For students wishing to continue in the Department beyond their fifth year there will be an annual research review in their fifth and subsequent years. For this review the student will report orally to the Doctoral Advisory Committee. If any member of the committee or the Department head requests it, the student shall also submit a written summary of the report.  The written summary should provide a reasonable overview of the student's progress, and in general it need not be more than three pages long. This summary is to be considered confidential, and must not be circulated to anyone outside the Department except members of the committee, without the consent of the student and the thesis advisor.

If the student presents his/her research in a seminar attended by a majority of the members of the Doctoral Advisory Committee, the Committee may choose to accept this as satisfaction of part or all of a research review requirement. 

Possible items for the student's report include:

• Papers and books which have been read. 
• Courses and seminars attended. 
• Programs written and experiments performed. 
• Concepts formulated, conjectures investigated, and methods used. 
• Theorems proved. 
• Talks given and papers written. 
• Copies of technical reports or papers authored or co-authored by the student. 
• Thesis proposal, plan, or outline. 

Following the oral report, the committee shall meet privately to discuss the student's progress. A written summary of this meeting will be prepared by the student's thesis advisor, who will send copies to the director of graduate studies and Department head in advance of the annual meeting at which the Department evaluates graduate students. The thesis advisor will communicate to the student any recommendations or suggestions made by the committee.