Area-specific thesis proposal PHD CCAP

CCAP: Additional PhD regulations

All PhD students of the CCAP program are expected to submit a Thesis research proposal to their Advisory Committee and get the committee’s approval before proceeding with their thesis research work. The proposal must be approved by the Advisory Committee no later than the end of the 3rd semester in the PhD degree.

There are many steps in developing your proposed program of work for your PhD. These will vary with the project, the student and the Advisor. Students will need to work out an individual timeline with their Advisor regarding the steps needed to complete their proposal.

The proposal should include the following: Introduction, Method and Materials/Procedure, Proposed Analyses, and a short discussion of feasibility. Proposal length will vary and should be determined together with the student and Advisor. Proposals must follow the most recent APA formatting guidelines.

Typically, students will submit multiple drafts of their proposals to their Advisor prior to submitting it to their committee.
 
A minimum of two weeks will be allowed for any Advisory Committee member, including the Advisor, to evaluate any work submitted to them.

When the PhD student’s Advisor has deemed that the proposal is ready to be circulated to the committee the student will send an electronic copy to members of the Advisory Committee.

Students are encouraged to review the Department of Psychology Statistical Methods in Theses: Guidelines and Explanations with their committee (if applicable).

Once the committee has read the proposal, a meeting of the Advisory Committee can be scheduled to hold a proposal meeting. Typically, such a meeting consists of feedback and questions from the Advisory Committee based on the research proposal. It may also include a brief presentation by the student of the proposed research. Evaluation of the proposal will be done holistically. Numeric grades are not required; instead the work is reported as either satisfactory or unsatisfactory.