Graduate Handbook:
Regulations for time limit for admission to candidacy.

Admission to Candidacy

After the student has passed the comprehensive examinations and met all research skills and coursework requirements, as certified by the program's submission of the "Recommendation for Admission to Candidacy for Doctoral Degree" form, he or she will be officially admitted to candidacy for the doctoral degree by the Dean of the Graduate School. Intra- and interprogram majors and minors should be declared at this time (see the GRADUATE SCHOOL HANDBOOK, section titled "Transcript Notations of Major and Minor Fields").

Doctoral candidates must complete all requirements for the degree, including the dissertation, within five years after admission to doctoral candidacy. A student in a doctoral program must be admitted to candidacy within five years of admission to the Graduate School if entering directly into a doctoral program or within five years after award of a master's degree at SUNY Binghamton.

Understandings/Clarifications

1. If a student is granted a leave of absence, the period of the leave is counted against the time limit to be admitted to candidacy.
2. If a student earns a master's degree at SUNY Binghamton and then does not continue immediately for the PhD, the five year limit starts when the student is re-admitted to the University for doctoral studies,
3. A student may petition for an extension of the time limit by submitting a request to the Director of Graduate Studies in his or her program unit. The Director, if he/she endorse the request, then forwards it to the Graduate Office for final action by the Vice Provost.

Guidelines adopted by DOMS concerning the length of time a student may stay in the doctoral program without being admitted to candidacy.

1. A member of the Faculty may request the Graduate Committee to delay this action for one year. This request shall be made in writing during the student's eighth semester and shall be placed in the student's file. The request shall state: the student's progress to date, the reason for delaying Admission to Candidacy, and the faculty member's opinion of the student's prospects.
2. The same procedure shall be followed once a year from then until the student is admitted to Candidacy. However, in subsequent years, the faculty member must declare his intention of becoming the student's dissertation adviser once the student is admitted to Candidacy.
3. Graduate Committee approval of an extension for an eighth or subsequent year should be granted only in very unusual circumstances.
4. Graduate Committee approval of an extension does not necessarily imply that the Graduate Committee will recommend financial support for the student getting the extension.
5. In these guidelines the term "full-time student" includes but is not limited to any student who has received full financial support from the department for eight not necessarily consecutive semesters.

The attached Guidelines, which were adopted by the department, apply to the above-mentioned student. To the best of my knowledge you have been acting as this student's mentor; please tell me if this is not correct.

Are you willing to write to the Graduate Committee on behalf of this student, as required by the Guidelines?