Letter grading is required for all courses applied toward the Computer Science and Engineering Ph.D. degree with an exception for up to 10 credits of the student’s choice and the following courses: CSE 200, Research and Teaching in Computer Science and Engineering; CSE 297, Independent Study or Research; CSE 299, Thesis Research; and seminar courses (CSE 280 series). With the exception of CSE 200, courses used to satisfy the core requirement must be taken for letter grade. This policy includes courses used for this degree that are sponsored by other departments. To ensure they will receive a letter grade, students should check that they have selected the letter grade option no later than the 15th day of instruction each quarter for each class in which they are enrolled.
Up to three courses (15 credits) can be transferred from another institution with approval by the CSE graduate director.
Petitions should be submitted along with the transcript from the other institution or UC Santa Cruz extension. For courses taken at other institutions, copies of the syllabi, exams, and other coursework should accompany the petition. Such petitions are not considered until the completion of at least one quarter at UCSC.
Applicants whose native language is not English must take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam and submit an official score report with the admission application. For admission purposes, the minimum passing score for the TOEFL exam must be 570 on the paper-based, 230 on the computer-based, or 89 on the Internet-based test. The minimum passing score for the IELTS exam is 7. TOEFL/IELTS waivers for admission purposes may be requested by applicants who have completed a four-year bachelor's degree at an English-speaking institution.
To be considered for teaching assistant support, students must meet the English language requirement for teaching assistants. Students may satisfy this requirements in one of the following ways:
- Achieving a minimum score of 26 on the spoken portion of the Internet-based TOEFL;
- Achieving an overall score of 8 or higher on the IELTS;
- Participating in the Graduate Preparation Program (GPP);
- Passing Languages 210: Oral Communication in the U.S. Classroom: Strategies for International Teaching Assistants
A successful qualifying examination involves a student writing a thesis prospectus, presenting a public oral presentation of the proposed research, evaluation of the thesis prospectus and oral presentation by a qualifying examination committee that is approved by the Graduate Division, and an appointment of a reading committee for the dissertation (which may differ from the qualifying examination committee).
The oral qualifying examination is a presentation of the student’s thesis prospectus and a test of the student’s knowledge in advanced technical areas of relevance to the dissertation topic. This oral examination consists of a seminar-style talk before the examining committee, where the student describes the thesis prospectus, followed by questions from the committee on the substance of the talk and the areas of presumed expertise of the student.
To continue in the Ph.D. program, students must advance to candidacy by the end of their third year. The first step is identifying and formally nominating the qualifying exam committee. The members of the qualifying exam committee must include the following:
1.) The chair of the committee must be a tenured Senate SOE faculty member who is not the student's advisor.
2.) A Senate CSE faculty member (may be the advisor).
3.) A Senate UCSC faculty member or a recognized expert in the student's research area as judged by the graduate director and Graduate Division dean.
4.) The outside member must be a tenured Senate faculty member from a department other than CSE at UCSC or a recognized expert in the student's research area from outside UCSC. The outside member may not be the student's advisor. In the event that the outside member is not from UCSC she/he must have credentials equivalent to a tenured faculty member as judged by the graduate director and the Graduate Division dean. The outside member's CV must be submitted along with the exam committee nomination form.
Additional members may be added to the committee. Students should consult their advisors about the membership of their committee. The committee must be approved by the graduate director. Exceptions to the committee requirements above may be granted by the graduate director when appropriate, as long as the committee meets the Graduate Division requirements. In order to pass the qualifying examination, the committee must come to unanimous agreement that the student has passed the exam, and the committee will provide a written report on the qualifying exam. The final step in the advancement process for the student is to identify and formally nominate a dissertation reading committee.
If the student does not pass the qualifying examination, the student may be asked to complete additional coursework, or other research-related work, before retaking the examination. The student may be allowed to retake the qualifying examination once, and the composition of the examining committee will remain the same for the second try. Students who fail the qualifying examination twice may be dismissed from the Ph.D. program, or given the option to exit with a master’s degree.
Students are advanced to candidacy after they have completed the course requirements, passed the qualifying examination, cleared all incompletes from their records, have an appointed dissertation reading committee, and paid the advancement to candidacy fee.
Students who have not advanced to candidacy by the end of their third year (nine quarters) are recommended for academic probation, and are subject to dismissal from the program if they do not advance by the end of their fourth year (12 quarters).