Degree Requirements
Credit hours required for this degree: 84.0 (B.S. to Ph.D.) or 54.0 (M.S. to Ph.D.)
Direct B.S. to Ph.D.
A Ph.D. degree for a student whose highest prior degree is a B.S. requires 84 credit hours of approved study beyond the B.S. degree. These requirements translate to a minimum of 39 credit hours of organized course work (thirteen 3-credit non-research courses) beyond the Bachelor’s Degree plus 45 hours of Ph.D. research, dissertation and unrestricted electives. A maximum of 100 credit hours as a Ph.D. student also applies. After 100 hours, the student is no longer eligible for the lower, Texas-Resident Tuition.
M.S. to Ph.D.
The Ph.D. degree requires 54 credit hours of approved study beyond the M.S. degree. These requirements translate to a minimum of 18 credit hours of organized course work (six 3-credit non-research courses) beyond the Master’s Degree plus 36 hours of Ph.D. research, dissertation and unrestricted electives. After 100 hours, the student is no longer eligible for the lower, Texas-Resident Tuition.
A B.S. or M.S. student becomes a Ph.D. student after passing the qualifying examination which is usually taken after two or three semesters in residence. The qualifying exam consists of a critical review of a manuscript published in the peer-reviewed literature, and related to the student’s research area chosen by the chairman of the student’s dissertation committee. The student has 15 calendar days to write a comprehensive critique of the article and then, approximately two weeks after submitting the written critique to the examination committee (consisting of the core faculty members) the student presents and defends the critique in front of the committee. The result is pass (excellent, good or fair) or fail (poor). The examination may be retaken only once.
After the student has completed 1-2 years of course work and preliminary research, they prepare a formal research proposal as their thesis proposal and select a dissertation committee consisting of a chair, two program faculty members and two faculty members from outside the GSES Program Department. Members are chosen by agreement between the student, the chair, and the potential member. All committee appointments must be approved by the Program Director and the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies. A candidacy examination consists of a formal proposal presentation and defense in front of the dissertation committee. The result is pass or fail. If the result is pass, the Ph.D. student becomes a Ph.D. Candidate. Even with a pass, the committee may point out deficiencies in the proposed research and recommend additional course work or require that specific experiments be completed. The exam may be retaken once. If the student fails the retaken exam, the student will be terminated with a M.S. degree.
After completing the research and writing the dissertation, the candidate defends the dissertation in a public meeting of the committee, interested faculty, staff, and students. The result is pass or fail with a pass usually being accompanied by recommended changes to the final draft.
All graduate students must maintain a “B” average (GPA 3.0). Any graduate student who earns three “C” grades in graduate courses will be dropped from the Program. Doctoral students who fail to complete their dissertation within five years after completion of the comprehensive examination must retake the exam.