Progress Toward Your Degree

This guide covers what you need to know during the early and middle stages of your graduate degree. As you get closer to graduation, you may also be looking for information on Completing Your Master’s Degree or Completing Your Doctoral Degree.

Minimum Graduate Credit Requirements

These are the Graduate School’s minimum requirements for a graduate degree. In all cases, your program may have a higher GPA or credit requirement than the minimum.

GPA

You must maintain a 3.00 or greater for all graduate courses. Your program may have a higher GPA requirement.

Grades from transfer credits do not count toward your UW–Madison graduate GPA.

Policy: GPA Requirement

Minimum graduate coursework

You must earn at least 50% of the credits for your graduate degree in graduate-level courses. These courses will include the 50% Graduate Coursework Requirement course attribute in the Course Search & Enroll app. Your program may have a higher graduate credit requirement.

Policy: Minimum Graduate Coursework (50%) Requirement

Minimum graduate residence credits

You must meet the minimum graduate residence requirement by taking UW–Madison courses numbered 300 and above while you are enrolled as a graduate student.

You can count master’s degree credits taken at UW–Madison.

Master’s degree (except MFA): 16 credits
MFA: 24 credits combined
Specialist degree and certificate: 24 credits combined
Doctoral degree: 32 credits, earned prior to achieving dissertator fee status

Policy: Minimum Graduate Residence Credit Requirement

Minimum graduate degree credits

You must earn a minimum number of credits for your degree, including graduate credits earned at UW–Madison and graduate credits transferred from prior coursework.

Master’s degree (except MFA): 30 credits
MFA: 42 credits
Specialist certificate: 42 credits
Doctoral degree: 51 credits

Policy: Minimum Graduate Degree Credit Requirement

Repeating courses

You may repeat a course. Depending on the type of course, it may only count once toward the Graduate School’s minimum credit requirements for graduation.

Policy: Repeating Courses

Committees

Your committee is the group of faculty members who ensure your academic progress and evaluate your thesis or dissertation.

Your committee members advise you, evaluate satisfactory academic progress, administer the preliminary examination and dissertation defense, evaluate your thesis or dissertation, and sign your degree warrant.

The Graduate School has specific requirements for graduate committees. Use the committee requirements tool to check whether your committee meets the requirements.

Committee requirements tool

Committee Requirements

Master’s students

Your committee must include:

At least three members total
A chair or co-chair from your program
At least two UW–Madison faculty or former faculty within one year of retirement

Committee Requirements

Doctoral students

Your program is responsible for forming two committees:

a preliminary examination committee, and
a dissertation committee

Each should include members with appropriate expertise to provide both breadth and depth for your degree requirements. These committees may have different members.

The program’s executive committee (or its equivalent) must approve the composition of both committees. Consult your advisor and your program’s student handbook for details on the roles and responsibilities of these committees.

Satisfactory Academic Progress

You must maintain satisfactory academic progress, determined by the Graduate School, your program, and your faculty advisor.

The definition of satisfactory progress varies by program. The Graduate Guide includes the Graduate School’s and each program’s satisfactory progress chart.

The Graduate School monitors your satisfactory progress by checking that you have:

a cumulative grade point average of 3.00 or greater
enrolled in the minimum required credits
no incomplete (I) grades
no unsatisfactory (U) grades
completed English language courses for some international students

Policy: Satisfactory Progress

Probation

If you don’t maintain satisfactory academic progress, you may be subject to academic probation, including a hold on future enrollment. Probation may lead to dismissal from your graduate studies.

Dismissals

Programs may dismiss students for lack of academic progress or for failing to meet program conduct standards as defined in the Graduate Guide or program handbook. Programs must follow any dismissal process detailed in the handbook.

If you are dismissed during a term, you can either finish that term or withdraw. If you withdraw, you cannot continue any graduate assistantship after your withdrawal date. Any withdrawal after dismissal will be processed so you will not owe tuition and fees.

If you are dismissed, you may not enroll or remain enrolled in the following term unless:

you are admitted to a new program
you change degree level from PhD to master’s, or
you have a pending appeal through your program’s dismissal process

Track Your Degree Progress

The Graduate Student Tracking System offers an Advisement Report that can help you track the academic requirements needed to earn your degree. Advisement Reports include your program’s curricular requirements, prior coursework used for transfer credit, and individual exceptions to the standard curriculum.

Access your advisement report

Breadth Requirements in Doctoral Education

UW–Madison requires a breadth component to doctoral training. You can achieve breadth through a doctoral minor, Graduate/Professional certificate, or other means up to your graduate program.

Some programs have built breadth into their standard curriculum and don’t require an additional minor or certificate. Check with your program for breadth requirements.

You cannot earn a doctoral minor and a Graduate/Professional certificate of the same name.

Breadth Option A

External doctoral minor

Complete a minimum of 9 credits in a doctoral minor program, either in one discipline or multi-disciplinary.
The doctoral minor program approves your external doctoral minor.
Credits earned towards the doctoral minor may count towards the minimum graduate residence requirement, minimum graduate degree requirement, and the minimum graduate coursework (50%) requirement.

Explore doctoral minors

Breatdh Option B

Distributed doctoral minor

Complete a minimum of 9 credits in one or more programs forming a coherent topic.
Your doctoral major program approves your distributed doctoral minor.
Credits earned towards the doctoral minor may count towards the minimum graduate residence requirement, minimum graduate degree requirement, and the minimum graduate coursework (50%) requirement.

Explore courses

Breadth Option C

Graduate/Professional Certificates

Add a certificate to your academic career before you complete the classes for it, and before your preliminary exam.
Use the Add/Change/Discontinue process in MyGradPortal to add a certificate.
For any additional steps needed, contact the certificate-specific coordinator.

Explore graduate certificates

Minimum credit requirements for doctoral minors

The Graduate School’s minimum course requirements for the doctoral minor include:

an average GPA of 3.00 on all minor coursework
coursework must be graded courses numbered 300 or above; no audits or pass/fail
maximum 3 credits of independent study (e.g., 699, 799, 899, 999)
research and thesis cannot be used to satisfy the minor (e.g., 790, 890, 990)
no more than 5 credits of coursework completed more than 5 years prior to admission to the doctoral program; coursework taken 10 years ago or more may not be used

Policy: Breadth Requirement in Doctoral Training

Milestones in the Doctoral Degree

In addition to completing the required coursework, PhD students progress through these stages on the way to graduation.

Annual written assessment on progress to degree

A UW–Madison policy ensures that PhD-seeking students receive an annual update on their progress toward degree completion. Your program must provide you with an annual written assessment on your degree progress and an opportunity to discuss it. If you are not making satisfactory progress, your program must clearly outline and communicate follow-up expectations.

Policy: Annual Written Assessment on Progress to Degree

Preliminary or qualifying exams

The preliminary or qualifying examination is a significant milestone in a doctoral student’s academic career. It assesses your knowledge of areas within your academic discipline.

Your program will determine when you are eligible to take your prelim and will administer the exam. Contact your program to learn about specific requirements.

A preliminary examination warrant is your program’s official recommendation that you be admitted to doctoral candidacy. Your program must request your prelim warrant 3 weeks before your exam date.

Doctoral Student Experience Survey

This survey collects information when you transition to doctoral candidacy, including your career aspirations, academic experiences, academic challenges, and other topics. Complete the Doctoral Student Experience Survey before submitting your signed preliminary examination warrant to the Graduate School. The Graduate School uses survey data to improve student services.

Doctoral candidacy

To be considered a doctoral candidate, you must:

pass your preliminary/qualifying examination
get approval for your doctoral minor if your program requires it
complete all major course requirements

Dissertator status

Once you pass your prelim, the Graduate School will automatically place you into dissertator fee status. Dissertator fee status restricts enrollment to exactly three graded graduate credits per term. You may opt out if you wish to enroll in a different number of credits. You are still considered a doctoral candidate and can still graduate, even if you opt out of dissertator fee status.

Policy: Dissertator Status

Five-year rule

After passing your preliminary examination, you must defend and deposit your dissertation within five years. If you don’t, you may need to take another prelim. The five-year limit starts on the first day of class for the semester—fall, spring, or summer—immediately following your successful prelim.

Policy: Time Limits

Degree Completion Fee

As a doctoral candidate, you must maintain continuous enrollment until you graduate.

If you can’t maintain continuous enrollment—for example, in rare cases where you’re finishing without registering—you’ll pay a degree completion fee. This fee covers the university resources you’ll still use up to your defense and dissertation submission. The doctoral degree completion fee is equal to one of the following:

12 times the per-credit dissertator rate when your dissertation is submitted, based on the resident or nonresident tuition status you had during your last term of enrollment
the 12-credit fee minus all continuous enrollment credits paid since you have reentered enrollment

If you broke enrollment as a doctoral candidate, but reentered your program and enrolled for at least four continuous terms, you will not need to pay a degree completion fee. If you have maintained continuous enrollment, you will not need to pay a degree completion fee.

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