The Program has recently finished streamlining its requirements. These guidelines present degree requirements copied from the USC catalogue and supplementary information to help students and faculty navigate through the program.  The catalogue should be consulted first; the supplementary sections do not repeat those provisions.

Before completion of 24 units, students will be reviewed by a screening committee made up of the Program Director, one teacher of one of the core courses, and one professor nominated by the student.  This committee will review the student's progress, including grades and written faculty evaluations of course work.

The committee will be responsible for deciding, at an early stage in the student's career, whether the student is likely to finish the PhD program. After reviewing the student's record, the committee may decide to (1) continue the student, (2) not continue the student and admit the student into a terminal M.A. degree program, or (3) fail the student's performance in the screening process, i.e., not continue the student in either the M.A. or PhD programs.