Dissertation Committees and Comps Question

Whats the process of forming your dissertation committee once you reach that stage. I read a comment on here that it's hard sometimes to put together a committee when you are doing a DL/low residency doctorate, particularly at Nova Southeastern. Do you just ask faculty you've worked with, do they all have to be in your field? Just curious.

Also another thing I am curious about....How are comps set up...do they test you on everything you've covered in the coursework? Do they give you an outline of what will be covered. I know a couple of acquaintances that were swamped when they were studying for comps. You didn't hear from them at all...

 

Re first paragraph: Dunno.

Re second paragraph: Yes, comps usually are pretty much what the name implies. Yes, a comps-taker *must* study ferociously.

Good luck to you in your work.

 

Originally posted by dst10spr97
Whats the process of forming your dissertation committee once you reach that stage. I read a comment on here that it's hard sometimes to put together a committee when you are doing a DL/low residency doctorate, particularly at Nova Southeastern.

The answer to all of the above is really "it depends upon the school". Many universities (and even departments with a single unviersity) operate differently. Let me offer you some general guidelines:

You want to select as your chair the person who you feel will best shepherd you through the process (a dissertation is a long, involved process). Your chair is responsible for helping you succeed, but you are responsible for keeping your chair informed and involved at every point of your research and writing. Doing your doctorate via DL presents a definite challenge, since you may not have live access to your professors. However, Nova, if I recall, does have some short residency requirements, which would enable you to, at least, meet the professors.

Do you just ask faculty you've worked with, do they all have to be in your field? Just curious.

Typically, you do ask the professors if they would be willing to work on your committee and then send a request to the Dean of the college, asking for those faculty members. Depending on their existing load, you may or may not get all of your "first choice".

It is best if you select faculty in your field. Particularly those whose research and publication is closest to what you are doing. For example, if I was a Nova student in the Instructional Technology doctorate program, I would try to get Dr. Michael Simonsen on my committee, since he is well known in the field and his research is compatible to my own. Most universities allow you to have at least one member of your committee who is not in your department, if you wish.

Also another thing I am curious about....How are comps set up...do they test you on everything you've covered in the coursework? Do they give you an outline of what will be covered. I know a couple of acquaintances that were swamped when they were studying for comps. You didn't hear from them at all...

This is another "it depends upon the school and department". I was in two doctoral programs. In the first, the comps were an instructional development project that had to be designed, developed, implemented, evaluated, written up and defended within a 3 week period. In the second, I was put in a room with a computer for three days (6 hours per day) and given a series of questions dervied from all of the courses that I took.

Either way, it was a difficult process. You need to keep all of your lecture notes and synthesize them in order to study for comps.

I hope that this helps.

Tony Piña
Administrator, Northeastern Illinois University

 

Re: Re: Dissertation Committees and Comps Question

I think it's also often the case for DL docs that you can have a member not only outside your department, but also outside your university. This is certainly my plan -- I've already been in communication with one of the top scholars in my area of research, and he's quite keen about my dissertation topic. He has nothing to do with Capella, but they have no problem with him being on my committee. In fact, they might even require one "visiting" member, but I can't remember at the moment, and am too sleepy to go look that up.

Now I'm curious, though, and will -- if I'm incorrect, I'll come back and update on this thread.

Cheers,
Adrienne

 

Re: Re: Re: Dissertation Committees and Comps Question

Hi Adrienne,

It's actually not uncommon for non-DL programs to allow a doctoral candidate to have a scholar from outside the university to serve on her or his committee. Several of my doctorate-holding colleagues have done this.

P.S. Since you and I are in the same field, I would be curious to know who is that "top scholar". Are you planning on attending the AECT Conference in Orlando? (you can PM if you wish)

Tony

 

In my department you have to choose your committe before the end of the first semester! I started out with my chair (the person who is giving me funding) and then asked her for recommendations. It's important that you have a committee that can work well together, or you might find yourself in a departmental political battle and never graduate!

For the comps, we have 1 written for each committie member (minumum 5). Each one is 6 hours long and is supposed to cover the courses you have taken. The only problem I am worried about are that often the course descriptions don't match at all what is actually taught in the course, so I could get a question that I really have no idea on how to answer.

Then there is an oral qualifiying exam which can be about anything.

I've been told really there is not much point to studying for comps because you really don't know what you could get asked.

 

For us at UH, you build your committee the first semester that you are a bonified student. Make sure that your committee gets along, because if they dont, oh my. It helps to have the chair of your committee know the field that you are working in. The will go a long way toward completion. For our writtens, you have two questions within your field( For example, for me it is the New Deal so I would have a question over the Federal Writers' Project and one over the New Deal). Those questions are take home and you have one week to complete them. The minimum to answer is 10 pages. Then the next week , you have two more questions over another topic within your century( 20th for me). You have one week to finish it. 10 pages is the minimum for both. Then you defend your dissertation.

 

addendum

At Capella, the comps process changed this year. Now, the last quarter in which you take classes, you choose a mentor, who will chair your comps and dissertation committee. You then also select (with their agreement) two other committee members (which may or may not be the same for the dissertation). The comps process, which includes a lot of timed administrative steps, basically boils down to this:

Each committee member writes a comp question, that can basically be pulled from anything you've covered in your Ph.D. classes, but will most likely resemble some sort of synthesis covering many subjects. You then, in consultation with the committee, write the fourth question in lines with your particular focus in research.

The upshot is, you have four weeks to write answers to the four questions . . . about 15 pages each. These are then read by the committee. If they mark them a pass, then you have an oral defense of the same for the final pass (conference call). If you don't pass one (or more) of the papers, you get one shot at a rewrite. If you don't pass the rewrite, adios. Oh, yeah, and there's a conference call right before you're given the questions, too.

Once that's done, you move on to the dissertation stage, which will eventually also require an oral defense as well.

Cheers,
Adrienne

 

I admit that all the work, and administrative steps to becoming a doctor sounds really scary and exciting all at the same time!

 

Here is my story about my experience with "The Comps"


http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15405&highlight=comps+again