A comprehensive exam committee (of 2 or more faculty), together with a student taking the comp, has the option of designing a comp paper for a student’s second comp, instead of the traditional closed-book 4-hour written exam. This comp paper option is available for the second comp taken by students in any of our comp fields. Such a comp paper should be designed with two aims: a) the student must show in the paper a satisfactory level of knowledge of the field for a doctoral student; b) the student should focus in the paper on an area within the field in which the student plans to do a dissertation. The faculty members involved can specify a list of topics, questions, readings, and/or problems that must be addressed in the comp paper, in consultation with the student. The comp paper may include a section consisting of a review of the literature in the field of the comp, but this is not a required format. Taking the comp paper option is conditional upon the comp faculty and the student reaching agreement on the nature of the comp paper.
The comp paper option is not necessarily available for every second comp and every student. This option requires agreement from the concerned comp faculty, based on their view of the academic appropriateness of a comp paper in any particular case.
Once the nature of the paper has been decided, the student will write the paper without expecting further comment or advice from the faculty, except for matters needing clarification that may arise. A comp paper should be approximately 30 pages in length. Once the paper is completed, there will be an oral defense of the comp paper, with the faculty members associated with that comp. Typically, the defense consists of a short presentation by the student (approximately
20 minutes) followed by questions and comments from the committee. After the defense, the faculty rate the comp paper as either distinction, pass, or fail. If the paper is judged failing, the faculty members will provide specific comments on its shortcomings, and the student will have the opportunity to revise the comp paper and sit for a second defense. In such a case, the grade on the second defense will be the official grade on the comp.
A deadline for completion of the comp paper will be established by the faculty and student when the comp paper is agreed upon. Normally the time for completion of a comp paper will be no more than 3 months, although a longer time period can be specified if it is found to be justified. A student can request an extension of the deadline for good cause. If the comp committee decides that the student is not making progress toward completing the comp paper in a timely fashion, they can impose a final deadline for the paper, after which the comp paper option would expire and the student would only have the option of taking a written comp exam in that field. Also, a student working on a comp paper who has difficulty completing it has the option of switching to a written comp exam, the date for which would be negotiated between the student and the faculty comp committee members.