Comprehensive Exam

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After you have finished your core courses, the Physics PhD program requires a comprehensive oral exam to proceed to PhD candidacy. This exam must be taken by the end of your 6th semester barring special circumstances. The exam consists of your advisory committee, who you choose, and one invigilator who is chosen for you from outside of your topic area. The exam has three parts:

  1. A written thesis proposal
  2. A 30 minute public presentation on your PhD thesis topic
  3. A 30+ minute oral examination on graduate physics material relevant to, and necessary for, your PhD thesis

The timeline to follow for this is:

  1. 5th semester – Create your advisory committee, this should include your advisor and relevant professors to your field of study. You may have professors from outside of Clemson University who may attend your exam virtually
  2. Beginning of 6th semester – Find a time slot which works best for you and your committee. A spreadsheet of time slots for comprehensive exams should be shared with relevant students. If you choose to take your exam prior to April, you do not need to have a time slot. The time slots are on a first-come first-serve basis. If you cannot find a time slot which works for you and your committee, contact the Graduate Program Coordinator
  3. At least 6 weeks prior to your time slot – Notify the Graduate Program Coordinator about your time slot choice. The GPC will then choose an invigilator that is able to attend that time slot
  4. At least 4 weeks prior to your time slot – Submit your written proposal to your advisory committee and invigilator. The details of the proposal are given below as well as the evaluation report for the oral exam

Written Proposal Guidelines:

Your written proposal should be no more than 10 pages (excluding references but including figures) and should aim to be 5-6 pages. The format is 12 point, single-spaced, font with 1 inch margins. Your written proposal should also include the following sections:

  1. Title – Ideally descriptive, brief, with minimal jargon
  2. Background – In this section you will place your proposed work within the framework of existing knowledge. You should describe the seminal papers related to the topic, existing debates within the scientific community, and ongoing work in the field. Be sure to properly cite your sources and give proper credit to previous work.
  3. Scientific Objectives and Justification – Declare your science question(s). Explain why your objectives should matter to anyone. The reader should be convinced that answering the question you have posed is scientifically interesting. This is not the place to discuss humankind’s responsibility to the accumulated body of human knowledge, just say why you or anybody else will care about the result.
  4. Methodology – This section should start with a brief – 1-2 declarative sentence(s) describing what you will be doing. The purpose of this section is to convince your committee that your project is tractable and that you have a viable plan to generate the answer to the question you pose. An overly complex technical discussion is not desired – just include the important factors so the process to be followed, the scope of the work, and the potential problems can be identified. If you’ve identified collaborators who have agreed to work with you on this project, they should be mentioned here. You should also note what they will contribute.
  5. Technical Description/Feasibility – In this section you get into the details of how you will execute your study. You should convince the committee that you have access to the resources you need and the technical know-how to do the proposed work. If there are gaps in your skillset, you should describe the training/classes you will take to fill in those gaps. Discuss backup plans if any road blocks appear.
  6. Milestones – What are your realistic expectations of how long it will take you to achieve your objectives? Give milestones for intermediate points along the way with milestones no more than 6 months apart. If your effort will be less than full time due to coursework, exam preparation, or TA duties, give the fraction of time you will work on the project. You should plan to meet with your committee at each milestone (and no less than every six months) to describe your progress, obstacles that require you to reassess your project or its timeline, and updates to your timeline.

For more information, please see the Graduate Student Handbook and appendix documents at:

Plan of study documents below can also be found here:

  • gs2_plan
  • GS2 – online alternative (used only in case of external university committee member)
  • gs5d – online alternative (used only in case of external university committee member)