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Students entering the program with a B.A. need a total of sixty units of graduate-level course work before advancing to candidacy. Thirty-six of these units are required before passing the M.A. examination. The remaining twenty-four units must be completed with a grade of B or better before beginning work on the dissertation. Additional course work may be deemed necessary to make up for deficiencies. Students must be in residence for six quarters excluding summers, and maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0. The Ph.D. language requirement is competency in two languages in addition to German and English. It can be fulfilled under the conditions described in the section on the M.A. degree.

After passing the M.A. examination, Ph.D. students must complete a series of tutorials and/or courses in two areas, one of which may be in comparative literatures (studies of different national literatures, e.g. English/German or French/German), the other in an area of German literature. At this point in the academic program (years two through four), the student should work on an emphasis as well, such as comparative literature, media technology, theory, etc. The student's course work should be chosen in consultation with his/her advisory committee, which will be selected by the end of the first year of study following the award of the M.A.

This advisory committee, which administers the oral and written doctoral candidacy qualifying examinations and supervises the research and writing of the dissertation, must consist of at least three ladder faculty, of whom at least two will be affiliated with the graduate faculty in German.

Once this part of the course work is completed, the student must pass three field examinations on topics chosen in consultation with the advisory committee from the following list:

(1) German Linguistics or History of Language
(2) Literary Period and/or Genre
(3) Theory and Philosophy (such as German Idealism, Psychoanalysis, the Frankfurt School, Deconstruction)
(4) Media Technology
(5) Holocaust Studies
(6) Special Field defined by the candidate in close consultation with the graduate advisor and at least one additional faculty member.

If necessary, students may retake each field exam once. The written examinations are to be followed by an oral examination on the student's proposed dissertation topic administered by the dissertation committee. Students who pass this examination will be advanced to candidacy. The final requirement is the successful completion of a doctoral dissertation including, in conclusion, the oral defense.

For additional detailed information on graduate policies and procedures at UCSB, see the Graduate Handbook, now available on-line at www.graddiv.ucsb.edu/academic/handbook/.