Passing a Comprehensive exam

CMSE Students are expected to pass their comprehensive exam by the end of the second year in the program.

When you are ready to pass your comprehensive exam, follow the steps:

1. Connect with your advisor and the Graduate Program Director cmsegrad@msu.edu  indicating that you will be passing a comprehensive exam in an identified semester.
2. Connect with the graduate program coordinator at cmsegrad@msu.edu or CMSE staff at cmse_staff@list.msu.edu to book a conference room. Please reach out at least a month in advance since it might be challenging to book a conference room during semesters.
3. Provide the following information to the graduate program coordinator:
date and time of your comprehensive exam; location; title of your presentation; abstract; the committee.
4. The graduate program coordinator will prepare and send you a pdf announcement to proofread. Reply indicating if the announcement looks good to you and let the coordinator know what departments you would like to share your announcement with.
5. Prepare for your comprehensive exam!
6. On the day of your exam, print out or ask the staff to print out the Comprehensive Exam Record for your comprehensive exam, found at https://cmse.msu.edu/Academics/grad_program/students/forms.aspx
7. In the end of the exam, ask your committee to sign the form.
8. Scan the signed form and email it to cmsegrad@msu.edu, indicating that you passed your comprehensive exam and would like to have your records updated.