Loyola University Chicago

searchform
This siteLUC.edu

Evaluation & Advising

  • Comprehensive Exam: Completed August after the student's second summer in the program.  Faculty approved the revision of our comprehensive exam process in the May faculty meeting 2005. All students entering the doctoral program fall 2005 and subsequent classes will follow this new procedure for their comprehensive exam. The new procedure is as follows: 

    Once students have completed the core curriculum (usually summer of their second year of course work) they will begin preparation for the Comprehensive Exam. The director of the doctoral program will provide guidance to students in early June each year for students to begin studying for their written comprehensive exam, and again closer to the exam date to discuss the logistics of the exam. At the end of the summer, the students will take the comprehensive exam on dates mutually chosen by the cohort and the director. The exam will be developed and graded by faculty under the direction of the director. The exam will consist of three parts, a policy section, a research section, and a clinical/theory section and will be taken over the time span of 1 ½ days.  The exam is “closed book” and will be taken on a computer at Loyola under the supervision of the Director.  Once the exam is completed, students will be notified within two weeks whether they have passed or failed (if the exam is taken during a time that faculty are not on contract, the length of grading time may be extended.)   

    If a student passes the comprehensive exam, he/she will proceed to working on the dissertation as outlined by the policies on our website. If a student fails the exam or a section of the exam, he/she must retake the exam or that section by November of the same year. If the student fails the entire exam twice, the student is removed from the program. The maximum time allotted for the comprehensive exam process is six months.
  • Dissertation: Completed after comps process.  The dissertation process conforms to the Graduate School standards under the heading of "Capstone, Dissertations" outlined on at http://www.luc.edu/gradschool/servicesandresources_captone.shtml

    Also, see link to "Description of Dissertation Process". 
  • Assignments in courses:  research, e.g., "Participatory Action Research" (PAR) project; oral presentations according to faculty specifications and guidelines, submission of article for publication.  See links to resources for writing articles for publication. 
  • Advising: The director of the doctoral program will serve as the advisor to students once they have been accepted.  Once students have passed the comps, their dissertation chair becomes their advisor. 
  • Maintenance of Student Status: Students should note that no course credit is given for dissertation work. A student is considered full-time in the doctoral program as long as they are registered for either SW827 Doctoral Study (the course taken pre-proposal approval) or SW600 Dissertation Supervision (once the dissertation proposal has been accepted) once they have completed the core curriculum. It is not necessary to register for either of these courses during the summer semesters, but it is imperative that every fall and spring semester until graduation, students register for either of these two courses.