Are you a current DMA/PhD College of Music student and would like to schedule your Comprehensive Written Exams? If you haveÌýcompletedÌýthe following, then you may schedule your written exams, with the approval of the faculty and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies:

  1. All of your preliminary exam requirements are done
  2. All degree requirements are completed, except for TMUS recitals/thesis projects/dissertation.
  3. All major field requirements have been met (e.g., diction, keyboard proficiency, repertoire courses)
  4. All foreign language requirements have been completed
  5. Full advisory committee is in place and confirmed

The Comprehensive Exams (a two-step process – written exam and oral exam*) take place when coursework requirements have been completed and the student starts work on the dissertation (PhD) or exclusively on dissertation projects (DMA). DMA students should also have a good amount of work done on your TMUS projects (recitals/lectures/etc.) at this point. Please review the Comprehensive Examination information for more details.

DMA students’ comprehensive written exams must be completedÌýno laterÌýthan the semester PRIOR to the one of intended graduation, (i.e. complete the exams in the spring semester for a fall (December) graduation. Typically they should be completed much earlier. PhD students must take their comprehensive written exams after completion of coursework, butÌýpriorÌýto commencing full-time work on the dissertation. The PhD dissertation prospectus must be submitted to the faculty committee no later than one year after passing the comprehensive exam.

*For PhD musicology students, the oral exam is a defense of the dissertation prospectus before the musicology faculty.