Civil Engineering Major, PhD

A graduate program leading to the Doctor of Philosophy is offered with a major in civil engineering. It is required that all applicants to the degree programs submit scores from the General Graduate Record Examination (GRE). Specific departmental requirements for the PhD include the following.

• A minimum of 72 semester hours beyond the bachelor’s degree, exclusive of credit for the MS thesis. Of this number, a minimum of 24 hours in CE 600  Doctoral Research and Dissertation will be required. It is expected that the research work will be in journal publication form prior to approval of the dissertation.
• A minimum of 18 semester hours of graduate courses in civil engineering or environmental engineering, exclusive of thesis or dissertation credit.
• Additional course work in civil engineering, environmental engineering, or related scientific and engineering fields, amounting to a minimum of 18 semester hours, subject to approval by the student’s faculty committee. These related fields will normally include such disciplines as mechanics, chemistry, mathematics, microbiology, physics, and other engineering fields. A minimum of 6 semester hours of mathematics will be required beyond the civil engineering undergraduate requirements.
• At least 6 semester hours of the above coursework must be at the 600-level.
• At the discretion of the student’s dissertation committee and depending on the student’s background, more than 36 hours of courses may be required.
• A maximum of 24 course hours from the master’s degree may be used to satisfy the course requirements for the PhD.
• One foreign language if the student’s faculty committee feels that a reading knowledge of a foreign language is crucial to the student’s research efforts.
• Upon completion of at least one-half of all course work, each student must pass a comprehensive examination.

After completion of the dissertation, prior to graduation, each student must pass a dissertation defense examination administered by a faculty committee.