Computer Science Department

Doctoral Program Requirements

Students seeking the Ph.D. in computer science must complete a seven-course requirement with at least a 3.7 grade point average in the seven courses, and with no individual grade lower than B-. All seven courses must be taken at William and Mary.

All Ph.D. students must take:

  • CSci 653, Analysis of Algorithms,
  • CSci 654, Advanced Computer Architecture,
  • CSci 664, Advanced Operating Systems.

The remaining four courses may be chosen from the 600 or 700 level courses in the department, excluding: 670, Colloquium; 690, Readings; 695, Research; 700, M.S. Thesis; 708, Research Projects in Computational Science; 710 Research Project; 770, Colloquium; 790, Readings; and 795, Research. At least three of these four courses must be at the 700 level, and at most two may be taken outside the Computer Science Department. A student may not use courses taken in another department nor CSci courses designated as Computational Operations Research courses (last digit in the course number is an 8), to satisfy degree requirements without prior written approval of the student's advisor and the Graduate Admissions Committee.

For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy with a specialization in computational science the student must satisfy all of the department's requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, including the seven course requirement. In support of the specialization in computational science, the student must take at least three graduate courses from outside the department. Of these three, at most two can also be used to satisfy the department's seven-course requirement.

Each computational science student will have a three-person computational science advisory committee within the department to advise the student about what is needed to meet the certification requirements of the Computational Science Cluster. The committee will approve the three graduate courses from outside the department, and insure that the dissertation topic incorporates computation in a creative way, either by developing an enabling computational technology, or by using such technologies to obtain a significant scientific result.

Doctoral students must complete a year of continuous residence as a full-time student at William & Mary. Students who obtain a M.S. or M.A. degree must complete their residency requirement after satisfying the requirements for a M.S. or M.A. degree (at William & Mary or elsewhere). Students who do not obtain a M.S. or M.A. degree must complete their residency requirement after satisfying the department's seven course requirement. There is no foreign language requirement.

In addition to required course work, doctoral students will identify a principal research advisor, form a doctoral advisory committee, and petition the department for acceptance into candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. After acceptance into candidacy, students must pass the doctoral comprehensive examination (also known as the thesis proposal exam). This examination is oral, is conducted by the candidate's committee, and is open to the faculty and to whomever else the department may invite.

Approximately six months before the anticipated dissertation defense, the candidate is required to meet with the committee. At this meeting, the candidate is expected to describe in detail the status of the research upon which the dissertation is based and plan for conducting the work that remains to be done. The purpose of this meeting is to provide the committee with an opportunity to evaluate the candidate’s work and plans, and to provide feedback and advice in advance of the defense. The committee may require, at its discretion, additional meetings before a defense date can be scheduled.

Candidates must submit and satisfactorily defend a dissertation to a committee of at least five members, with at least one member from outside the department. The dissertation is based on original research and should contribute to the discipline's body of knowledge. The defense is oral and is open to the faculty and to whomever else the department may invite.

Each year, the faculty will review how well doctoral students have progressed toward completion of their Ph.D. degree. The department provides written guidelines to help students judge their own progress. In addition, the department provides more specific regulations than those conveyed in this catalog. Students are solely responsible for familiarizing themselves with all guidelines and regulations of the department.