Well, right now I’m working on a thesis dealing with the history of the hockey organ and its continued omnipresence in the NHL. I managed to give a conference talk in my undergrad related to the operettas of Franz Lehar. So, ipso facto I think I’ve become a fin de siecle/early 20th century expert. (Which is strange since my performance repertoire and Ipod are both ridiculously 18th century, and I spent a fair deal of my undergrad coursework looking at illuminated texts and Medieval song. But I digress.) So any PhD work I’d be undertaking would probably be an extension of the thesis, looking at the greater cultural impact of the “secular” organ in western society.
My wife says that at UCLA incoming students with an M.A. typically have to take the first year of courses and then pass the master’s exam. However they can usually bypass the six higher-level seminars that incoming students with a B.A. are expected to take. This information (and more) is on the UCLA website.
Well, it’s worth noting that this sort of information is not generally a closely-guarded secret.
If you were to send a short email to the Director of Graduate Studies in each of the departments that you’re applying to, they would probably be happy to give you the information you’re after. And that information would probably be more accurate than the anecdotal evidence you’re going to get here (with the exception of The Hamster King’s from-the-horse’s-mouth advice).
My experience – yes, you can skip the courses in such a case. I switched institutions after getting a Master’s (although I had intended to stay on for my Ph.D. But I had a seriously bad experience with my advisor), and the school I went to waived all the course requirements and the qualifying exam as well, since I’d already passed the previous institution’s Ph.D. qualifying exam. They didn’t waive any of the teaching requirements, though – grad schools are always desperate for instructors, and I did plenty of it at both institutions.