Highly motivated students with a solid academic background and demonstrated interest in conducting research in the field of Communication Sciences and Disorders may be admitted directly to the Qualifying Year of the Ph.D. program (PhD1).
Students admitted to PhD1 complete a qualifying year of coursework and a research project supervised by their faculty supervisor (see PhD guidelines for details). Students admitted in this manner normally possess a Bachelor's degree or Master's degree (without thesis) in a related field and can demonstrate evidence of a defined interest in human communication and its disorders.
The Qualifying year research project is meant to familiarize students with issues related to experimental design and analysis, and showcase the student's ability to arrive at a reasoned explanation of a limited set of data. The topic of the research project is developed collectively by the student and the research supervisor, and may or may not bear a conceptual relationship to the topic eventually developed for the Ph.D. thesis.
Successful completion of the PhD1 requirements allows the student to advance in their program and finish all Core Requirements necessary for the Ph.D. degree.
