Students in ECE PhD are encouraged to select a major professor as early in their degree program as possible. The major professor will be a member of the ECE graduate faculty and will chair the student’s dissertation committee. The student in collaboration with the advisor selects the PhD committee that normally includes at least four members with graduate faculty standing in addition to the chair. One member of the committee must be outside ECE.
The student in ECE PhD is encouraged to hold a meeting with the committee during the first year to identify his/her study program, select course work plan and dissertation credit hours necessary for the student to complete the doctoral program. All members of the committee should approve the student’s doctoral program.
Students in the PhD ECE will be required to successfully pass two exams: General exam and preliminary exam. General exam should occur during the semester in which all course work is completed or during the first semester after all course work is completed.
Learning Outcomes
Doctor of Philosophy graduates are expected to:
- Demonstrate proficiency in the professional skills needed to become competent researchers, university professors, and scientists in the petroleum industry and/or academia;
- Synthesize, critique, apply, and extend major theories and methods and/or perform advanced engineering systems design in petroleum engineering or related area;
- Demonstrate the ability to direct teams towards state-of-the-art in their research;
- Demonstrate high standards of ethical, environmental, and societal awareness;
- Demonstrate effective written and oral communication skills.
Admission
Requirements for admission to the Graduate School, including English proficiency, may be found in the Admission section of this Bulletin.
In addition, applicants to the doctoral program in petroleum engineering must have a baccalaureate degree in engineering, physics, or mathematics from an accredited institution. Applicants with a baccalaureate degree in a field other than petroleum engineering may be required to take additional deficiency classes in the areas of reservoir engineering, production engineering and drilling engineering.
Students with baccalaureate degrees may be considered for admission to the Ph.D. program provided that the student’s academic record satisfies the following conditions:
- An undergraduate G.P.A. of 3.5 or greater;
- A composite G.P.A. of 3.5 or greater in mathematics, science, engineering science, and engineering undergraduate courses taken as an undergraduate; and
- A quantitative GRE score greater than or equal to 160.
The preceding requirements are considered minimal and do not guarantee direct admission to the Ph.D. program.
At the discretion of the graduate advisor, the requirements for international students regarding grade point average may be replaced by a rank in the top five percent of the student’s graduating class or the top ten percent of the student’s graduating class provided the student’s baccalaureate degree is from a university from which other students have been admitted into the Ph.D. program.
A student without a master’s degree who is admitted into the Ph.D. program must:
- Maintain at least a 3.5 G.P.A. in the first 18 hours of graduate work at the 7000- or 8000-level, and
- Complete the Ph.D. qualifying exams (as explained in the section on Qualifying exams)
- Candidates who fail to meet the preceding two requirements will be dismissed from the Ph.D. program but have the option of transferring to the master’s program.
Any student who is admitted to the master’s degree program may apply to the Ph.D. program after completion of 18 hours of graduate coursework at the 7000-level or above provided the student’s G.P.A. in such coursework is at least 3.5.
All applicants must take the General Tests of the Graduate Record Examination prior to admission and have an official copy of the scores submitted to the Graduate School.
It is emphasized that the above requirements are minimum requirements. It is expected that the qualifications of students entering the program will substantially exceed the minimum requirements. A student who meets only the minimum requirements in each of the above areas will, normally, be denied admission.
The number of candidates in this program, both part-time and full-time, is limited. Normally, part-time students are not admitted to this program. Applicants must designate their major fields of research interest.
Applicants usually are selected for admission by February 1 and September 1, but will be considered throughout the year.
Applicants from non-English-speaking countries who have not received a degree from a U.S. university must satisfy English proficiency requirements of a minimum TOEFL score of 80 on the internet-based test or 550 on the paper test. A minimum score of 6.0 on the IELTS examination may be substituted for the TOEFL.
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