to make changes and upload a revised edition of their work.  The student will be notified by email once the thesis has been forwarded to ProQuest/UMI.

Students will pay ProQuest/UMI directly on line.  The amount charged will depend on the publishing option chosen by the student.  GW recommends students choose the Open Access option in the interest of making their scholarship as accessible as possible.

Accepted theses become the property of the University.  The University is to be given credit for material used in the publication of any portion of a thesis, whether as a direct quotation or as an adaptation.

Master's students whose thesis research will involve human subjects should review the information on the Office of Human Research web site.  Also see section on Human Subjects under PHD requirements.

PhD Requirements

Doctoral candidates should first be thoroughly familiar with the regulations in the Bulletin.

Doctoral candidates, both full-time and part-time, have an overall eight-year time limit for completion of all degree requirements.

The Doctor of Philosophy degree requires satisfactory completion of a minimum of 72 semester hours of approved graduate course work (including Dissertation Research).  The program is divided into two units: Pre-Candidacy consists of course work, special departmental requirements, and the General Examination; Candidacy includes the research, writing, and oral defense of the dissertation, known as the Final Examination.  A minimum of 48, but no more than 60, of the 72 hours must be taken in Pre-Candidacy in preparation for the General Examination.  The remainder of the 72 hours is taken in Candidacy as Dissertation Research credits, which must be taken in multiples of three.  The number of semester hours required for any part of the total program is assigned by the department and may exceed the minimum required by CCAS. Many departments have special departmental requirements in addition to those listed here (see Special Departmental Requirements).

Transfer of Credit

An entering student who has a Master's degree relevant to the proposed doctoral field of study may be awarded up to 24 hours of course-work credits.  Entering students who do not hold a Master's degree may request up to 24 semester hours of credit toward a doctoral degree for acceptable post-baccalaureate, graduate-level course work that meets the criteria cited above in the section on Transfer of Credits into Master's programs.  Students who wish to transfer credit into their program should consult their Director of Graduate Studies as early as possible and arrange for the department to petition CCAS via the appropriate form.  Only rarely and with good reason will more than 24 semester hours be transferred.  (One such reason is if the courses were taken as part of a GW Master's degree within the same discipline.)

Special Departmental Requirements

See Special Departmental Requirements for Master's programs. 

The General Examination

The Ph.D. General Examination is designed and administered by the department and consists of several examinations, some written and some oral, that cover the whole range of the student's program of study. 

Students who fail any part of the General Examination may, with the approval of the department, repeat the examination at the next scheduled examination date.  If, for a second time, the student does not perform at the level required by the department, no further opportunity is permitted and the student's program is terminated. 

The Dissertation

Following the completion of all Pre-Candidacy requirements, the department will review the whole range of the student's academic performance with an eye to determining the likelihood that the student will succeed at producing an acceptable Ph.D. dissertation.  If the department decides that there is a good chance of success at this final, and most difficult stage, and once a dissertation director has been identified who is willing to work with the student, the department will recommend that the student be advanced to Candidacy. 

Upon entering Candidacy, the student is expected to work closely with the department toward determining an appropriate dissertation topic and a Dissertation Research Committee (director/co-director, and at least 2 readers).  The director or one of the co-directors must be a member of the department/program in which the student is pursuing a Ph.D.  While working on the dissertation, and until the required 72 credits are completed, the student will register for Dissertation Research credits, which must be taken in multiples of three.

When the dissertation is complete and approved by the Dissertation Research Committee the student takes the Final Examination: an oral examination that is open to the public. 

Information and deadlines on the electronic submission of post-defense, final approved dissertations can be found on the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) web site.

The dissertation must be written, defended, and accepted (and all course-work completed) within eight years of the student entering the Ph.D. program.  If the dissertation is not accepted within this period, the student may be required to repeat the entire General Examination or the student's candidacy may be terminated due to lack of satisfactory progress.  In special circumstances, the Associate Dean may approve a semester's extension, in which case the student may be required to register for up to six hours of Reading and Research for audit. 

Human Research Requirements

If you are planning to conduct research at GW using human subjects, which will yield generalizable knowledge in the form of a journal article, poster presentation, Master's thesis, or doctoral dissertation, you must obtain Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval before collecting data.  Once you have defended your proposal to your committee, you can initiate the process by:

• Downloading and completing the Non-Medical Submission checklist and Non-Medical Submission form.  These items can be obtained from the Office of Human Research web site. 
• Preparing a submission packet.  You can refer to the submission checklist in order to decipher what you will need to turn in. 

If you have any questions about this process, you may contact the Office of Human Research at any time by calling (202) 994-2715. 

Failure to obtain IRB approval will result in the following: 

• You will not be allowed to collect data until you obtain IRB approval. 
• You will not be allowed to use the data collected for the intended research purposes.  You may be asked to re-register for the thesis/dissertation research credits and start the data collection phase over again. 
• You will not be allowed to use the data collected for future research, i.e., you will not be able to use the information to publish or as the base for a future study. 
• If the study is funded, you will not have access to the funds.

Final Examination

The Final Examination is designed, scheduled, and administered by the department.  It is an oral examination conducted by the Final Examination Committee, which consists of the student's Dissertation Research Committee (director and two readers at a minimum) and two other examiners, at least one of whom must be from outside the department.  A student's current or prospective immediate supervisor of employment is not permitted to be an examiner. 

Once the student has successfully completed the Final Examination and the Committee has verified any required revisions to the dissertation have been made, the student submits the dissertation through the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) web site and submits to CCAS the completed ETD Approval Form.   Formatting guidelines are noted on the ETD site.  The guidelines are designed to produce documents that are uniform in style, but they also allow for the particular requirements of various disciplines.

The Survey of Earned Doctorates form should be given to the student at the defense. The completed booklet should be returned to CCAS. Students can also access and print the form themselves (Survey of Earned Doctorates).  The certification page in the dissertation should only include the core research committee (director/co-director and two readers).  Please use academic titles only (you can find this information in the University Bulletin.  Do not use titles such as Dr., PhD, or MD.

Dissertations will first be sent to the Gelman Library for approval.  Once approved by Gelman, the dissertation will be forwarded to CCAS for a final check.  Students may receive instructions from Gelman or CCAS to make changes and upload a revised edition of their work.  The student will be notified by email once the dissertation has been forwarded to ProQuest/UMI.

Students will pay ProQuest/UMI directly on line.  The amount charged will depend on the publishing option chosen by the student.  GW recommends students choose the Open Access option in the interest of making their scholarship as accessible as possible.

Accepted dissertations and any accompanying illustrations become the property of the University.  The University is to be given credit for material used in the publication of any portion of a dissertation, whether as a direct quotation or as an adaptation. 

Master of Philosophy Degree

Upon recommendation of the department and approval of the CCAS Graduate Office, the degree of Master of Philosophy (MPHIL) may be awarded to students who have successfully completed all requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree up to and including the General Examination. 

Students interested in receiving the MPHIL degree must complete and submit to CCAS an application for graduation (see section Graduation).

PsyD Requirements

The program leading to the degree of Doctor of Psychology requires the satisfactory completion of a minimum of 83 credit hours of approved graduate course work.  A maximum of 12 credit hours may be taken in courses offered by the other affiliated members of the Consortium of Universities.  Doctor of Psychology degree candidates have an overall five-year time limit for completion of all course requirements. 

Transfer of Credits

Provisions are the same as those of Doctor of Philosophy, with the exception of the maximum number of credit hours: PsyD students may transfer a maximum of 27 hours of course work.

The General Examination

Each student is required to complete the General Examination no later than the beginning of the final semester of the program.  A student who fails to pass any part of the General Examination may, with the approval of the program, repeat the examination at the next scheduled examination date.  If the student fails a second time, no further opportunity to take the examination is permitted and the student's degree candidacy will be terminated.