These are the requirements for receiving a PhD from the department for students starting fall 2016 and later. 

All supervising faculty should be familiar with them. 

1. Completing 18 hours of graduate level coursework. This includes 9 hours of required Chemical Engineering technical coursework: Graduate Thermodynamics and Transport Phenomena in the fall, Graduate Kinetics in the spring.

Students with master's coursework in these areas can apply to the Graduate Advisor to waive the requirement on a case-by-case basis.

Overall GPA of 3.0 or higher required.

2. Passing a candidacy examination by the 4th long semester

This includes a Written report of 10 pages maximum

• One page executive summary of research proposal (single spaced)
• Introduction
• Proposed research problem and importance
• Proposed research strategy and methodology
• Preliminary results
• Timetable for completion
• Anticipated outcomes/milestones of a completed dissertation

Content equivalent to a completed research paper is NOT expected in the candidacy exam. 

For the Oral examination, students should prepare ~30 minutes of content, and plan on 90 minutes for the entire examination, to allow time for questions during and after the presentation.

Students are expected to answer the questions from the examiners without the help of the supervisor.

Ideally, all committee members will meet in person to hear the oral presentation. But examiners can attend virtually, or the presentation can be given separately if all examiners cannot attend on the same day. All committee members must sign the exam form. Members who attend virtually can email the graduate coordinator to confirm the presentation and report were satisfactory.

During the examination, students are expected to demonstrate:

• adequate progress toward identifying an important and impactful research problem
• the creation of a viable research strategy/specific plans
• presentation of preliminary results to warrant continuation on the track toward PhD candidacy
• an overall scholarly understanding of the research area

Progress in this preliminary research proposal will be scored as pass, conditional pass (with conditions such as, “repeat within one semester,” “re-write document,” or “take additional coursework”), and fail. Students who fail the examination will be transferred to the terminal Master’s degree program.

3. Completing two semesters of TA service in the department. Service in a course outside the department does not count towards this requirement, even if the course is taught by the supervisor.

4. Participating in the 1^st and 3^rd year seminar. 1st and 3rd year students are required to attend every Friday noon-1pm in the fall and spring semesters, to meet this requirement. 3rd year students must also present their research.

5. Completing annual committee update meetings after advancing to candidacy. Ideally, the entire committee meets together to discuss progress. But they can attend virtually, or students can meet with some members separately if needed. All committee members must sign the annual update form.

6. Completing a dissertation and passing a Final Oral Examination

The Graduate School has strict rules and deadlines for scheduling the final oral examination and submitting paperwork for graduation. These are not flexible and students should make themselves familiar with the rules, because they are responsible for following them. Committee members will need to sign the Request for Final Oral (Pink Form), Signature Page, and Gold Sheet. The Gold Sheet is sent directly to the supervisor, who is responsible for bringing it to the final oral defense. Digital signatures are accepted on all three forms, but they must be legible, and must all appear on the same page. The graduate coordinator has pink and gold paper available.

This is a visualization of the timeline for the doctoral program, including milestones:

For students who started Fall 2015 or earlier, the first two requirements are different

1. They completed Qualifying Exams, and must complete 18 hours of coursework, but the three core courses are not required. 3 graduate level CHE courses are required, and 3 electives. The GPA must be 3.0 or higher for courses to count toward the requirement.

2. They must complete their Preliminary Exam, rather than a Candidacy Exam. Prelims are expected to be slightly longer than Candidacy reports (15 instead of 10 pages), but all the other specifications are the same. Content equivalent to a completed research paper is NOT expected in the preliminary exam.

Deadlines: Students who entered the graduate program between fall 2014 and fall 2015 must complete this preliminary exam within the first five long semesters in residence. Failure to complete the exam within this time will remove students from the PhD program and place them in the master’s program, with one additional semester for completion of a terminal master’s degree.  A PhD supervisor may petition the Chemical Engineering graduate advisor in writing for a one-time extension of one long semester for completion of the exam due to exceptional circumstances.

Students who entered the graduate program before fall 2014 should plan to complete their preliminary oral examination within the first five long semesters in residence to make satisfactory progress towards a PhD degree, but there is no hard deadline.

All other requirements are the same for these students, except they do not have to complete

5. Annual committee update meetings, although this is considered a best practice