Ph.D. students admitted with a Master's degree, are required to take minimum 8 courses (minimum 24 credits). The course program of each student is designed by the student and his/her thesis supervisor according to following rules:

1. All courses must be at graduate level.
2. At least 4 courses must be graduate courses offered by the Mechanical Engineering Department, excluding ME 521 and ME 510.
3. The program may contain at most 4 courses (subject to the approval of departmental committee on doctoral program) offered by other departments.

The maximum period to complete course work is 4 semesters.

Click here for the table showing the semesters in which graduate courses were offered.

Upon completion of their course work successfully, Ph.D. students are required to take a doctoral qualifying examination before the end of their fifth semester, the latest.

A Ph.D. student who passes the doctoral qualifying examination is required to submit a written thesis proposal to his/her thesis supervising committee, which consists of the student's thesis supervisor and two other faculty members. The thesis proposal should also be presented to this committee orally by the student. Upon the acceptance of their thesis proposals by their thesis supervising committees, Ph.D. students should submit a progress report on their thesis work to the committee which will meet periodically in every semester.

Ph.D. students are required to complete, write, and defend their Ph.D. thesis successfully before the end of their 12th semester.

Please download and use the letter of recommendation while applying to the Ph.D. program in mechanical engineering.