Princeton's graduate program in German has long been recognized as one of the leading programs of German studies. Students are offered the chance to participate in an intense intellectual community and to work with scholars whose expertise encompasses the breadth of German literary tradition as well as contemporary interdisciplinary and theoretical approaches to the study of German culture. Each year the department admits a small number of highly motivated students to its Ph.D. program. The Ph.D. program is normally a five-year program. The department does not offer a program of study culminating in the terminal M.A. Instead, an M.A. degree is awarded upon request after successful completion of the general examination. During at least one of the program's two years of coursework the student is expected to live in Princeton in fulfillment of the University's residency requirement. Beyond the successful completion of coursework, the major formal requirements for the Ph.D. are the general examination, the dissertation prospectus colloquium, and the dissertation. Students typically complete the first part of the general examination, the so-called erudition exam, in the fall of the third year of study, after having completed twelve courses over four semesters, both within the German department and in other departments. The second part of the general examination, the so-called special exam, is typically completed in the spring of the third year, as is the dissertation prospectus colloquium. Students who come to the program with previous graduate training in the field (e.g., an M.A.) are sometimes permitted to reduce their coursework to three semesters and complete the general examination earlier, in the spring of the second year. Following the successful completion of the general examination and the dissertation prospectus colloquium, students' individual courses of study vary, although most choose to go abroad during the fourth year to conduct dissertation research and then return to write the dissertation in the fifth and––if the student has been awarded an external fellowship to support research abroad in the fourth year––sixth years.