Students must file an application for Ph.D. Candidacy by a letter to the Chair of the Graduate Group for action by the Graduate Group. Neither admission to graduate study nor the M.A. degree carries automatic admission to Candidacy. (Indeed, students are not required to fulfill the requirements of the M.A. degree as part of their preparation for the Ph.D.) Applicants for Candidacy must fulfill the following requirements:

1. Comprehensive Examination, passed at a level that shows sufficient
preparation for Ph.D. work. (This serves as the Ph.D. Qualifications
Examination stipulated by the Graduate Faculties.)
2. Competency in German and French.
3. Designation of a proposed major field of specialization and a dissertation supervisor. The dissertation supervisor shall be a member of the Graduate Group, unless an exception is specifically allowed by the Group.

Students must apply for Candidacy no later than the semester in which twelve course units have been cumulatively registered, and no student normally will be permitted to register beyond twelve course units until he/she has been admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. Students who arrive at Pennsylvania without transferable graduate credits should therefore petition for candidacy no later than their fourth semester, immediately after passing the Comprehensive Examination at the Ph.D. level. Students entering the program with MAs and who intend to request transfer credit for a year of graduate work completed elsewhere should take the Comprehensive Examination in January of their second semester and then petition the Chair of the Graduate Group for Candidacy.