Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering
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Requirements
Completion requirement
The Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering requires 78 credits beyond the bachelor’s degree. A prior master’s degree may be transferred for up to 30 credits without specific course descriptions. The remaining 48 credits must include at least:
Complete 5 core courses
Students should finish the required core courses within one academic year from the time of entrance.
PRV 961 (3 credits): Stevens signature doctoral course
MT 960 (a minimum 24 credits): Research in Materials for doctoral dissertation
A time limit of six years is set for completion of the doctoral program.
Ph.D. students are required to attend research seminars. Students failing to meet this requirement may be put on probation at the discretion of the faculty.
Two qualifying exams: The written qualifying exam is a written examination on a syllabus consisting of four core subject matters, MT 601, 602, 603 (or 521), and 665. The goal is to test the students’ fundamental knowledge in materials science and engineering to perform advanced research. The exam needs to be completed by the end of the 2nd semester in the program. Students who maintain GPA higher than 3.7 in their core courses can be waived from this exam. Students who pass the written exam are eligible for the oral qualifying exam. The oral qualifying exam is an oral examination on a syllabus consisting of research papers and projects, prepared jointly by the student and a committee including the advisor and two tenure-track faculty members. The goal is to establish scholarship in an area of research. The exam needs to be completed by the end of the 4th semester in the program. It consists of a presentation, followed by open-door questions from the audience and a closed-door examination from the committee. The committee can pass, fail, or request re-examination (either written or oral). A minimum of 3.5 GPA must be satisfied in order to take the oral exam.
Students must complete a minimum of 24 credits of MT 960, Research in Materials. The dissertation must demonstrate the student’s mastery of the associated topic area, it must exhibit sound research methodology and it must make a unique and substantial contribution to an area of research.
By the end of their fourth semester, students must write and present a thesis proposal, where they lay out an intended course of research for their dissertation. The proposal should contain an explanation of the problem and why it is important, a sketch of the proposed solution, and background information that serves to indicate that the problem is unsolved and what prior or related approaches to this or similar problems have already been investigated.
The final Ph.D. dissertation is usually defended at the end of the fourth year of full-time study.
The faculty reserve the right to make exceptions to any of the rules and procedures described above in order to promote and preserve the health of the doctoral program and to ensure each student’s prompt and effective progress through the program.