Graduate students in the Ph.D. program do not become "Ph.D. Candidates" until they have passed a comprehensive examination in the field of information systems (IS) and a supporting field examination in the student's chosen area.

The IS comprehensive exam, along with the relevant supporting field exam, will be offered twice each year ?in February and July. Each student is required to take both the IS comprehensive exam and the supporting field exam in the same cycle. However, if the student passes one of these exams but not the other, (s)he would only need to again take the failed exam.

A student will receive a maximum of two opportunities to pass each of these two exams. Moreover, the student would need to make the second (and final) attempt to pass the failed exam(s) within the next two cycles (i.e., within about a year) after the first attempt.

The goals of the IS comprehensive examination are to assess the student's familiarity with the substantive literature, theory and methods of IS, and to evaluate the student's intellectual imagination and ability to apply this knowledge to broad IS-related research questions.

The IS Comprehensive exam will consist of four parts.

1. A written exam, which will be conducted over two days, with a maximum of eight hours being available each day. This exam will assess the student抯 knowledge of all the areas related to IS doctoral coursework. The exam will focus on seven doctoral courses, with two questions per course. Each day will include questions on four of the doctoral seminars, with the two questions on one of the seminars being spread across the two days.

2. During each day of the written exam, each student will have access to a computer but the exam will be closed book, closed notes, and 揷losed?Internet. The students would also be provided a 搑eading list?a few weeks prior to the IS comprehensive exam, and will be allowed to consult this list during the exam. However, this list would only serve as a starting point; questions will rely heavily on, but not be limited to, this list. For example, students are expected to also know articles published in leading IS journals after they receive the 搑eading list.?

3. Upon completing the written exam, the student will receive a take-home exam. This exam will be tailored for each individual student. Each student would be given a published or working paper in her/his broad area of research. The student will be required to identify an important research question based on that paper, and then design a research project to investigate that question. While the exam will assess the student抯 ability to design a new research project, the assigned paper and the specific questions might vary across students. This take-home exam will need to be completed, and submitted to the Director of the Ph.D. program, with a copy to the IS Area administrative assistant, no later than 24 hours prior to the oral exam.

4. The oral exam will take place a week after the second day of the written, in-class exam. Each student抯 oral exam will be scheduled for a two-hour duration. At the beginning of the oral exam, the student will have a maximum of 30 minutes to present the research design developed in the take-home exam. The remaining 90 minutes of the oral exam will include questions by the IS area faculty on the student抯 presentation and written answers to in-class and take-home questions.

For the in-class written exam, questions related to each doctoral seminar will be prepared by the faculty member(s) who taught that seminar to the students taking the exam. The IS Ph.D. committee, including the Director of the program, the IS Area Coordinator, and one other tenure-track IS faculty member, will review the questions received from the various faculty members, and make modifications, if necessary, in consultation with the concerned faculty members.

The IS Ph.D. committee will also decide on the take-home exam, in consultation with the relevant IS faculty members.

The questions in the oral exam will focus on the student抯 answers to the written in-class and take-home exams. In case a student has not performed well on certain questions in the in-class written exam, those questions might receive greater attention during the oral exam.

Two faculty members will independently grade the answer to each question in the in-class written exam. Possible grades for each question are 揚ass,?揕ow Pass,?and 揊ail.?The grades for both questions on each seminar will be combined to determine the student抯 aggregate grade related to each of the seven doctoral seminars. In this process, the course instructor抯 evaluation will receive a 60% weight, and the other grader抯 evaluation will receive a 40% weight. A seminar average above, but close to, 揕ow Pass?will NOT count as a 揕ow Pass?for the aggregation described in the next paragraph.

In case a student receives a 揊ail?in more than one seminar, a 揕ow Pass?in four or more seminars, or a 揊ail?in one seminar and a 揕ow Pass?in two or more seminars, (s)he will be considered to have failed the entire comprehensive exam. In such a situation, the student will be informed of the result the day before the oral exam, and will not need to appear in that exam.

The IS comprehensive exam, along with the relevant supporting field exam, will be offered twice each year ?in February and August. A tentative schedule is as follows:

?The supporting field exam on the Thursday or Friday of the 2nd week of February/August.

?The IS in-class written comprehensive exam on Monday-Tuesday or Tuesday-Wednesday of the 3rd week of February/August.

?The written answer to the take-home exam will be due by Monday morning of the 4th week of February/August.

?The IS oral exam on Tuesday or Wednesday of the 4th week of February/August.

A student wishing to take IS comprehensive exam and the supporting field exam should notify the Director of the Ph.D. program, with copies to the College of Business Administration Director of Graduate Studies, and the Area Coordinators for IS and the supporting field. This should be done no later than January 1 for February comprehensive exams, and no later than May 1 for the August comprehensive exams. This document should include two Tables, one containing: (a) the title of each IS seminar taken by the student; (b) the instructor(s) who taught it; and (c) the semester in which it was taken; and the other containing the (a) the title of each graduate-level course the student took in the supporting field; (b) the instructor(s) who taught it; and (c) the semester in which it was taken.

The supporting field exam will be coordinated by the "Supporting Field Coordinator," who will be either the Area Coordinator (or Department Chairperson) of the concerned area, or a nominee of this individual. There will be one supporting field exam, which will be either written (in-class or take home) or oral. The format as well as the processes for preparing and grading exam questions will be decided by the Supporting Field Coordinator, with inputs from the faculty in the supporting area, especially the instructors of supporting field courses taken by the concerned student.

The student's cumulative grade in the supporting field exam will be (a) "Pass"; (b) "Fail"; or (c) "Conditional Pass," with the condition being specified as successfully taking a particular course, writing a paper, etc. The student will need to retake the entire supporting field exam in case of a "Fail" but not in case of a Conditional Pass.

The Supporting Field Coordinator will communicate the student's cumulative grade in the supporting field exam to the Director of the Ph.D. program, with copies to the College of Business Administration Director of Graduate Studies, and the Area Coordinator for IS, preferably before the beginning of the student抯 IS Oral Examination.