Master of Family, Youth and Community Sciences
As a graduate student in the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences you are responsible for meeting all requirements of the Department, the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and the Graduate School of the University of Florida. This site will help you make sure that you do so. However, this site does not necessarily include every step that you must take to graduate from the University. You should regularly consult the "Important Links" listed on our home page. These include links to the Graduate School and the College, the graduate catalog with its lists of deadline dates, the University's Graduate Student Handbook and other web sites that have information that is critical to your success as a graduate student.
Getting
Started
If you have not
selected a chair for your Supervisory Committee (also referred to as
advisor) when you start your program of study, the Graduate
Coordinator will assign a temporary advisor for you. This individual
will help you during your first semester of graduate study. This
faculty member will help make sure that the courses you take during
your first semester will apply toward your degree, suggest faculty
members who may be appropriate to chair your Supervisory Committee,
and help make sure that you have access to all of the resources
available to graduate students in the Department.
The MFYCS degree requires a minimum of 32 graduate credits.
| Required Courses | Credits |
| FYC 6801 Scientific Reasoning and Research Design | 3 |
| FYC 6230 Theories of Family OR FYC 6932 Theories of Youth Development OR FYC 6330 Theories of Community | 3 |
| FYC 6660 Public Policy for Family, Youth and Community Sciences | 3 |
| FYC 6131 Ethics for Practitioners | 3 |
| FYC 6933 Seminar in Family, Youth and Community Sciences | 2 |
| FYC 6421 Non-Profit Organizations | 3 |
| FYC 6912 Non-Thesis Research project | 3-6 |
| FYC 6620 Program Planning and Evaluation for Human Services Delivery | 3 |
| Departmental Electives | 6 |
| Supporting Courses | |
| Other departmental or non-departmental electives to complete the minimum of 32 hours of graduate study | 3 |
| Minimum Credits to Graduate | 32 |
FYC 6230
Theories of Family and Youth OR FYC 6330 Theories of Community
Development. These
are foundation courses. Take them as early as possible in your
program of study. All graduate students must complete one of these
courses. You make take both courses, in which case one will serve as
an elective.
FYC 6933
Seminar in Family, Youth and Community Sciences.
You must enroll in this course for two semesters. The course is
offered fall semester only.
FYC 6131
Ethics for Practitioners.
This course will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of
the ethical considerations for practitioners in our discipline from
the perspective of a service provider, a researcher, and a
representative of a public or private organization.
FYC 6660
Public Policy for Family, Youth and Community Sciences.
This course discusses current policies and laws affecting youth,
families and communities and strategies to promote the development
of improved policies. Offered fall semester of 2003 and 2005.
Electives. The MFYCS degree is a professional degree. It prepares you to assume mid-management level responsibilities in the public or private sector. The elective courses that you take should focus on preparing you to advance toward your intermediate and long-term career goals. Therefore, you have discretion in selecting the appropriate elective courses. You must complete a minimum of 6 credit hours of elective courses in the department, but you can complete more than 6 hours of departmental electives. You may also select electives from other departments. In both cases, select these courses in consultation with your Supervisory Committee. The Committee must approve your selections. You may also elect to complete a minor in another discipline. Many departments offer minors, most requiring nine hours of study. If you do decide to complete a minor, your Supervisory Committee should include a representative of the department offering the minor.
The Supervisory Committee
You must establish
a Supervisory Committee by the end of the semester in which you
complete nine (9) hours of study (usually the first semester in the
program) or by the end of the second semester, whichever
occurs first. Failure to establish the Committee may result
in a hold on your records. Supervisory Committee serves as mentors
for you during your graduate career. Your Supervisory Committee must
approve your program of study and conduct the final comprehensive
examinations. Selecting the chair and other Committee members early
is therefore important. Delaying these decisions can have important
consequences for your program.
The first step is
to identify the chair of your Committee. You should not assume that
your temporary advisor will chair your Supervisory Committee. You
select your chair. If you find that you like working with your
temporary advisor and feel that this is the most appropriate chair
for you, by all means you should find out whether he/she would want
to serve as your chair. There are no repercussions from deciding
that someone else is a better choice. The temporary advisor
understands this clearly and you should not hesitate to select the
chair that you want. Meet and interact with faculty members. Learn
about their interests and areas of expertise. Think about and
formulate your own professional goals. These are the best guides to
picking the right chair for your Supervisory Committee.
The Committee
consists of three individuals. The chair and co-chair of the
Supervisory Committee must be members of the graduate teaching
faculty in the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences.
You must have a co-chair. The third or external member of the
Committee should be from another department. If you are completing a
minor, the third member should represent the minor. If you are not
completing a minor, the third member should be someone whose
expertise will help you successfully complete your program of study.
In many cases, students elect an outside member to reflect a
secondary area of interest. For example, you might decide to
complement your departmental courses with supportive course work in
aging. In this case, your outside member should represent this
subject matter aspect of your graduate program. You may delay
selection of the external member, but you should identify this
person as early as possible. You must select this member before
you present your proposal for the thesis.
As
soon as you select your Supervisory Committee members, see the
Graduate Coordinator, Mickie Swisher to submit your Supervisory
Committee form. The
graduate coordinator must submit this form. This form
must be submitted by the end of the semester in which you complete 9
hours of study. File a revised supervisory committee
appointment form when you add the external member to your committee.
You can change the composition of your Supervisory Committee at any time until the midpoint of the semester in which you plan to graduate. The final deadline for changes in the Supervisory Committee varies with the academic calendar so you need to check the Graduate School's list of critical dates to find this date each semester. If you decide to change one or more Committee members, you will need to submit a new Supervisory Committee Appointment Form.
Program
of Study
As soon as you have
established your Supervisory Committee, convene a meeting of the
Committee to develop your program of study. You are
responsible for finding a suitable date, time and meeting place
(usually the Department's conference room) for this and all other
Committee meetings. The program of study lists the courses
that you will take to meet the degree requirements for the
Department. Your Supervisory Committee must approve the program of
study. As soon as your members and you have decided what courses you
will take, complete a
Program
of Study form. You, your Committee members, and the Graduate Coordinator (Mickie
Swisher) must all sign this form. Do not seek the Dean’s
signature. Rather, give the completed form signed by you, your
Committee members and the Graduate Coordinator to the Academic
Coordinator.
This form must be
submitted by the end of the semester in which you complete 9 hours
of study. Do not enroll
for additional courses until you have an approved program of study
on file. If you change your program of study at any point you
must file a new form. When you graduate, the program of study on
file with the department and with the Dean of the College of
Agricultural and Life Sciences must match the courses that you
actually completed. If there is a discrepancy, you will have a
problem with graduation.
Completing
the Form. The
form has three sections. In the first part of the form (Major), list all of the
courses taken in this department, whether they are required or
elective. The second part of the form (Minor) is for the courses
that you take for a formal minor. If you are not completing a minor,
do not list any courses in this part of the form. The third part of
the form contains the elective courses taken in other
departments that are not part of a formal minor selected in
consultation with your Committee.
The
Comprehensive Examinations
The Master of
Family, Youth and Community Science is normally (but not always) a
terminal professional degree that prepares you to assume an advanced
professional position upon graduation. You will demonstrate that you
have mastered the knowledge that our Department believes is critical
by successfully passing written and oral comprehensive examinations.
The subject matter of the examinations will be restricted to the
material that you have covered in your course work during your
master's program. The questions will thoroughly probe your mastery
of these subject matter areas.
In one sense, your
entire program of study prepares you for the comprehensive
examinations. However, many students seek more guidance as they
prepare for the exams. You should meet with the chair of your
Supervisory Committee to decide how to approach preparation for the
comprehensive examinations. One common approach is for you to
consult your individual Committee members and ask them what they
want to cover on the examinations. Some faculty members will give
you a list of topics or even a reading list to use as you prepare
for the exams. You may want to take an elective course such as
Problems in Family, Youth and Community Sciences to prepare for the
exams. All of these decisions should be made in consultation with
the chair of your Committee.
The time of the written and oral examinations is driven by the deadline for submitting the Report on Thesis or Dissertation and/or Final Examination to the Graduate School. This report is normally due about one month prior to the end of the semester in which you graduate. You cannot submit this form until you have completed both the written and oral examinations. You will need some time between taking the written examination and the oral examination because the latter builds on the former. If your Committee feels that your responses to some written questions were not totally satisfactory, for example, they will indicate that you need to make additional preparations before the oral examination in the areas covered on those questions. Students must sometimes take parts or all of the examinations a second time. In short, give yourself plenty of time for these examinations. Certainly you should set the date for your written comprehensive examination no later than mid-semester. An earlier date is preferable.
The
Written Examination
The members of your
Supervisory Committee provide the questions for the written
comprehensive examination. The questions are usually designed to
test your ability to acquire and use science-based information in
your field to analyze issues and problems, not to test your mastery
of a particular set of facts. However, the format and content (with
the exception that it must be restricted to subject matter covered
during your course of study in the program) of the written
examination is completely open and is decided by your Supervisory
Committee . It may be an open or closed book examination. The
members may give you some choice about which of several questions to
answer. You may receive the entire examination at once, or it may be
given to you in parts. It may be a take home examination or occur
under supervised conditions. You will determine these details with
your Supervisory Committee, especially your chair.
All members of your Supervisory Committee will read all of your responses to the questions. The individual who submitted a question will decide if you passed or failed on the specific question, but the Committee as a whole decides if you passed the examination in its entirety or not. Your chair will inform you about your success with the examination within two weeks of the time that you complete the exam. You may pass the entire exam, or your Committee may decide that you need to retake part or all of the examination. In either case, your chair will provide you with a copy of the comments made about your responses to the individual questions by each Committee member.
The Oral Examination
The oral
examination occurs a minimum of two weeks after successful
completion of the written examination. Use this time to better
prepare yourself in any areas where your Committee members feel that
your written responses were weak. One purpose of the oral
examination is to allow your Committee members to probe these areas
and make sure that your mastery is complete. The oral examination
also allows you and your Committee to delve into different topics in
depth. It is a give and take discussion where you will have an
opportunity to demonstrate your ability to analyze complex issues
and articulate what you understand about them. Again, as in the case
of your written examination, the subject matter covered in the oral
examination will not extend beyond that covered during your course
of study here at UF.
All faculty members
in the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences are
invited to attend your oral examination. You should post a notice of
the date, time and place of the examination in the Department. Your
Supervisory Committee will decide if faculty members who do not
serve on your Committee can participate actively in the oral
examination. You must select one student observer from the
Department to attend your oral examination. This is done to
help make absolutely sure that the treatment you receive during the
examination is professional, unbiased and fair. The student observer
does not participate actively in the examination and he/she must
leave the room when you are asked to leave the room.
Only your
Supervisory Committee members decide whether you have successfully
passed the oral examination, even if they do decide to allow other
faculty members to question you. If you should fail the examination,
it usually means that you need to strengthen your program of study.
This is logical because the oral examination is a follow-up to the
written examination. Often, weaknesses are detected in the written
examination and then you have some time and get some guidance to
correct those weaknesses between the written and oral examinations.
If you have not been able to do so by the time of the oral
examination, it usually means that you simply need some additional
course work or perhaps a directed reading program to master the
material. You can retake the oral examination after you complete the
suggested program of study.
Bring a prepared
copy of the
Report
on Thesis or Dissertation or Final Examination to your oral
examination to your oral examination. If you successfully pass
your oral examination, your Committee members will sign this form.
You must submit this form to graduate.
Do not be alarmed
if your Committee asks you to leave the room during your oral
examination. This is normal. Usually the Committee asks you to leave
at the beginning of the examination while they agree on details of
how to conduct the examination and they must ask you to leave at the
end of the exam while they decide if you have completed it
successfully. Don't stray far! They usually make their decision
quickly.
Graduation
Day!
Before you
graduate, there are a few other steps that you will need to
complete. Consult the
Graduate
School site for current students to find out about these.
You do need to
complete a "Request for Graduation Check from Graduate
Records". Get the academic program coordinator in the
Department to fill out this form and submit it for you. This ensures
that you have met all of the Graduate School and College
requirements, do not have any flags on your records, etc.
You must complete
the Request for Letter of Certification of Satisfaction of All
Degree Requirements. This form shows that you have met all
Department, College and Graduate School requirements. This is
usually submitted near the end of the semester in which you will
graduate.
There are some
other forms as well, including an exit survey for the Graduate
School, an exit interview with the Department, and an exit interview
with the Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
Completing all of the forms and steps necessary for graduation is your responsibility.
News & Announcements
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