Graduate Student Handbook

Please familiarize yourself with both the GW graduate rules and regulations; and the CCAS graduate regulations in the Graduate Bulletin. The Graduate Bulletin also lists the rules and regulations of individual departments, many of which have requirements in excess of those listed in the CCAS policies. 

Students Admitted with Conditions

All students must contact their departmental/program graduate advisor before registering for courses. This is especially important for those admitted conditionally. The required conditions usually demand a certain level of performance in the student's first year and, if they are not met, will result in the student's program being terminated. 

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 EFL Department. 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 EFL 15, 20, or 30 may not take any additional courses; with the approval of the department, those placed in EFL 40 may take one other course and those in EFL 45 may take two other courses. 

Program of Studies

Students are strongly encouraged to meet with their department graduate advisor in their first semester in order to draw up a Program of Studies. This should be a detailed statement of the individual requirements that the student will meet in completing their specific 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 of less than 3.0. In the English Department, Master's students are required to achieve a 3.25 GPA and Ph.D. students a 3.5 GPA in order to graduate. If a course is repeated for credit, all grades received for the course remain on the record and are included in the GPA (grade-point average). 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 Graduate School of Political Management, 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 makes the request of their department and, if the department agrees to the request, the student should contact CCAS for that semester's CRN for a LOA and must register for this in the usual manner. 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 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 six 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 wish to register during the Summer semester should consult their academic advisor for a list of available courses. 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 during the registration period. Continuing Research is listed in the Schedule of Classes 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. 

A student who has not registered for a Fall or Spring semester (or Summer, if in Psy.D. or GSPM) must apply to CCAS for readmission to their program. 

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 department graduate advisor, and the CCAS Graduate Office, and must be made by the stated deadline (see below). Registration transaction forms are available in Phillips 107. 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 department graduate advisor to petition the CCAS Graduate Office. 

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. 

Program Transfers

Students contemplating a transfer to another school or program must consult with their current department/program advisor as well as with the advisor 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 the May commencement ceremony is the only one for the academic year. It is necessary to be registered during the semester in which the student intends to graduate. 

An Application for Graduation must be filed early in the student's final semester by the date noted in the academic calendar and all applicable fees must be paid. Master's and doctoral students may obtain an application for graduation by visiting the CCAS Student Services Center in Phillips 107. Certificate students may download the graduation application here in PDF or Word format.

Students who do not graduate at the end of that semester must reapply for graduation at the beginning of the next semester (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. 
• Grade must be B or better. 
• Must have been taken not more than two years prior to admission to the Certificate program. 
• The department must approve the course as appropriate to 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 in courses taken toward a degree in a GW school other than CCAS must contact the CCAS Graduate Office. 

Graduation

To be eligible for the granting of 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 an application for graduation by the deadline date noted in the academic calendar. The application for graduation may be downloaded here in PDF or Word format. Graduate Certificate students are not eligible to participate in the University's Commencement ceremony.

b>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). 

All students must file an Application for Graduation early in the semester in which they intend to graduate by the date indicated in the academic calendar.

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 department graduate advisor 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 made, 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 department graduate advisor 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, 4 to 5 weeks after classes begin; registration for these examinations is handled through the CCAS Graduate Office. Registration is required at least two weeks prior to the exam date. Late registrants and/or walk-ins will NOT be allowed on the exam day.

Masters Comprehensive Examination

Master's Comprehensive Examinations are designed and administered, usually once each semester, by the departments; students should consult their department advisor 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 Thesis

Master's students who are submitting theses must do so by the date noted in the calendar in this Handbook. An original and one copy of the thesis must be submitted to the CCAS Graduate Office. Accepted theses become the property of the University and are sent to the University's Gelman Library where they are bound and placed in circulation.

All requirements pertaining to form, style, and methods of reproduction are contained in the booklet Information Concerning Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations.

Master's students whose thesis research will involve human subjects should review the information under Human Research Requirements. 

PhD and MPhil Requirements

Doctoral candidates should first be thoroughly familiar with the regulations inthe 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).

All students must file an Application for Graduation early in the semester in which they intend to graduate by the date indicated in the academic calendar in this Handbook.

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 department graduate advisor as early as possible and arrange for the department to petition CSAS 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 towards 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.

Requirements pertaining to form, style, and methods of reproduction of the dissertation are set forth in the booklet "Information Concerning Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations,". It is recommended that the candidate have the CCAS Graduate Office check the formatting of the dissertation prior to completion.

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. 

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, Masters 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 website at www.gwumc.edu/research/human.htm. 
• 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) 994-7457. 

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 reseach 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.

The "Human Research Agreement" form is available for download here in .pdf or Word format.

Please read over the form carefully. When you have finished, please sign and return to:

Office of Human Research
The George Washington University
Ross Hall, Suite 712
2300 I Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037

Final Examination

The Final Examination is designed, scheduled, and administered by the department. It is an oral examination, open to the public, and is conducted by the Final Examination Committee, which consists of the student's Dissertation Research Committee and two other examiners, at least one of whom must be from outside the department. 

Once the student has successfully completed the Final Examination and the Committee has verified that all the revisions to the dissertation that they requested have indeed been made, the student submits two copies of the dissertation to the CCAS Graduate Office together with the University Microfilm and Survey of Earned Doctorates forms. 

Accepted dissertations and any accompanying illustrations become the property of the University and are deposited in the Gelman Library, where the duplicate copies are bound and made available for circulation. A copy of the dissertation is provided to University Microfilms Incorporated, with which the University has an agreement for the reproduction and distribution of doctoral dissertations and abstracts. 

Master of Philosophy Degree

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

PsyD Requirements

The program leading to the degree of Doctor of Psychology requires the satisfactory completion of a minimum of 87 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. 

All students must file an Application for Graduation early in the semester in which they intend to graduate by the date indicated in the academic calendar. 

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 29 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.