Though students will vary in the progress they make toward the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, the faculty of the Applied Psychology Program have definite expectations of the progress that students should make toward completing degree requirements. For a student accepted for the Ph.D. degree and entering the program with a bachelor's degree, the following outlines these expectations:

Goals and Timetables:
Year 1 - By the end of the first academic year, a student should have completed at least 22 semester hours of course credits (including 4 hours of 7000M), and have drafted a research proposal suitable for an MS thesis.

Desirable additions: have attended and/or presented one or more papers at a professional meeting.

Year 2 - By the end of the second academic year, a student should have completed at least 40 semester hours of course credits (including all course requirements for the MS degree), completed the MS comprehensive examination, and successfully defended the MS thesis.

Desirable additions: have attended and/or presented a paper at a professional meeting, have submitted a paper for publication consideration.

Year 3 - By the end of the third academic year, a student should have completed at least 58 semester hours of course credits, conducted additional supervised and/or independent research, and have presented one or more papers at a professional meeting.

Desirable additions: have completed the Ph.D. written comprehensive examinations, have attended and/or presented additional papers at professional meetings, have submitted papers for publication consideration, and have arranged or completed an internship.

Year 4 - By the end of the fourth academic year, a student should have completed written and oral comprehensive examinations, conducted additional supervised and/or independent research, presented one or more papers at a professional meeting and obtained applied experience.

Desirable additions: have attended and/or presented additional papers at professional meetings, have submitted papers for publication consideration, and have arranged or completed an internship.

Year 5 - By the end of the fifth academic year, a student should have completed most requirements for the Ph.D. degree, including (a) all courses on the approved program of study, (b) written and oral comprehensive examinations, and (c) the defense of the dissertation proposal. In additional, it is expected that the student will have conducted additional supervised and/or independent research, and have presented a paper at a professional meeting.

Annual Evaluative Reviews:
Evaluation of the student's competence is a function of many factors, including course grades, progress through the program, oral defense of M.S. Thesis and Ph.D. dissertation research, comprehensive examinations, and additional professional involvement. In order to provide each student with feedback as to his/her status, the faculty of the Applied Psychology Program will conduct evaluative reviews each Spring Semester. The purpose will be to review each student's performance during the previous year(s) and to consider his/her current status with respect to the fulfillment of program requirements. This annual review is in addition to any other , more frequent conferences involving the student and his/her advisor or major professor.

If the faculty of the Applied Psychology Program evaluates a student's performance as less than satisfactory, the student will be notified that s/he has been placed on probation. The Applied Psychology Program faculty will communicate to the student the terms under which deficiencies must be addressed in order to be removed from probation and returned to good standing in the Program. Failure to correct deficiencies under the terms specified by the Applied Psychology Program faculty are grounds for dismissal from the Program.

The annual evaluations by the Applied Psychology Program faculty will be communicated to each student in writing, and verbally in a meeting with the student's advisor or major professor.

All aspirants for the M.S. or Ph.D. degree must pass a formal, comprehensive examination. In the case of the M.S., the examination may be written or oral (the student must also pass an oral examination on the thesis). In the case of the Ph.D., the comprehensive examination will consist of both written and oral examinations before a student is admitted to candidacy for the degree. The examinations are administered by the student's advisory committee (see Graduate School Bulletin).

M.S. Comprehensive Examination:
Students are required by the Graduate School to pass a comprehensive examination over the program of study. This examination is in addition to the oral examination on the thesis, and will determine whether the thesis examination will be administered. Both examinations will be conducted by the student's M.S. Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee consists of three faculty members, (a) two of which, including the major professor, must be members of the Graduate Faculty and (b) two of which, including the major professor, must be members of the Applied Psychology Program. Following the comprehensive examination, the student's committee will decide whether the student did, or did not, "pass." In the case of a "pass," the student will be permitted to take the oral thesis examination. In the case of a failure to "pass" the comprehensive examination, the student may petition for a re-examination by the advisory committee. Students are permitted to re-take the comprehensive examination one time only. Should the student fail to "pass" the second examination, the major professor will inform both the student and the Applied Psychology Program Chair of this outcome in writing. A second failure is cause for dismissal from the program. Students must complete all requirements for the M.S. degree in the semester prior to that in which they take the Ph.D. written comprehensive examination.

Ph.D. Written Comprehensive Examination:
The areas to be covered by the examination are primarily determined by the student's program of study. Examination questions are designed by the student's five-person committee, three of whom, including the major professor, must be members of the Applied Psychology Program. Questions are integrative, with foci on concepts, issues and applications of psychological theory, research, and principles. Knowledge acquired through independent study, going beyond topics covered by courses and seminars will be expected of students.

Students are assessed over five content areas: Typically these are Industrial; Organizational; Measurement; Methods; and a Specialty Area where the Specialty Area is chosen by the student and representative of a student’s specific area of interest. Students should arrange with their doctoral committees the content areas to be covered by the examination well in advance of the time of its administration.

The written examination is administered in the fifth week of Fall semester and the seventh week of Spring semester each year. Students should plan to take the written examination one or two semesters following the completion of their masters’ thesis.

The examination consists of two full-day sessions and one half-day session conducted over a five day period (testing on Monday - full day, Wednesday - full day and Friday - one-half day).

Each written response will be judged on the following scale:

9 - Excellent
8
7 - Very Good
6
5 - Satisfactory (Pass)
4
3 - Unsatisfactory (Fail)
2
1

In order to score a passing grade on a preliminary exam question the average score assigned by the raters on the item must exceed or equal a score of 5. If an average of 5 or more is achieved on each item the student passes the preliminary exam. In the event a student fails to achieve a satisfactory score on one or more items the major professor will determine whether a student averaged a passing score across the items in the content area (e.g., measurement). The student is required to pass four of the five content areas in order successfully pass the exam. If the student fails one content area the doctoral advisory committee will determine what, if any, remediation is necessary. In the case where there is a discrepancy of more than two scale points in the scores of a failed exam question the major professor will seek to resolve the differences between raters. Failing two or more content areas will result in the student re-taking the full exam the following semester. Should the student fail two content areas after the second administration the student will be dismissed from the APP. The major professor will record all committee decisions and recommendations and will inform the student of these in writing. A student must pass the written comprehensive examination in order to be eligible to take the oral comprehensive examination.

Ph.D. Oral Comprehensive Examination:
The Ph.D. oral comprehensive examination is open to all members of the University of Georgia faculty and should be announced by the Graduate School at least two weeks before the date of the examination (see the Graduate School Bulletin). The examination will be an inclusive examination over the student's program of study and related areas rather than an examination of the student's dissertation prospectus. The advisory committee will award a pass (in which case the student will proceed to the oral presentation of his or her dissertation prospectus) or failure on the oral examination. The student may be re-examined within six months in the event of a failure. A second failure on the oral comprehensive examinations is cause for dismissal from the program. The same considerations regarding reporting of results by the major professor apply for both oral and written comprehensive examinations. An official program of study must be approved by the student's committee prior to administration of the oral comprehensive examination. Departmental policy requires that no courses with grades of C or below be included on the program of study.

Regulations pertaining to the M.S. thesis and Ph.D. dissertation appear in the Graduate School Bulletin and in other guidelines available from the Graduate School. The student also should consult the Publication Manual published by the American Psychological Association. The guidelines that follow are designed to provide Applied Psychology Program students with specific suggestions regarding implementation of the general regulations.

1. The student, in consultation with his/her major professor (and advisory committee when a doctoral candidate) is to work out an acceptable plan of research.
2. The M.S. and Ph.D. candidate should, at this initial stage, and at subsequent stages in the development of the project, solicit the views of the advisory committee members concerning the acceptability of the proposed research. No official approval is required of committee members at this stage, and whatever procedures are used to provide communication between the student and his/her committee members is left up to the discretion of the individuals involved.
3. The M.S. or Ph.D. candidate must write a research proposal that includes a statement of the research problem or question, a prospectus of the research plan, a review of the literature relevant to the project, a conceptual methods section, and a reference section.
4. Having obtained the major professor's approval, a candidate for the M.S. degree can proceed with the thesis research (see 6 below). In addition to this preliminary approval by the major professor, a doctoral candidate must obtain the approval of the advisory committee. Toward this end, the candidate must provide each member of the advisory committee with a complete copy of the prospectus 30 days in advance of a meeting of the committee to be arranged by the student following consultation with the major professor and committee members. The 30-day requirement may be waived under exceptional circumstances if the major professor formally seeks and obtains the approval of such a waiver from all members of the candidate's committee.
5. The purposes of the meeting on the dissertation proposal are those of discussing the research and of obtaining approval for it by all members of the committee. The doctoral student is not to collect or analyze the dissertation data until such time as the prospectus is approved. Approval will serve as a safeguard for the student inasmuch as the committee cannot reject a dissertation after it has been completed on any grounds covered and approved in the proposal meeting. Any later modifications in procedures agreed to at the meeting should be communicated to the members of the committee. If major changes are required, it will be advisable to convene a second meeting of the committee to discuss the proposed changes and to seek the committee's approval.
6. All students planning research involving human subjects must receive permission to do so from the Office of the Vice President for Research. Permission must be received prior to the beginning of data collection. The necessary forms should, therefore, be processed at the earliest possible date.
7. Oral Defense: Thesis or Dissertation. In accord with Graduate School regulations, a student is examined orally on his/her thesis or dissertation. The thesis must first be approved by his/her major professor and by the other members of the advisory committee. The advisory committee must receive copies of the thesis 30 days in advance of the oral examination unless this time requirement is waived (see Waiver below). Similarly, the dissertation must be approved by the student's major professor and the other members of the advisory committee prior to the oral examination. The advisory committee must receive copies of the dissertation 30 days in advance of the examination unless this time requirement is waived (see Waiver below).

WAIVER: For both theses and dissertations, the 30-day time requirement may be waived if the major professor requests such, in writing, of all faculty on the advisory committee and if all committee members agree to the waiver by signing the written request.

Following consultation with his/her major professor and committee members, the student will establish the date, time, and place for the oral examination on the thesis or dissertation. The examination must be publicly announced and is open to faculty and students, so notices must be prepared well in advance of the examination.

All But Dissertation (ABD):
Doctoral students are strongly advised against leaving campus (other than to complete internships) prior to completing their dissertations. It has been the experience of the program faculty that students who leave to accept employment, or for other reasons, have difficulty in completing their dissertations. If, however, a student must do so, the student is responsible for making acceptable arrangements with his/her major professor and advisory committee prior to leaving.