Admission to the Graduate School does not imply admission to candidacy for the EdD or PhD degree. Students are granted candidacy to the Interdisciplinary EdD program in Leadership after successful completion of 32 credits and upon satisfactory portfolio review and approval. Students in the Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) program advance to candidacy after successful completion of all required Business Content coursework and Research Methods coursework, as well as the successful defense of their dissertation proposal.  In order to be advanced to candidacy for the PhD degree, a student must have previously been admitted to the Graduate School, have completed approximately half the number of hours in the degree program, and passed the comprehensive examination. For the master’s degree, however, the comprehensive examination can be used either to advance students to candidacy for the PhD or to measure terminal learning outcomes at or near the completion of the program of study.