Your Doctoral Plan of Study (DPOS)

The Doctoral Plan of Study is essentially a contract between the student, the major and minor departments, and the Graduate College specifying which courses the student will take to fulfill the requirements of the doctoral degree. The Graduate College does not allow doctoral students to take the Oral Comprehensive Examination until the DPOS has been approved.

When should I file my Plan of Study?

The Graduate College recommends that students submit their Plan of Study in the third semester in residence at University of Arizona. This is a general guideline and not a requirement, but it is in the student's best interest to submit the Plan of Study for approval as soon as he or she has consulted with the major and minor advisor and formulated an expected list of courses to be taken during the degree program. The sooner the Plan of Study is submitted, the sooner the student knows whether the proposed coursework is acceptable under Graduate College policies. Students who wait too long to submit the Plan of Study sometimes have to unexpectedly alter their coursework late in their degree program and may have to take additional courses they had not initially planned to take.

Common Errors

• Missing signatures:
  • The DPOS must have original signatures from the student, the major advisor and deparment head, and the minor advisor(s) and department head(s).
• Missing personal information:
  • Be sure to list the correct degree sought, major and minor. (Minor must be an officially recognized minor; students or departments cannot 'create' a minor, as they must be officially approved.) Be sure you have listed your correct Student ID number, which in most cases is different from your Social Security number.
• Including dissertation units in listed coursework.
  • All doctoral students must complete a minimum of 18 dissertation units, but those are tracked separately and should not appear on the DPOS. Dissertation units do not count toward the minimum 36 units of coursework in the major or 9 units in the minor.
• Excess non-degree units:
  • No more than 12 units listed on the DPOS may have been taken in non-degree seeking status (i.e. while not in the degree program).
• Excess S/P graded units:
  • No more than 50% of the total units listed on the DPOS (including transfer units) can be in courses graded with an S or P grade rather than a regular letter grade.
• Not enough units:
  • If the minor is different than the major, the DPOS must list a minimum of 36 units of coursework toward the major and a minimum of 9 units toward the minor. If the major and minor are the same, there must simply be a minimum of 45 units listed - they need not be differentiated as major or minor.(For students with two minors, there must be at least 36 units toward the major and at least 6 units toward each minor.)
• Ineligible transfer courses:
  • To be eligible for graduate transfer credit, a transfer course must have been taken for graduate credit at an accredited institution (U.S. or international), and it must have earned a grade of A or B (or equivalent, if international). Units awarded may be different than the units/credits earned at the original university if that school's credit system is different, e.g. quarter units or credits from non-U.S. institutions. The Evaluation of Transfer Credit form may be submitted prior to the formulation of the Plan of Study so that the student will know whether specific transfer courses will be acceptable.
  • If the transcript for the submitted transfer work is available from the student's Graduate Admissions file, that transcript will be used for the evaluation. If it is not available, an official copy of the transcript containing all final grades must be received in the Graduate Degree Certification office before the transfer work can be evaluated. Since transcript files are destroyed after a certain period of time, it is important to submit the evaluation request within the student's first year while transcripts are still generally available.
• What if my approved coursework changes?
  • A student whose DPOS has been approved by the department and the Graduate College may need to make changes to the coursework as they proceed through their degree program. Changes may be submitted either on the Change of Program form or, if acceptable to the degree auditor in the Graduate College Degree Certification office, by e-mail directly from the major advisor to the degree auditor. The DPOS must still be in compliance with all pertinent Graduate College policies after the changes are made, or the degree auditor will not accept the changes.